You Need to Pay Attention to These Three Areas of Account Support

When it comes to securing new and repeat sales in the business-to-business (B2B) space, new data from the 2017 AskForensics B2B Sales Analysis shows there is a growing spotlight on account support as the top predictor of the health of an account. This conclusion is based on data from in-depth interviews, conducted between the years of 2012 and 2016, with executive-level decision makers from 233 B2B accounts totaling nearly four billion dollars in sum contract value.

Out of the accounts evaluated,

• 76 percent were found to be vulnerable
• 10 percent were found to be damaged
• Only 13 percent were rated as strong

Account support was cited as the top factor influencing the health of accounts for each status rating. Forty-eight percent of B2B decision makers of accounts rated as “strong” cited account support as a key factor of customer satisfaction, followed by service quality (14 percent) and financial performance (11 percent).

When providers failed to live up to expectations, thus causing an account to cross into “vulnerable” territory, account support was cited by 39 percent of decision makers as the main cause for the slip in client satisfaction, followed by service quality from the client-facing team (13 percent) and a lack of detailed communications, reporting and analysis (5 percent).

Account support, specifically in the area of a provider’s corporate team not developing a strategic relationship with the client, was the main reason for client dissatisfaction for 46 percent of decision makers of accounts rated as “damaged.”

It is clear that account support has a significant impact on client satisfaction, but what does effective account support look like? Here are three elements your customers want to see from your account support team.

1) A High Level of Expertise
The level of industry expertise of the account support teams plays a critical role in client satisfaction. Customers look to account support teams as the experts to perform important tasks they cannot do in-house. While the industry expertise of client-facing sales and account teams matters, B2B decision makers most value the expertise of the provider’s corporate team. They want a provider’s corporate team to take the lead and help them succeed in a dynamic business environment.

You can demonstrate expertise by offering creative solutions that address emerging issues that will impact the customer’s business. If you don’t take the time to develop solutions that extend beyond basic requirements, client executives may question whether your company has the expertise needed to help them see beyond their own perspectives.

2) Proactive Recommendations

The top account support issue that tips accounts from strong to vulnerable is a lack of proactive recommendations. However, it is not enough to have recommendations communicated through the client-facing team. Buyers want recommendations to come directly from the provider’s corporate team. In fact, a lack of proactive recommendations from the corporate team was the top reason for customer dissatisfaction in vulnerable accounts.

However, it is difficult and time consuming to proactively communicate ideas to your clients if you don’t have a system in place to store, organize, and share ideas. Establish a system both client-facing and corporate-level account teams can use to archive and share ideas with customers. A centralized repository of recommendations allows account support teams to see what ideas have already been shared, as well as identify where there is room for additional solutions.

3) Strategic Relationships with Corporate Account Support Team
The most glaring account support issue that results in damaged accounts is a lack of a strategic relationship with the provider’s corporate team – which often becomes a more pronounced issue the larger the account size. This means your corporate team needs to stay involved –- not just in the bidding process, but throughout the relationship. This is important because needs and expectations change. Schedule executive client meetings and make them part of the account plan. Your company’s senior executives should visit strategic accounts on an annual basis at minimum.

B2B purchases tend to be long-term and complex. The more long-term the relationship, the more account support matters. A provider’s corporate and client-facing teams play critical, yet distinct, roles in maintaining the client relationship.

Rick Reynolds is a co-founding partner and CEO of AskForensics, which conducts AccountForensics and SalesForensics interviews with B2B decision makers to uncover the truth about why Fortune-level companies win and lose prospects and customers. Follow AskForensics on Twitter and LinkedIn.