The Importance of a KAM Culture in Today’s Modern Marketplace

In this episode…

Welcome to the first episode of our podcast! In this episode David Ventura, your host, explores the following BIG question:

What is a KAM culture and why is it so important in today’s market?

But first: what is KAM?

We all know that businesses love a TLA (Three Letter Acronyms) and KAM is just another one of those. It stands for Key Account Management. Many businesses we meet are naturally familiar with KAM whilst others will say “we don’t have key accounts” or “KAM is for bigger companies; we are too small for that”.

For us, the devil is in the detail here and the nuances around language and terminology determine how connected you feel to the idea of KAM rather than the reality of its existence.

• Some clients will repel the concept of KAM and, in the same breath will talk passionately about the ‘strategic partnerships’ that they have with key organisations.
• Others will sell through the channel and have important relationships with distributors or consultants who sell on their behalf.
• Firms in professional services often prefer the term ‘clients’ over ‘customers’.
• Charitable organisations have key relationships rather than the typical ‘customer base’ in a b2b organisation.

The point here is that when you strip KAM back to its bare bones, we are talking about how we interact and manage our most important RELATIONSHIPS. The language choice and nuances in definition belong to you and your business, and the principle remain the same.

The highlights from this episode:

• What is a KAM Culture?
• Why is a KAM Culture so important to instil in your organisation in today’s market?
• The 3-legged stool analogy:

1. 1. Do you have a robust KAM strategy that is clear and that everyone understands, accepts and is committed to?
   2. Do you have the right systems to support the customer and the teams in the business who look after them?
   3. Do your people have the right level of skills required to deliver excellent service and business growth with our top clients?

• While KAM is a part of the sales process – it is not a sales technique (we dive a bit into how its different)
• How do you identify your top customers? Did you know that 4% of an organisation’s customers often product around 64% of the business?
• Research shows the single biggest reason a customer leaves a supplier as “perceived indifference”, i.e. our customers think we don’t care! (We dig into expectations and what those are)

Killer Question Segment

In each episode we will be asking you, our listener, a killer question that is designed to get you reflecting on your business, your KAM Culture and where changes in thinking and behaviour could lead to increased customer success.

In this episode we ask:

What do your key customers say about you when you are not around?

Ooooo. Simple one, but one that, once you delve into it, will bring up all kinds of work that probably needs looking at. Listen to this episode to hear more about David has to share about this one.

Coming up…

In the next episode of KAMCAST, we will be talking to Lisa Brice on creating personal relationships in an impersonal environment.

Lisa is a highly-acclaimed and qualified international trainer, personal performance and leadership coach, and business consultant, who specialises in enhancing people’s potential and leadership development. She has worked with small independent businesses to global franchise operations, large corporate companies and public sector organisations, including Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, Delancey, Phillips, Carlsberg, Chartered Institute of Insurers, XPO, Get Living London, Sky, Ernest Young, Greencore, Winkworth, Rentokil, Land Registry, TJX Companies inc, and many others.

She not only has incredible experience, she also holds an impressive list of qualifications – some of which are:  CIPD Trainer, ANLP Master Trainer, NLP Trainer &Master Practitioner, Dip CMI Strategic Business Coaching, Licensed HeartMath Trainer and Coach, and Systemic Coaching and Constellations Practitioner.