How To Elevate Your Team through Account Management Training

Account management training is a vital factor in any business transformation strategy. Elevating your team’s performance and driving business success is necessary for today’s competitive landscape, and many organisations recognise the significance of effective account management courses in nurturing key client relationships and maximising revenue opportunities.

Key account management training revolves around nurturing and maintaining long-term relationships with your most valuable customers. It requires your employees to utilise a strategic, proactive approach which allows them to identify, understand, and meet the specific needs of these clients—all of which are skills that can be difficult to impart in the working environment without risk to these relationships.

In this guide, we’ll see how specialised account manager training can help your employees to develop these competencies, highlighting the benefits of the crucial skills that will be able to help them succeed in their roles, as well as noting the advantages of these programmes for your wider business.

Alongside this, we’ll also explore how you can ensure your staff get the most out of account management courses, offering you the certainty that the staff that comprise the main point of contact for your business-critical clients are equipped with the ability to build trust, foster loyalty, and deliver exceptional customer care.

What Does Account Manager Training Focus On?

When it comes to enhancing the skills of your staff with the knowledge and best practices that are essential to customer retention in 2023, key account management training is often one of the first suggestions.

You might know what your customers want and have the products or services needed to solve their problems, but keeping them engaged and interested in your brand requires your key account managers (KAMs) to establish and maintain a robust advisory partnership. Ensuring your customers are satisfied with their relationship with your KAMs translates to strong engagement, with 40% of B2B customers polled by Gallup saying they would be fully engaged with a brand given they believed the KAM assigned to them was effective and consultative.

Account management training and development courses can play a crucial role in evolving your business strategy, helping to enhance employees’ skills in key areas such as:

• Performance. Account manager training equips your staff with the necessary skills and knowledge they need to excel in their role. Most account management training programmes focus on developing core competencies—like effective communication, negotiation techniques, strategic planning, and problem-solving—that aren’t just valuable within account management roles but in all positions within the modern workplace.
• Relationship building. Better relationships with customers help your organisation to meet business goals and objectives, increasing the likelihood of upselling and cross-selling products and services. By helping staff to understand the most critical aspects of a customer-centric focus, key account management training can aid your business in always providing exceptional experiences.
• Leveraging technology. Account management training recognises the importance of utilising the latest software and CRM developments to streamline account management processes, enhance productivity, and provide actionable data insights. These training and development courses are designed to provide practical guidance on utilising CRM tools to make informed decisions which drive business growth.

By investing in training and development courses—and specifically account management courses—you can also demonstrate your commitment to your employees’ continued professional development and career mobility. When organisations provide opportunities for skill enhancement and facilitate a culture of learning and development, employees feel valued, in turn reducing staff turnover by boosting job satisfaction, motivation, and morale.

Indeed, the stats seem to back up this assertion: organisations that prioritise learning and development will find that their staff are 21% more engaged than those companies that don’t invest in training.

At the same time, providing employees with opportunities for progression and skills growth can also be a significant factor in attracting fresh talent. A report in the Harvard Business Review highlights that 86% of employees would change jobs if an employer had a strong culture of professional development. Key account management training can play an important role in a more comprehensive L&D programme, helping you to illustrate your unique employee value proposition.

If you’re interested in learning more about how training can help you to drive business development after you’ve finished reading this guide, make sure to see our article on how to improve problem-solving skills within your business for an insight into how account manager training as well as other courses, can empower your employees to work efficiently and produce better outcomes.

How to Get the Most Out of Account Management Courses

So, how can you ensure that your staff make the most of the key account management training and development courses that you invest in and make certain that they’re all aligned and ready to contribute towards your business goals?

First, it’s important to always remember to set clear objectives. Luckily, a bespoke training provider will always aim to partner with you to establish and define concrete goals for your training programme which align with your overall business strategy. This can aid in directing the content of account management training, ensuring that it delivers the desired outcomes.

This focus on clear objectives means that the account management courses you provide to your employees can be tailored to address the present challenges and meet the specific needs of your staff.

When your employees can put their experiential and theoretical learning to the test in the real account management environment, this can help you to establish that learning and development are a vital part of everyday work, imparting skills that can be put into immediate practice. And when learners retain 75% of what they do—versus 5% of what they listen to—it’s imperative that staff are able to bring what they’ve studied and practised to bear on their day-to-day responsibilities.

To support this, there needs to be a greater cultural shift within the workplace, with guidance and assistance offered for continuous training. There’s plenty of financial assistance for businesses to provide these growth opportunities for their staff, whether that’s via the Apprenticeship Levy or through the government’s offer to fund 95% of any course in which an employee is enrolled.

Alongside this, providing materials and resources beyond any initial key account management training—in the form of bite-sized “micro-learning” videos, how-tos, or through the development of a system of mentorship and coaching—can encourage staff to collaborate, network, and share the best practices they’ve discovered along the way.

It’s important that your staff feel heard, too. Providing opportunities for your KAMs to provide feedback on the account management training and development courses they’ve taken part in can give you the ability to evaluate programme effectiveness and adjust the content and delivery according to the needs that your employees highlight—whether this is collected via an anonymised survey, in interviews, or through a question-and-answer session.

Fundamentally, however, it’s vital that managers, executives, and directors all champion and engage with the account management courses on offer themselves, which can go a long way in demonstrating their commitment to the development of a learning culture within your organisation. Leading by example and ensuring that a standard is set across all levels of seniority can help employees to understand targets and foster open lines of communication between staff.

Closing Remarks

Investing in account management training can be a game-changer for companies looking to transform the experiences of their key clients. By equipping your KAMs and leaders with the necessary skills and knowledge, you can help to elevate their performance, nurture business-critical relationships, and maximise revenue opportunities.

Account management courses focus on developing core competencies, fostering better relationships with customers, and leveraging technology for streamlined processes and access to data-driven insights. Moreover, investing in your employees’ professional development demonstrates your commitment to their growth and career mobility, leading to increased job satisfaction, higher engagement—and the associated higher productivity—as well as reduced staff turnover.

To make the most of account management courses, make sure you set clear objectives, work closely with your training provider to ensure that the content being delivered addresses your employees’ specific needs and challenges, provide ongoing support and resources for staff after they’ve completed the programme, and encourage feedback to allow you to continue to refine course content.

By championing this shift towards a learning culture at all levels of seniority within your organisation, you can create an environment in which your account management team can excel and your business can thrive.

Bespoke Account Management Training and Development Courses

Pareto has provided account management training and development courses for over 25 years, helping business leaders and professionals across many industries to enhance their customer offering and ensure that they can maintain solid relationships with key clients.

If you’d like to learn more, get in touch with us today to discuss your needs with one of our expert consultants.