Posts under ‘Accounts & Finance’

What is Account Management?

Account management is actually a synonym for account penetration. Just because you have sold one product or service to one business entity within an organization doesn’t mean your job is done. Think of all the additional opportunities that may exist in the account! For example:

* Does your company offer additional products or services that might be a “fit” for this customer?

* How many other business units, departments, divisions, and subsidiaries are potential prospects for your company’s offering(s)?

Required Skills and Talents

A critical talent for successful account management is the ability to build relationships, as relationship selling is a very effective way to increase account penetration. Another critical skill/talent is organization. If you are going to manage large accounts effectively, you need to be willing and able to keep meticulous records.

What kinds of records do you need to keep? Picture a large, three-dimensional spreadsheet in your mind. In the left-hand column is a list of every product and service that you could possibly sell to a customer. Across the top of the spreadsheet are all of the business units, departments, divisions, and other business entities that make up your account’s entire organization. Behind each business entity is every contact you know within that business entity.

Armed with this mental picture, ask yourself the following questions:

* Which business entities are you doing business with?

* Which business entities are you NOT doing business with?

* Where are the various business entities located?

* Which products and services does each business entity already purchase from you?

* Which products and services are they NOT purchasing from you?

* Who do you know in each business entity?

* Which of these contacts have you already asked for referrals and testimonials?

* What referrals and testimonials have they given you?

Required Activities

Hopefully your organization has some type of CRM (Client Relationship Management) software application to help you keep track of your answers to these questions. If you don’t have access to a corporate CRM system, here are some other options:

* You can purchase a software package like ACT! Or GoldMine?

* You can subscribe to an online service like salesforce.com?

* You can track information using a spreadsheet, database, or e-mail program?

Next, plan your tactics for increasing account penetration by considering the following questions:

* What process will you use to regularly expose each of your contacts in the account to your company’s entire portfolio of products and services?

* Who can provide testimonials that will help you win business in other business units, departments, or divisions in the account?

* Who can refer you to new contacts in other business units, departments, or divisions in the account?

Why is it necessary to repetitively expose your contacts to your company’s entire portfolio of products and services? Because they forget! I can tell you from personal experience that there is nothing more frustrating than finding out a customer has placed a large order with another salesperson…and the only reason they didn’t give you the order was because they didn’t know or remember that you could fill it!

Is There More to Account Management?

There can be, but activities focused on increasing account penetration make up the critical core. Account management does become more complex if a team of people is managing a regional, national, or global account, but most of the complexity pertains to coordinating the activities of the team members.

Don’t make account management more complex than it needs to be! The basic goal is to maximize account penetration. Look for opportunities to sell every product and service in your portfolio to >every business entity (business unit, department, division, etc.) in the account. Make maximum use of referrals and testimonials to help you initiate new relationships. Regularly remind all of your contacts of the full breadth of your portfolio of products and services. Be organized and keep meticulous records. If you do these things, you should be amply rewarded for your efforts!

It is not easy to raise capital for business use; particularly in an environment in which small business owners are accorded a status similar to borrowers with bad credit. Self employment is considered a bad credit case because of the unstable income generation through small business. It is said how a small business owner will pay fixed installments on a loan if he has not made much income (profits) in a particular month. Banks and financial institutions are thus not receptive to the demands of the small business owners.

However, a loan can be designed particularly suited to the small business owners. Few lenders, who did not want to lose on the opportunity of lending to the rising group of small business owners, devised such loan. It is known as small business loan. Small business loans are advanced to small entrepreneurs who invest it in a series of purposes like expansion of their facility, buying technology, purchasing new tools and equipments, and also to buy raw materials and pay wages to workers.

Lenders advance small business loans on the principle of moderate risk, which is no different from lending any other loan. The principle of moderate risk implies lending by keeping sufficient cover against risks. Therefore, while designing the terms of the small business loans, lenders are often seen to be using this principle. Take for instance, the rate of interest. The rate of interest charged on small business loans is higher than the normal. Similarly, lenders will only lend a limited sum on small business loans. These are sufficient proof of the manner in which lenders prepare for any risk that may emerge in the future.

What differences can a borrower notice in small business loan, which goes in his favour? Borrowers can get an arrangement designed by which they can repay loan installments with ease. Small business loan with a flexible repayment schedule sufficiently solves the problem of the self employed people. Through a flexible repayment schedule, borrowers do not need to make repayments of a pre-specified amount and a pre-specified period. Depending on the income that they are able to salvage in that period, they can make repayments accordingly. Therefore, in certain months (or any periodicity chosen by borrower to make repayments) there can be underpayments, overpayments, and no payments at all (termed as payment holiday).

However, not all lenders may be ready to accommodate your financial condition thus. If you consider the clause of flexible repayments so necessary in your case, then you must mould your search operations accordingly. With the help of brokers, searching small business loan according to ones desired criteria is not very difficult. Brokers are associated with several loan providers in the UK. When a person applies for small business loan to these brokers, they forward it to all the lenders who they think can appropriately advance loans to the entrepreneurs. The broker conducts the entire search operation. The borrower just has to choose from the large number of deals that the lenders forward. Brokers can also arrange small business loans from lenders who accept flexible repayment. Similarly, other specific requirements of borrowers can be incorporated into any small business loan searched. Brokers charge certain fees for their services. However, the best deal that these help to find will make the issue of fees irrelevant.

Small business loans can be either short term or long term. A short-term small business loan is repayable in a period ranging from certain months to a year. Long-term small business loans on the other hand, advance money for as long as 25 years. Depending upon ones requirement, the small business owners can decide term of repayment and other terms and conditions of the small business loan.