#008 Survive the speed of change - become an irreplaceable advisor

KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders

IN THIS EPISODE

How well have your client relationships faired against the almighty test that was 2020?

With research suggesting that 68% of customers citing ‘perceived indifference’ as their top reason for leaving a supplier - have you lost customers by not remaining close enough to them? Or, by not fully understanding what they really needed from you, during the stormy waters of the pandemic.

Perhaps you were led by political rhetoric and generalisations, which suggested that EVERYONE was facing financial ruin…leading you to discount and offer concessions through compassion? Did your strategy pay off or have you damaged the relationship - missing the customer’s need for confidence, clarity and clear leadership?

In this episode David speaks to Jermaine Edwards, a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of The Irreplaceable Advisory Group and a Key Customer Growth Specialist. With more than 10yrs in sales, sales leadership and customer growth management, Jermaine now spends his time being invited by companies around the world like Gartner, Dell Technologies, London Business School and GE to create unique customer growth and loyalty strategies which make them irreplaceable in their market. To date Jermaine has helped his clients uncover more than $250 million in new and undiscovered revenue from existing customers.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE

David was keen to understand Jermaine’s view on:

• why businesses may have lost important clients during the pandemic
• what we should all be doing to improve the retention of key accounts
• why he believes that ‘retention’ is the wrong mindset
• how a blame culture and silo working INTERNALLY leads to a real risk in EXTERNAL relationships.

In a year where we were all in the same storm, but experiencing it in different boats (the highlight key phrase for 2020) - did you take enough time to understand what your customers needed from you to support them in navigating uncertainty?

In a time of hyper-adaptation (now a real “thing”), what changes did you make in the way you manage your customers that will:-

1. stand the test of time,
2. pay back in dividends over time and
3. cement customer loyalty

…. and which changes will be reversed at your earliest opportunity?

It was great to hear Jermaine’s thoughts on customer retention and we really love the notion of changing the mindset from retention to becoming irreplaceable.

Jermaine suggests that we need to first ask ourselves: Why do we want to retain this customer? And then work on being intentional in our activity from there on out. Love that point of view.

In the conversation, Jermaine underlines the importance of setting two-way expectations, having a clear vision for the customer relationship and becoming future-focussed in your conversations to cement future commitments.

With blame being a choking hazard in business it’s important to be constantly on the lookout for the tell-tale signs of a blame culture. Deciding what kind of organisation we want to be internally will determine how we express ourselves externally. This fits in so well with the KAM Culture work we do with our KAMGuru clients.

By becoming an irreplaceable advisor, we really do take the option for the customer leaving us …off the table.

KILLER QUESTION SEGMENT

In each episode we ask you, our listener, a killer question that is designed to get you reflecting on your business, your KAM Culture and where changes in thinking and behaviour could lead to increased customer success.

In this episode we asked Jermaine to give us his killer question which was:

“Do you, your team, your dept, your business have a known, understood, practised and proven way to generate phenomenal relationship revenue retention results within your business with your most important customers?”

If those things aren’t true for you – this is a great opportunity to sit down and get a shared understanding across your team and organisation.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT MY GUEST: JERMAINE EDWARDS

Jermaine is a serial entrepreneur, co-founder of The Irreplaceable Advisory Group and a Key Customer Growth Specialist. With more than 10 years-experience in sales, sales leadership and customer growth management, he has developed the 'Customer Ripple System' and 'Customer Mastery Programme' to help his clients make the impact they always knew was possible with their most important customers.

Jermaine has been featured as a Customer Growth Author for Inc. Magazine and has personally trained and delivered talks to more than 4000 customer leaders, executives and teams for B2B businesses.

With a Degree in German and Economics, and a Masters in Behavioural Psychology, Jermaine is invited by blue chip companies around the world to create unique customer growth and loyalty strategies which make them irreplaceable in their market. He has worked with brands like Gartner, Dell Technologies, London Business School and GE.

You can find out more about him on his website, connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter. You can also find out about his Customer Ripple System and The Irreplaceable Advisory Group.