Formal Account Reviews Can Be A Selling Event - Business

Why Review?

Obtaining continual feedback against a set of established criteria is vital if an organisation is to retain its existing top clients and seek to improve its standing and the quality of its service levels to them.

There are at least seven benefits of regular feedback.

* Feedback reveals your customer's current and future plans.

* Seeing your business from your customer's point of view allows you to answer the question "would you do business with you?" - if not why not?

* Feedback allows you to tailor your service levels so that you enjoy maximum customer satisfaction at a minimum cost.

* If you don't ask you'll never know how you are doing until it's too late! Feedback is magnified by the 'ice berg factor' making it more critical than it originally appears.

* Feedback can reveal what your competition are doing helping you to be a consistently strong contender.

* Gaining a reputation for wanting to hear feedback can actually make money for you.

How Often?

This will depend entirely on the importance of the account and revenue levels being achieved - or anticipated.

Assessing The Feedback You Receive:

If the feedback you have been receiving to-date has not been useful, ask yourself the following questions:

* Do I ask enough questions?

* Do I ask the right questions?

* Do I communicate effectively about why I am asking the questions?

* Do I ask the right people?

* Do I know how to use the data I collect?

* Am organised to respond to the information?

* Do I value and trust the information I receive?

What Do You Do With The Results?

Collate & assess

Communicate findings upwards & sideways

Act on vital issues

Feed back remedial actions

Confirm satisfactory resolve

Remember,the Account Review process:

* Is a non-threatening meeting.

* It is a fact finding session not a sales event in the short term. But -

* It is highly likely, that during this meeting you will uncover additional short, medium and long term opportunities.

The moral right of the author, Jonathan Farrington, has been asserted. All rights reserved. This publication or any part thereof may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system or otherwise, unless this notification of copyright is retained.

Jonathan Farrington is the Managing Partner of The jfa Group. Since forming jfa in 1995 he has authored in excess of three hundred skills development programmes, including the Strategic Workshops series, Channel Programme, P4 Programme and the Vanguard suite. In addition he has designed a range of unique and innovative process tools - Optimus+ and ASP Profile and written extensively on organisational and sales team development.

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