How do you increase sales with key accounts and strategic partners?

1 Identify your key accounts and partners

The first step is to identify who are your key accounts and partners, and why they are important for your business. Key accounts are typically your most valuable, loyal, and profitable customers, who generate a large share of your revenue and have high growth potential. Strategic partners are other businesses or organizations that complement your offerings, share your vision, and can help you reach new markets or customers. You can use criteria such as revenue, profitability, loyalty, growth, alignment, and referrals to segment and prioritize your key accounts and partners.

2 Understand their needs and goals

The next step is to understand what your key accounts and partners need and want from you, and how you can help them achieve their goals. You can do this by conducting regular reviews, surveys, interviews, and feedback sessions with them, and analyzing their data and behavior. You should also monitor their industry trends, challenges, opportunities, and competitors, and anticipate their future needs and expectations. The more you know about your key accounts and partners, the more you can tailor your solutions, offers, and communications to them.

3 Create value propositions and plans

The third step is to create value propositions and plans for your key accounts and partners, based on your understanding of their needs and goals. A value proposition is a clear and compelling statement that explains how your product or service solves their problem, meets their need, or delivers their benefit, and why they should choose you over others. A plan is a detailed and actionable roadmap that outlines how you will deliver your value proposition, what resources and actions are required, and how you will measure and communicate your results. You should create value propositions and plans for each key account and partner, and align them with your overall sales strategy and objectives.

4 Deliver value and nurture relationships

The fourth step is to deliver value and nurture relationships with your key accounts and partners, according to your value propositions and plans. This means providing high-quality products or services, exceeding their expectations, solving their issues, and adding value beyond your core offering. It also means building trust, rapport, and loyalty with them, by communicating regularly, showing appreciation, providing support, and recognizing their achievements. You should also seek feedback, testimonials, and referrals from them, and leverage them as advocates for your brand.

5 Review and optimize your strategy

The final step is to review and optimize your strategy for increasing sales with key accounts and partners, based on your performance and results. You should track and analyze your key metrics, such as revenue, profitability, retention, satisfaction, loyalty, and referrals, and compare them with your goals and benchmarks. You should also evaluate your value propositions, plans, and relationships, and identify what worked well, what didn't, and what can be improved. You should then make adjustments and improvements to your strategy, and repeat the cycle of identifying, understanding, creating, delivering, and reviewing.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?