How to Win in Key Account Management E-Book

Jan Lind

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 260

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

There is a growing requirement for truly successful and effective Key Account Management (KAM) in the ever increasingly competitive global market. Increased digitalization requires improved personal communication to make a difference. Key account business is made between people. Stakes are high. The potential reward with a key account is tremendous while cost of people is considerable and the required time to get to success is getting shorter and shorter. This is not a theoretical book. It is all about how to do it in real life. Regardless if you are a beginner or if you are already experienced in the business, there are ideas and inspiration to pick up. The reader gets a lot of practical tips: How to analyze, plan and influence. How to work in teams, local and global. How and when to look at partnership. How to sell professionally and effectively. How to set pricing, negotiate and follow up. How to manage problems. How to use the right attitude. How to increase the probability to win in every step. Everything explained in a down to earth language, with a lot of examples and a twinkle in the eye. Whether you take the book from scratch and do everything in it, or use your current work methods and add or change what can be improved, it will help you in increasing the probability to win. And that is what it is all about.

Leseprobe

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE STRUCTURE OF THIS BOOK

ANALYZE

I

NFORMATION ABOUT THE CUSTOMER FROM ALL DEPARTMENTS

I

NFORMATION ABOUT YOUR OWN BUSINESS FROM ALL DEPARTMENTS

M

ATCHING

S

TRENGTHS AND

W

EAKNESSES

S

TRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF YOUR PRODUCT IN YOUR CUSTOMERS STRATEGY

N

EEDS ANALYSIS

. W

HAT ARE THE REAL NEEDS

?

W

HERE AND HOW TO FIND INFORMATION

F

IND THE

F

ACTS

A

NALYZE ORGANIZATION

H

IDDEN DECISION MAKERS

C

OMPETITION ANALYSIS

W

ORK WITH THE CUSTOMERS CUSTOMER AS WELL

N

EEDS

/

OFFER

—

MATCHING

K

NOWLEDGE IS

P

OWER

W

IN BY ANALYSIS

-

A SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER

PLAN

P

ROJECT LIST WITH

W

HAT

, W

HEN AND

W

HO

K

EY

A

CCOUNT

P

LAN

C

ONTENT IN A

K

EY

A

CCOUNT

P

LAN

F

ORECASTING

W

IN BY PLANNING

-

A SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER

INFLUENCE

T

HE

F

OCAL

P

OINT

T

HE MEDIATOR ROLE

I

NFORMATION BETWEEN CUSTOMER DEPARTMENTS

R

ELATIONSHIPS AT ALL LEVELS

T

OP MANAGEMENT MEETINGS

?

T

RUSTED ADVISOR

B

UILD RELATIONSHIPS

B

E HONEST

D

ON

’

T SPEAK NEGATIVELY ABOUT THE COMPETITION

W

HAT IF YOU CAN

’

T HELP THE CUSTOMER WITH YOUR OWN SOLUTIONS

?

W

IN BY INFLUENCE

-

A SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER

KEY ACCOUNT SELLING IS PROJECT MANAGEMENT

P

ROJECT

L

IST WITH

W

HAT

, W

HEN AND

W

HO

C

USTOMER

R

ELATIONSHIP

M

ANAGEMENT

, CRM

G

IVE IT ALL AT THE FIRST PROJECT

,

AND CONTINUE THAT WAY

W

IN BY MANAGING PROJECTS

-

A SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER

TEAM WORK

D

IRECT REPORTS

M

OTIVATION

V

IRTUAL

S

ALES

T

EAM

C

OORDINATE A

S

ALES

T

EAM

C

OMPENSATION

H

OW TO GET OTHER PEOPLE ON YOUR TEAM

W

IN BY TEAM WORK

-

A SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER

LOCAL AND GLOBAL

C

ULTURAL CONSIDERATIONS

D

IFFICULT TO GET IN AT THE HEADQUARTERS

?

C

ONTACTS MOVE BETWEEN COUNTRIES

A

LONG TRIP IS OFTEN WORTH IT

T

RAVELING TOGETHER WITH THE CUSTOMER IS

G

OLD

W

IN BY BALANCING LOCAL AND GLOBAL

-

A SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER

PARTNERSHIP

S

HARING FORECASTS AND ACTUAL PRODUCTION VOLUMES

S

HARING MARKET AND SALES DATA

S

HARING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES AND PLANS

R

EGULAR HIGH LEVEL MEETINGS TO ENSURE THE PARTNERSHIP IS ON TRACK

D

EFINED HIGH LEVEL CONTACTS IN EACH KEY AREA AT BOTH COMPANIES

A

HIGH LEVEL SPONSOR AT BOTH COMPANIES

T

ASK FORCE CAPACITY TO SOLVE PROBLEMS FAST

A

LONG TERM RELATIONSHIP

C

OMPLEMENTING CAPABILITIES

A

LIST OF COOPERATION PROJECTS

S

HARING PROFITS AND LOSSES

A

GREEMENTS

W

IN BY PARTNERSHIP

-

A SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER

SELL

S

ELLING IS THE ART TO IMPROVE THE PROBABILITY TO WIN THE DEAL

H

OW TO GET MEETINGS AND HOW TO GET IN TOUCH

G

ET OUT IN THE FIELD

!

T

HE STRUCTURE OF THE CUSTOMER MEETING

T

HE SMALL ON

-

THE

-

SIDE PROJECT CAN BE A GREAT START

A

NEW CONTACT CALLING IN IS A VERY GOOD SIGN

P

ERSON TO PERSON SELLING

,

ALL BUSINESS IS LOCAL IN A GLOBAL MARKET

G

OOD LUCK

!

L

ISTEN

!

S

MILE BEFORE YOU MAKE THE CALL

,

BUT DO NOT SMILE ALL THE TIME

T

HE CUSTOMER IS NOT ALWAYS RIGHT

P

RESENT YOUR OPTIMAL OFFER

T

HE

Q

UOTE

A

SK FOR THE ORDER

W

IN BY SELLING IN THE RIGHT WAY

-

A SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER

PRICE IT

U

NIT PRICE IS NOT EVERYTHING

D

IFFERENTIATION

W

ATCH OUT FOR LOW PRICING

P

AYMENT TERMS

W

IN BY PRICING IT RIGHT

-

A SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER

NEGOTIATE

N

EEDS

/

OFFER NEGOTIATION

-

THE MEDIATOR ROLE

W

HAT TO DO IN A NEGOTIATION

- T

ALK ABOUT PRICE

AND

VALUE

H

AVE MANY PARAMETERS IN THE NEGOTIATION IN ADDITION TO UNIT PRICE

A

SK THE CUSTOMER FOR HELP TO NEGOTIATE INTERNALLY

D

ON

’

T GIVE WITHOUT TAKING

W

HAT TO REQUEST IN RETURN

T

RIAL CLOSURE

T

AKE SMALLER STEPS WITH EVERY ROUND

U

SING SCENARIOS

A

SK FOR A BREAK AND CALL SOMEONE

W

HAT IS A WIN

?

T

HE CURRENCY AND RAW MATERIAL PRICING GAME

W

IN

-

WIN IN THE NEGOTIATION

-

A SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER

FOLLOW UP

P

ROJECT FOLLOW UP

P

ERSONAL FOLLOW UP AND TIME MANAGEMENT

Q

UARTERLY REVIEW WITH THE CUSTOMER

Y

EARLY REVIEW WITH THE CUSTOMER

I

NTERNAL REVIEW

W

IN BY FOLLOW UP

-

A SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER

PROBLEM MANAGEMENT

A

COMPLAINT IS A GIFT

A

SK QUESTIONS

N

EVER REPEAT THE SAME MISTAKE

T

AKE THE INITIATIVE

W

IN BY MANAGING PROBLEMS

-

A SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER

ATTITUDE

B

E POSITIVE

B

E FLEXIBLE

B

E ADAPTABLE

B

E A LISTENER

B

E ACTIVE

B

E PROACTIVE

B

E SOCIAL

B

E A NETWORKER

B

E ETHICAL

B

E TRUSTWORTHY

B

E WILLING TO TAKE THAT EXTRA STEP

B

E PERSISTENT

WIN

Acknowledgements

First of all I would like to thank my lovely wife Agneta who has been very patient with me over the years and who is a great support to me in all aspects of life. Thank you to my wonderful children Beatrice and Martin, in addition to being the best of the best you have also contributed to this book by proof reading and with design support.

I would also like to thank Jermaine and Vijay for great advice and suggestions during the development of the book.

Last but not least, thank you to all customers and colleagues that I have met during my career. You have helped me sharpen my pencil many times and without you this book would never have happened.

Introduction

There is a growing requirement for truly successful and effective key account management in the ever increasingly competitive global market. Increased digitalization requires improved personal communication to make a difference. Key account business is made between people. Stakes are high. The potential reward with a key account is tremendous while cost of people is considerable and the required time to get to success is getting shorter and shorter.

Despite, and at the same time thanks to the challenges, I enjoy working with key account management. Up to now I have spent more than 30 years doing it in various marketing, sales and management roles, in large multinational public corporations as well as smaller private companies. Today, I am doing consultancy work in sales and key account management.

I see others doing the same journey as I have done, with the ups and downs, with days of sweet success and days of sweat inducing mistakes. Suddenly I woke up one morning thinking that I should write a book about my experiences as Key Account Manager. Why not share the methods and ideas I have developed hands on during the years? I would have loved to have such a guide in my hands in the early days as well as for the continuous improvement and reminders that are always needed. What book would be good to have, to turn to, to get new inspiration and ideas about how to continue? A table of contents started to develop in my mind.

This is not a theoretical book. It is all about how to do it in real life. Regardless if you are a beginner or if you are already experienced in the business, there are ideas and inspiration to pick up. It can be read piece-by-piece jumping between chapters, but a first time read from start to end is highly recommended.

Whether you take the book from scratch and do everything in it, or use your current work methods and add or change what can be improved, I am sure it will help you in increasing the probability to win.

And that’s what it is all about.

Happy hunting,

Jan Lind

The structure of this book

If you are like me, you have probably already glanced through the table of contents in the beginning of the book. My intention is that the table of contents should give you a good overview of what the book includes, the flow of topics and how they relate to each other. It could actually be read as a very short summary of the entire book. At least it will serve as a good list of reminders after reading the book, in addition to the obvious where to find what function.

The content is structured in a logic flow, with for example analysis preceding planning, and selling placed before winning. In real life, all topics are relevant at the same time, just with more or less emphasis.

All chapters have subheadings related to the chapter heading. Each chapter includes a number of examples to illustrate the more general descriptions preceding them. The examples could describe real situations that have happened in your business. As a minimum the analogies that can be drawn from the examples should be useful in almost every business. Dialogues between key account manager and customer are used in many cases to show very clearly how a certain strategy can be implemented in practice.

Each chapter is finished with a summary, and the book is finished with a summary of the complete contents. The idea is to make it easier to remember the contents and for quick reminders of the key messages.

It helps a lot to be positive, even in difficult times. It influences people you meet to be positive and a positive climate will enable more business. Not to mention how much better you will feel to work in a positive environment.

Look at two people, one optimist and one pessimist. They have the same jobs. The optimist will have a higher probability to succeed just because of the positivity. Even if the optimist fails, wouldn’t you agree that the optimist had had a better time?

- Attitude reminder #1: Be positive

Analyze

Are you new to your customer or do you not know enough detail to know where you are going? Go out and meet the people! Do not spend weeks analyzing what to do before you meet them.

This might be seen as a strange start to a chapter about analyzing. However, I just want to make sure that you do not fall in the trap of sitting too comfortably in the office making theories about what to do to win the business you are targeting to get. Having said that, obviously a good analysis is a key to manage your account in the best way. This will greatly help you to get where you and your customer want to get to. Just be sure that you mix theory and practice in your analysis work. Hopefully you have a few products running with the customer to get you started digging deeper to build a better understanding. Meet the people who already have a relationship with your company, introduce yourself and listen to their concerns, pick up the ball and follow up. If you have no business and have no developed relationships yet, book meetings where you think you can get the best information on how to get started. Get inspiration from the list of departments below.

Now, do not get stuck in only handling day-to-day issues. Make sure to set aside time to analyze your customer and your own company to find a longer-term direction. If you are only handling the day-to-day issues you are not managing the account effectively.

Information about the customer from all departments

Your customer is probably a large corporation with a complex organization. Or a medium sized company with an ever-changing organization. Or a smaller company with no organization. Or another mix of all above. Just be sure it will take time and effort to understand what you should know to do an effective job. And today's view will not be the same as tomorrow's as everything is constantly changing. You might think this sounds too much, and that it is better to move on with handling the day-to-day issues only. But let me assure you that a good understanding of your customer is key to be successful and to feel confident and proud of what you are doing.

Do you have a good contact with the logistics department manager of your customer? Good, that is an excellent start. But if it is the only contact, you are heading into problems. Suddenly he or she may tell you that they do not need more of the product you are delivering. As it could take at least a year to get a new product running with your customer you might find yourself in a rather difficult situation.

Instead, try to list all departments of your customer. They might be for example:

Shipping

Logistics and Planning

Purchasing

Product Management

Quality

Marketing

Sales

Design and Development

Research

Administration

Project Management

Executive Management

If you are not sure that you are aware of all departments that exist do not worry, list the ones you know and use upcoming meetings and other resources to find all departments.

Now, list names of people you know under each department. Do you have departments with no names listed under them? You probably have. At the upcoming meetings, take the opportunity to ask about contacts in your ’blank’ departments. Even if you are not sure at this stage, list what you think is important to each department. As soon as you get more information, update your list of key concerns of each department.

Example: Is it really so important to know people and the key concerns of all departments?

Yes, it is. Let us take an example. You are a supplier of nuts and bolts to the big company XCSOHSW. (The big company Extremely Complicated Systems Of Hardware and Software decided to use this catchy easy-to-use acronym.) Your company is quite successful in its market supplying high quality nuts and bolts, however, although you never show it, you feel quite small in size in relation to XCSOHSW. You have a good contact, John Flow, at the supply and incoming goods department of your customer. You are happy to see that volumes of the nuts and bolts supplied are growing and that John is expressing how pleased he is with your flexibility in deliveries. In fact, you have helped John several times with expedient deliveries when they faced supply shortages.

In short, you feel safe that you will continue as a trusted supplier to XCSOHSW. Just recently the demand suddenly increased by a factor of three. You managed to persuade your factory to work overtime and with several extraordinary efforts it looks like you can deliver the new demand just in time. John is extremely grateful that you can help him with this sudden demand increase.

Delivery of the bigger batch has just started and it looks like you will be the company hero when John suddenly calls you. He is embarrassed and apologize, but ”an idiot at planning has made a mistake," he wants to stop your deliveries and return the first lot he has already received. Inside your company it is a high risk that you will now be the ”idiot at sales," and how will you be able to persuade the factory to ramp up next time there is a high volume short-term opportunity? You foresee a difficult time with negotiations of returns and fees, as well as internal explanations. Now if you had contacts in other departments ahead of this crisis you might have saved yourself, your company and the customer a lot of headache. Let us examine how.

Product Management might have shared with you their plans of switching to a new product requiring fewer nuts and bolts and of a new material. They probably knew about this more than a year ago.

The people at the Quality department have seen issues with installation of the now old product as it has too many nuts and bolts.

Marketing has been enthusiastic about the new product for some time pushing information to its sales force.

Sales have been promoting the new product to their customers. Some of their customers want to stay with the old product, but a fair amount have realized the benefits of the new product and have, rather surprisingly, quickly moved over to the new product.

Design and Development have been working on the new product since two years back, in fact, they already talk about the new product as the old product.

Research found out five years ago that the material of the nuts and bolts could be replaced with a new material that they felt would have lower longer term cost and has some physical advantages over time.

Shall I go on? I think you get the picture that even if you had only one or two more contacts you would have been better prepared. At least you would have investigated together with John about the volume ramp up, as it would have looked strange with that volume increase of an old product being gradually replaced by a new. Even better, if you had known ahead of the change, you could have influenced the customer to buy your alternate product. Best of all, if you had penetrated Design and Development, and even Research, you could have been the partner defining the design of the nut- and bolt feature of their new product. If you really are the best supplier in the world of nuts- and bolts solutions your customer would probably have ended up with an even better solution than the new one they are promoting today.

How come they suddenly ordered three times what they normally use? Planning entered 300% instead of 30% in their computer model. It was a stressful day.

Information about your own business from all departments

The customer rightfully expects you to be the expert of your own company. Or at least you will make sure they get the information they want as soon as possible if you cannot answer right away.

Product knowledge is obviously good. You can answer directly on most product related questions. You can present your product in a good way. You might be fortunate to have an effective Product / Marketing organization supplying you with good information and material to use for promotion.

But product knowledge is definitely not all you need to be successful. Look at the departments listed in the previous chapter. Your company probably has the same. What are their issues and future plans? Strengths and weaknesses?

The more you know the better you can match your offer to the customer. Equally important is that you can learn a lot how to deal with, for example, the customer’s purchasing department from talking to your own purchasing department. How do they work with their suppliers? Your purchasing department will be very interested to hear how your customers purchasing department works as well. Look forward to an interesting exchange of information.

Needless to say, but I will say it anyway; any proprietary information must be handled very carefully. You will get access to a lot of information that your company and your customer wants to keep internal or at least not to be spread uncontrolled. An important part of your role as a Key Account Manager is to be a trusted advisor (more about that later), and obviously a part of that is to be able to handle sensitive information sensibly.

So what can you learn from your various departments? Let’s have a look at a few examples.

Examples on what you can learn from your own company departments

Sales / other Key Account Managers:

Market trends

Competition information

How to handle tricky situations

How they handled that same problem you are facing

Internal contacts

Where the best restaurant is

Product Management:

Product data

Coming products and trend ideas

Marketing:

How your product is positioned to match customers’ requirements

Global trends at customers and with new products

Design and Development:

What the status is of next generation products

Shipping:

If there are any issues with packaging and returns

Risks of delays due to crowded warehouses

Shipping capacity issues

Logistics and Planning:

Lead-time trends

Customer logistics trends

Purchasing:

Their strategy and tactics negotiating with suppliers

Trends and issues with raw materials or other purchased material Pricing trends

Quality:

Risks for customer issues with your product

Market comparison of quality, your company versus competition

Research:

What is coming up in the future?

Possibility to get high-level meetings with the customer

Partnership opportunities

Administration:

Optimization activity that will improve for the customer

Possibility to exchange information between your company and the customer efficiently

Project Management:

Project status

Capacity for new projects

Executive Management:

Global company status

Future plans

Level of attention to your customer

Remember that the list above is only showing a few examples. Look at them as inspiration to what will be your points of interest.

Do not forget to bring information that you think will be interesting to the people you talk to at the various departments. You will probably be surprised to see how interested they are to get feedback from the sales and customer side, and it will help to have an exchange of information rather than a one-sided interview.

Matching Strengths and Weaknesses

You probably have a fairly good view on what your company’s strengths and weaknesses are. If you have done your homework well you have the same good view about your customer strengths and weaknesses. Remember that a weakness might not necessarily be a negative; it might be a part of a company strategy to focus on certain areas while use other companies expertise in other areas. This might be an opportunity for you.

Start with making a simple list of strengths and weaknesses for the two companies. It could be for example geographic region coverage, products, technologies or distribution locations. Then make a table with the two companies strengths and weaknesses combined. Take items from the list and put in to the correct box in the table.

Analyze the possible combinations of strengths and weaknesses. Is there an obvious area where the two companies complement each other? Are there other potential combinations showing advantages for both companies?

Strong + Strong:

Is there an area where both companies are strong? This could become a fantastic combination. Together both companies can rule the world. Or are you competing in the same market or at the same customer? This could definitely be a problem, but also an opportunity if you can find a combination that will be beneficial for you, the customer and the customer customer.

Weak + Weak:

Looks like a difficult spot. May be you should concentrate in other areas? Or can you bring in a third party to the equation for support so that the Strengths can be better utilized?

Strong + Weak:

Is there an area where you are strong and the customer weak? And does the customer need your product to get a complete offer to the market? Obviously a good starting point for you. Be careful about talking with the customer about their needs as weaknesses though. It might be their strategy to cooperate with other companies to get a complete offer.

Weak + Strong:

You are weak in an area where the customer is strong. Not a good starting point if that is all you have. If so, you should look for another customer or persuade your management to change strategy. But normally you have stronger areas in combination with weaker areas.

Strong + Weak and Weak + Strong:

Can the two companies complement each other’s Strengths and Weaknesses? In what areas? Here is probably the best place to start a discussion with the customer about joint cooperation.

Example: Matching Strengths and Weaknesses

Your company Flerp Inc. is the proud producer of analog electronic components. Your customer JMS is making and selling measurement systems on a global scale.

You are listing the following strengths and weaknesses:

November 16, 2023

Flerp Inc. Strengths

Flerp Inc. Weaknesses

Makes leading edge technology components High quality product Strong market presence in USA

Small market presence outside USA Cannot grow much more in USA Not up to date on quality system outside USA

JMS Strengths

JMS Weaknesses

Makes leading edge measurement systems Global market presence High quality product Have just successfully implemented new quality system

Internal component department lack resources Low market share in USA

Now, translate the items in the above list to fit in to a bit more complex table as shown below. This requires some more creativity than the above list, as you cannot simply move the items above without rephrasing. This thought process is good to find out where your Key Account Management strategy should go.

November 16, 2023

JMS Strengths

JMS Weaknesses

Flerp Inc. Strengths

Brand image High quality product

Market share in USA Component department resources

Flerp Inc. Weaknesses

Global market share Quality system status

A few ideas to get from the table above:

Weak + Weak: It looks like there are no common weaknesses, which is a good sign.

Strong + Strong: Both companies have a strong image and high quality. That should form a good base for common understanding in the work process and can be used as a good marketing tool for both companies.

Strong + Weak: JMS has its own component department but it has difficulties to keep up with the fast and expensive technology development. Flerp Inc. core competence is in technology development. Here you will find a lot of opportunities for selling and cooperation.

JMS would probably like to get a higher share in USA. Can Flerp Inc. help?

Weak + Strong: By working with JMS, Flerp Inc. can get their product and brand out globally faster than they can do themselves.

JMS will probably require Flerp Inc. to upgrade their quality systems to become a global supplier. Can JMS assist in this transition?

Strong + Weak and Weak + Strong: Could you find some good combinations from the two above? What about a quality system and technology resource competence exchange?

The last point is advanced and could probably not be the first step in your strategy plan, and it might not even be a good idea. However, it shows that the creation of the table can give new ideas and discussion items to bring to the table with the customer.

Strategic importance of your product in your customers strategy

Is your product of strategic importance to your customer? What is meant with strategic importance? Your customer must need your product otherwise they will not buy it. But it is not necessarily so that your product is of strategic importance just because they buy it.

Let’s look at four scenarios:

You and the customer have a similar activity in your company’s area. This is a great opportunity!

Your company activity is of strategic importance for your customer but they do not have that activity of their own. This is a great opportunity!

Your type of product is not seen as of strategic importance, but the customer buys it. This is a great opportunity!

You have after thorough investigation found that your product is not of strategic importance and the customer will never buy it because they do not need it. This is a great opportunity to find a new customer or a new job!

This book is not about finding a new job, so let us concentrate on the first three scenarios:

One sign that your product is of strategic importance is that your customer has its own activity in the same area. There is not a simple answer to the question if that is good or bad for you. Are you and your company competing head to head with your customer at the customer customer with alternative products? That is a tricky spot to be in as a Key Account Manager. You will sometimes be seen as competition both internally and at the customer. However, it can be handled with high demand on balancing skills.

Analyze the customer current situation. With today's general trend of concentration towards core business, do you think your customer will continue in ’your’ area? Think of this question from a CEO perspective. May be they will divest this part of their business in the future. Your company might even be a potential buyer. The people working at this department will most likely not talk about it, but you may get a feeling about the future from other parts of your customer (yes, it is good to have a broad contact network at your customer…). If you already are the trusted advisor you may soon be organizing a high level meeting to discuss such possibilities.

Dream on, you might say, I am not at all in that situation; I am just dealing with issues and suspicious people in my day to day work. And it might well be so that your customer will stick to their activity similar to your own. Go back to the idea of listing strengths and weaknesses. Go into detail in this particular area of competing activity. I am sure you will find areas for cooperation or perhaps a more distinct sell/buy opportunity. Be open and trustworthy discussing the opportunities with the customer. Find the win/win angle together and start working from there.

If you cannot find that win/win angle, step back from that particular part of the business for a while. Hopefully you have other products and other departments to work with. Stay in touch with the people at the department with the competing activity and keep a friendly dialogue. Sooner or later a change will happen and new opportunities will show up.

Another scenario is that your product is of strategic importance for your customer, but they do not have that activity of their own. This is easier to handle from a political perspective both internally and at the customer, but you will face other challenges. Most likely, you have several competitors active and also interested to cooperate with the customer. Your customer has assigned specialists and teams doing nothing else but evaluating the market to make sure they cooperate with the best companies. If you and your customer can share the same strategy with complementing products, you have a great opportunity to show your skills as Key Account Manager. The customer will have an active interest in cooperating with you.

The third scenario listed above might not look like a good one. The customer does not see your product as strategic. Remember the nut and bolt example? That will fall in this third category. If you had been of strategic importance the customer would have had a higher interest to keep you informed about future changes and you would have had better possibilities to have insight in the customer's activities.