Article

How To Turn Reactive Account Management Into a Proactive Growth Machine

2 March 2023

Jake Dunlap

“No client has time to ‘catch up,’ ‘touch base,’ or ‘check-in.’”

This is the top sales topic of 2023, in my opinion. I’ve been talking a lot about better account management strategies and focusing on customer expansion this past month. Organizations and leaders are finally making it a priority and not letting new business and outbound be their sole focus anymore.

I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with CEOs over the years that go something like this:

CEO: “Jake, we have to build outbound.”.

Me: “Okay, tell me more.”

CEO: “Well, we already have all these great current customers.”

Me: “Okay. What do you think is easier?… By easier, I mean longer contracts and higher contract value… Current customers, inbound, or outbound?”

CEO: “Well, current customers, of course.”

Me: “Then what’s next after current customers?

CEO: “Inbound.”

Me: “Next?”

CEO: “Outbound.”

Me: “Okay, then why are we spending 95% of our time trying to build outbound?”

So instead, if the goal is to grow faster, we already have this pool of great customers, and we agree that current customers are the more accessible and more lucrative route, let’s flip it and focus on account management strategy.

Today I will talk about the future of account management and six strategies that can turn a reactive account management team into a proactive growth engine to grow your company faster.

Before I get started, let me zoom out a little bit. During my career, I’ve seen great people who are sellers and great people who are account managers. And candidly, despite what you’ve probably heard, those two types of people are actually very similar. I can tell you, from early on, my account management team has frequently made a move over to my sales team.

I know a lot of you are thinking, “Wait, what? What do you mean? I thought account managers don’t like sales.” If you’ve heard that often, then I think you’re hiring the wrong people.

There’s a farmer analogy related to account management that I’ve always hated. It goes like this – you tend to it a little bit, water it, and then it just bears crops.

Unfortunately, that’s not how account management works. You do actually have to work for it. I like to think of it as a different form of hunting from sales. You’re just hunting within your current customers as opposed to hunting for net new.

So when you think about making your account management organization more proactive, you need to look for people who are problem solvers, not problem reactors. Many people in the role today are more than capable of doing that – they just need to be taught or trained how to do it.

Well, I’m going to tell you how to train them. There are six areas that are critically important if you’re trying to turn a reactive account management team into a proactive growth engine:

- 1. The 120-day renewal
- 2. Stay relevant
- 3. Relationship building
- 4/5 Talking scorecard & running a QBR
- 6. Account Prioritization

Recap: How To Turn Reactive Account Management Into a Proactive Growth Machine

The important bits:

1:16 – Why are we spending 95% of our time talking about outbound when current customers and inbound are easier to grow?
3:09 – When you think about turning your account management organization to be more proactive, you need to look for people who are problem solvers, not problem reactors.
3:58 – The 120-day renewal process is critical to making your account team proactive.
4:23 – Make sure that you’re talking to your customers early and not waiting until two weeks before they’re supposed to renew.
6:00 – No client has time to “catch up,” “touch base,” or “check-in.”
6:27 – 2023 will be – one million percent – a year of unknowns. So it is your job to stay up to speed on behalf of your clients. And your cheat code is ChatGPT.
7:06 – ChatGPT is going to spoon-feed you pure gold.
10:01 – At the end of saying, here’s what we’re tracking when reviewing the scorecard, here’s what you need to ask: “What’s changed since we last met?”
11:50 – My definition of relationship building. What it is and isn’t in 2023.
13:26 – A great account manager understands that in two years, more likely than not, their contact will no longer be at that company.
14:24 – If you want to prevent churn, make sure you have two relationships in every account.
15:51 – The goal of a QBR is not to review usage metrics or troubleshoot issues. The QBR is to talk about the business.
18:40 – End every QBR by asking for referrals.
20:39 – Make sure you have prioritized accounts with proactive touchpoints that you set in onboarding.

Account Growth Strategies

#1 The 120-Day Renewal

First, and this one is absolutely critical, is to start with the concept I call the 120-Day Renewal Process. What the 120-day renewal does is it makes sure that you’re talking to customers early and not waiting until two weeks before they’re supposed to renew.

How many organizations do you think have a renewal process that kicks in 45 days before renewals are due, and that’s after they haven’t been proactively engaging with their accounts for many, many months? The answer is… too many.

So think about renewals in the context of 120 days.

At 120 days out, you schedule a business review. Talk about what worked this year and what didn’t work this year. What are the priorities your accounts are starting to think about?

Then at 90 days, you follow up with what you think the partnership has the potential to be.

Then at 60 days, you plan version one of the contract, so then by 30 days out, you have the final contract signed, sealed, and delivered way before the renewal is due.

This 120-day renewal process is amazing because it works. Your customers love it because you’re not scrambling like the other vendors, and your team will love it because it’s a straightforward way to execute the renewal process.

It doesn’t matter if you have a more transactional or big enterprise sale. All that matters is that there’s a business case and metrics to back it up. So I would encourage you to start thinking about renewals in terms of a 120-day process.

#2 Stay Relevant

I mean two things by stay relevant.

Firstly, no client has time to “catch up,” “touch base,” or “check-in.”

If you want to know why your current customers consistently cancel on your team – this is why. If you think you’re trying to be proactive, but your clients aren’t showing up, it’s very simple. They’re not showing up because the meeting isn’t relevant, and it isn’t a valuable use of their time.

Secondly, your customers don’t know what will happen in 2023. 2023 will be–one million percent–a year of unknowns. So it is your job to stay up to speed on behalf of your clients. I’m talking about industry trends, changes in the competitive landscape, factors that impact their use of your technology and services.

#3 Relationship Building

My definition of relationship building in 2023 is not about being the most likable person in the room. It’s not saying, “Let me see what I can do for you.”

Think about it this way. From a personal perspective, who are the people you value the most? Who are the people that you enjoy talking to the most?

Is it the really friendly guy? I like that guy. He’s nice. He’s great and very helpful when I lose access. But he is not who I’m talking about.

Instead, I’m referring to the person I want to talk to because she gets my business. She understands our internal politics.

You talk to that person because you learn stuff. They’re smart. They know what they’re talking about. They know your space, your industry, and your trends. They want to talk about and implement strategies.

This is relationship building in 2023.

And you have to establish new ways to get inside a business. A great account manager understands that in two years, more likely than not, their contact will no longer be at that company. So new relationship building is also important.

If you want to prevent churn, make sure you have two relationships in every account.

Also, a relationship isn’t somebody that you met with one time. That’s just a random encounter. You need to find someone other than your main point of contact whom you meet with on a quasi-regular basis. They must be at least at the point of power of your primary contact or higher. If it’s a larger account, you should have at least three or four relationships.

#4 & 5 Talking Scorecard & Running a QBR

The Quarterly Business Review (QBR) doesn’t always have to be quarterly. It could be monthly or bi-monthly, and these best practices also apply whenever you’re talking metrics or reviewing some sort of scorecard. And it always starts with a recap of the business priorities.

The goal of a QBR is not to review usage metrics or troubleshoot issues. The QBR is to talk about the business. That is probably the biggest mistake most people make with the QBR. You don’t want clients thinking of you as their triage person.

Here’s a basic outline or a good QBR:

- Review the scorecard
- Value-add insight
- Plans for next quarter
- Referral ask

Review the scorecard:

What are the business metrics and how are you tracking towards them? Again, not usage, business metrics.

Here’s a pro tip. At the end of the scorecard review, ask, “What’s changed since we last met?” In today’s market, people get new bosses, priorities change, and people get laid off. You never know what’s happening. So you need to go into every meeting assuming something has changed.

And then, come renewal time, you’ll actually know what the priorities are. You won’t be aligned to something that was a priority when they bought your product a year or two ago.

Value-add insight

Add value in every interaction. You want people to think of the quarterly review not just as a recap but as a meeting where they will learn something. Something that will make their business better.

Plans for next quarter

Get into the strategy. You talked through metrics and recommendations, now look at the strategy and how you’re going to continue bringing value in the next quarter, and how you’re pacing towards the year.

Referral ask

This one’s for you. And the formula is very simple.

Step 1: Do the research ahead of time (use LinkedIn Sales Insights), find the people you think you want to get introduced to, and ask about them all the call. Know the who, and don’t ask the client for recommendations.

Step 2: Then ask if you tee up the email for them, could they forward it to the person you’re trying to connect with.

Take as much work off their plate as possible.

Account Prioritization

Lastly, you need to have standardized processes for interacting with every type of customer. And in terms of account prioritization, different tiers of accounts will have a different amount of touchpoints in their process.

For example:

Tier 1: Maybe you meet every 60 days. In the fourth month, you send them a gift. In month six, you have a follow-up and maybe send something else.
Tier 2: You only meet with them once every six months, but you have several value-add touchpoints in between.

Whatever it looks like for your business, the point is to have proactive touchpoints mapped to account prioritization so you can also talk about them in onboarding.

Also, you shouldn’t prioritize your accounts on how much they’re spending but rather on their propensity to spend. One of the issues I see people make is only spending time on their Tier 1 accounts, which are one hundred percent based on how much money people are spending now versus how much they could be spending.

Final thoughts

If you do these six things, you will massively grow your current accounts in 2023. If you don’t, you will continue to have an organization focused on reactive problem-solving. And nobody wants to be in reactive problem-solving land.

And even if you only do a couple of these things, your team will be that many steps closer to being an account growth machine.