You Only Need One ... or Maybe Two Account Execs

Published in: IPA Bulletin, Sept/Oct 2008

Don't settle for mediocrity. The road to mediocrity
is guaranteed to lead to financial ruin

A common complaint I experience from CEOs is not so much lack of business. In fact, many of them admit there's significant business available to be pursued. Their number one complaint, as I've experienced it, is lack of qualified, ambitious, business development personnel.

My position: If you have three or more account executives and only one of the group is doing a credible job for your organization in establishing major new business, then you probably only need that one account executive, who should receive all the support your organization can provide (we'll expand on that further in the article).

My opinion is based on the observation that mediocre performance saps an organization's resources like a giant leech. While it can be difficult to totally measure in a production environment, mediocrity:

• Drains supervision;
• Creates unnecessary and additional rework;
• Creates missed deadlines; and, perhaps most costly,
• Kills morale, and trust.

But mediocre production performance is practically minor when compared to business development mediocrity. Business development mediocrity and lack of real passion ultimately risks the entire corporation's future existence.

Here are a few examples (and editorial comments) on how mediocrity can creep into your organization's business development performance to the degree that folks may not even notice that it's occurring.

What happens to leads and follow-up? Inquiries come to organizations on a weekly, if not a daily basis. In too many organizations, new business leads are turned over to the account executive who sales are off and who seems to have noticeable time not being used. Additionally, there's seldom a log that documents each lead, details how it was qualified, and records follow-up. An alternative is to qualify all leads and turn them over to the account executive whose productivity is most improved. Remember, you are known in the marketplace by how your organization performs for each customer; that's another way of saying you shouldn't try to be a supplier to every potential customer.Mediocre, reactive supplier-customer relationships can undo you at the most important moments.

Do you reassign accounts that have significant potential but are not being developed? Most of us recognize that customers are consolidating suppliers as part of the process of "wringing value out of their supply chain." However, in too many supplier organizations development of a major account is assigned to an account executive, and before too long, conservations are heard that should like, "That's Joe's account." Well, my opinion is that it's not Joe's account.

In too many organizations, there is not a critical thinking process that evaluates an account's potential versus the amount of business the organization is receiving. We, too often, are willing to accept that some business from a major customer is acceptable, and we don't want to "rock-the-boat." If you are a minor supplier to a major customer, there is some probability of your work being awarded to a major supplier - especially in "soft" economic times. What can you do? Following are some recommendations:

• Work to identify the "buying positions" that probably exist in each major account.
• Assign each "buying position: to an account executive to develop. Yes, more than one account executive might work with a major customer.
• Require each account executive to "do his or her homework" regarding strategic issues for that position.
• Develop an account development plan.
• Follow-up at least every 90 days for discussion of progress, changing conditions, and/or reassignment to another account executive.

Remember, you can lose your position as a supplier if you're not growing it, and the best way to grow your position is to improve your customer's economic performance.

Most major accounts do not want multiple suppliers for "strategic services." If you're not supplying a strategic service to a major account, you may want to consider the implications for losing the entire account - or you can become proactive. Consider supplying one or more of the following: mailing services and mail list management, digital asset management, call center management, web-to-print management, storage and fulfillment, print-on-demand management, total print program management, and personalization.

Strategic services tend to grow in a major account. Whoever is managing the customer's mailing list and mailing services, for example, is predictably (or will be) managing the customer's storage and fulfillment, print-on-demand, personalization-type work, and even total print program management.

Do you track and follow-up missed business opportunities? We've begun suggesting that clients document and review missed business opportunities. The rationale is that a customer's needs change just as much - or more - as your company changes. As major accounts change, their needs for products and services change. If you're not changing your offerings, you can be sure you are missing business from current customers. The challenge is to have everyone who has direct customer contact, including prepress, bookkeeping, and delivery, to understand the importance of observing, listening, asking intelligent follow-up questions, and reporting what they have observed as it relates to business that went to another supplier.

On the last evening of our recent Business Development Conference, a CEO set me back when she volunteered, "After each meeting of yours that I've attended, I've gone back and fired an employee I had been delayed firing."

I asked, "What was the reaction of the other employees, when you fired the employee who appears to have been troubling you for some time?"

The CEO's response, "Why, morale went up, I was really surprised!"

I told her, "Well, I believe that says something that borders on being profound. Your better performing employees confirmed that there is still justice in your organization."

As the marketplace consolidates suppliers, major accounts tend to consume an increasing amount of a supplier's resources. It naturally follows that account executives who are successfully selling major accounts can overwhelm their company resources from major accounts. Thus, most organizations don't need more than one or two successful account executives. It is the mediocre account executives who sap resources an drive managers toward insanity.

There is no more important priority than business development. Why we tolerate mediocrity or casualness probably varies with the supervisor, the history, and the conditions.

Regardless, I suggest you ask and research one more question: "How many resources are being squandered by individuals in business development positions who believe someone (that's you) will continue to support and take care of them while the organization slowly slides to an existence that cannot be sustained?"

If you take your precious support resources and commit them to your top one or two business development performers, you will be surprised not only at how much your CSRs are really responsible for maintaining current customers but also at how your top one or two performers may double or even triple their productivity. And your organization should ultimately expect to have a more secure future - even in these uncertain times.

Serve your customers with only your best because your customers are the ones who determine not only what this great industry looks like, but also who gets to stay in business.