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Enabling Global Account
Management |
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| "To compete on the global stage
companies demand from their suppliers a seamless, integrated, and coordinated
value proposition wherever they operate in the world", says Dr Kevin Wilson
co-author of the recent book Successful Global Account Management.
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Achieve Global Consistency
Achieving this consistency requires a worldwide operation that is consistent in
its prioritizing of customers and able and willing to adapt as one to specific
global customer requirements. Although most companies recognize the need, their
efforts to achieve consistent global offering are frustrated by competing
priorities of local country managers and the enormous costs of co-ordinating
account activity worldwide.
RM3 goes some way in solving this problem, by enabling remote account teams to
work together developing accounts without spending long days doing so. It also
avoids the vast cost and time of using international travel.
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Make account
planning part of the day to day
Traditionally account planning is seen to be an intermittent process; something
that happens once or twice a period, whilst the business world looks to
pre-empt changes continuously. This worked when business changed slowly and was
more straightforward than today. To survive and grow in today's increasingly
complex markets, companies must be continually proactive to change. Your
account teams cannot be proactive a few times a year. They must be proactive
every single day.
Few international companies deal solely with global customers; most make the
vast proportion of their profits from regional or national organizations
throughout the world. Adapting to national differences means having a local
operation or partner company to service the local customers. To enable these
operations to adapt they have traditionally been given considerable autonomy.
Yet global customers look to a consistent worldwide offering and service from
their prime suppliers, which is often seen at odds or a threat to the
independent fiefdom of the autonomous country manager. |
RM3 enables account
teams to work collaboratively
The problem is competing priorities; local management want to support your
global customer, but must do so within local constraints and priorities. The
issue is that working with a global account team takes time, and often more
time than can be justified locally. RM3 vastly reduces this problem of time by
enabling account teams to work virtually over the web or on your intranet.
Local people can interact with the rest of the global account team, build and
review account plans, share information and give feedback on their actions in
minutes and at any time. In this way RM3 reduces the impact of competing
priorities.
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Reduce the costs of managing global customers
Because RM3 enables account teams to work together remotely, reviewing where
they are in an account and developing plans, it significantly reduces the cost
of managing global customers. The need to fly to meet with account team members
is reduced enormously; most situations can be completed without leaving the
office or the account team member's home. Even some of the visits to customers
can be reduced as RM3 enables customers to join the account team at any time.
The same is also true for partner organizations.
Implementing a global account management operation is not easy and as Wilson
explains "The process is expensive in terms of time and money and may demand
considerable change in terms of organizational systems, structures and
processes". RM3 goes some way in reducing this expense and helps embed sound
global account management best practice systems and processes into your
organization.
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