Have you ever asked yourself why your organization has account managers? I hope it is not just to avoid the term sales representative, because customers have low esteem of people with" sales" in their job title. Account managers are there to help accounts (clients) to buy more from your brand.

What is the behavior of a client called who buys repeatedly from a brand? According to 12MANAGE Thex Excutive Fast Track, this is called loyalty. So my hypothesis is: Successful account managers are good at managing loyalty and thus getting existing clients to buy more from their brand. Successful account managers are thus able to get more from what they have.

This is one way of adopting to the new normal where budgets are tight and resources are scarce. The first step to this goal is though that you do not loose anything from what you have. What is the strategic asset not to loose for account managers, and the whole company for that matter? Clients, which to me, is the term for loyal customers.

On January 26, 2010 at 1 p.m. US EST (6 p.m. GMT, 7 p.m. CET) I will give a Masterclass over at Top Sales Experts entitled "How Account Managers Can Grow and Keep Their Strategic Assets: Loyal Customers". I am happy to offer to the readers of this blog a free access to this otherwise payable Masterclass. You do need to register though which you can do by following this link.

In this Masterclass, I will discuss how the above definition, together with the Net Promoter Score Model by Fred Reicheld and the Model presented by McKinsey on the Consumer Decision Journey can be combined into one actionable model to understand how to become a better account manager by focusing on customer loyalty.

You will learn:

• Why account managers shouldput less focus on the sales cycle and concentrate on what happens with the customer before and after a purchase is made.

• Why this new focus pays off

• Why there is an "early mover advantage" in proactive account management

• What you do on a strategic level when you concentrate on what happens with the customer before and after a purchase is made

• Why it pays off to be honest with the promises you make to customers

I will not tell you a story of the type "I have done it, it has worked for me and there is no reason why it should not work for you". Instead, I will give you a concept based on many years of experience in coaching strategic account management teams, allowing you to understand your potential cost of pain with your current account management approach and how to get remedies for this pain.

Should this be of interest to you, then please join me on January 26, 2010 at 1 p.m. US EST (6 p.m. GMT, 7 p.m. CET) when I will give the Masterclass over at Top Sales Experts entitled "How Account Managers Can Grow and Keep Their Strategic Assets: Loyal Customers".As a reader of this blog you can register by following this link to get free access to this otherwise payable Masterclass.