Customer and Strategic Customer Management

The Chapman Group’s proprietary approach to Strategic Customer Management, SMARTS™ (Strategic Mega Account Resource TeamS), is a cross-functional team-based, proactive, customer-centric engagement process designed to meet the challenges of today’s customers It is an integrated methodology for acquiring and assessing critical situational information, establishing high-level customer relationships, and managing opportunities and outcomes.  The SMARTS™ process (predictable, repeatable, and measurable) includes recommended operational “best practices” to enable Teams to align their business goals and objectives with the business goals and objectives of the Customer.

Specifically, our SMARTS™ Program has embedded methodology for:

• Segmenting customers to be able to apply an appropriate servicing model / strategy
• Building and leading collaborative Teams that properly align to the account
• Acquiring and assessing critical account information for developing customer strategy
• Launching an effective Metric-based Customer Plan to capture situational information and strategy
• Establishing and developing high, wide and deep relationships
• Managing Opportunities (Opportunity Management) – expanding the pipeline and objectively qualifying opportunities
• Conducting Internal and External Business Reviews

When engaging with The Chapman Group we work with you to define your unique program requirements and tailor our turnkey SMARTS™ solution to meet the needs of your organization and the dynamics of your marketplace through both consulting and training on best practices (i.e., skills and process).

An important element of any Customer Management Program is the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP).  A Playbook, or an SOP, ensures that the efforts required and expected of Program participants are documented and understood so that they can be replicated across the organization.

The Chapman Group’s Customer Management Program Playbook provides a framework (process, methodology, infrastructure, best practices, skills and tools) for continually assessing the Customer’s business needs and drivers, and translating them into strategies and tactics to retain and grow relationships and revenues. It is designed to document the process and best practices, as well as assign and understand roles and responsibilities.

When developing a Playbook for your program, we work with you and your team to customize the content (practices and language) to ensure it aligns to your business / industry and any processes and procedures already in place.

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it! If you can’t manage it you probably can’t improve it! A core principle of The Chapman Group’s SMARTS™ / Strategic Account Management methodology is the integration of metrics into the Strategic Account Management Process.  As businesses move into another era of the global economy – one driven by proven supplier ROI – measurements that provide immediate direction and correction are required.

Metrics, performance measurements against prescribed and recognized standards, solicit response and dictate action. They enable an organization to institutionalize excellence, implement and utilize best practices across the organization, and deliver results. They are straightforward outputs from the execution of recognized best practices, i.e. a byproduct of the normal execution of sales and account management activities. This is important because, when employed properly, implementing Strategic Account Management metrics does not cause additional efforts – they save efforts by guiding you to focus on the “right” efforts!

All organizations can employ metrics. They already do. Sales history, inventory, customer satisfaction results, and seasonal trends are all examples of metrics used in today’s businesses. Metrics and measurements drive both strategic and tactical planning and should consist of both leading and lagging indicators:

• Leading Indicators – Also known as predictive analytics, leading indicators predict change / an event before it actually happens. An example of a leading indicator would be Voice of the Customer Survey Results, which enables an organization to know what a customer may do before they actually do it.
• Lagging Indicators– Indicates a change and / or event that has already taken place. Examples of lagging indicators are Revenue Results and Customer Satisfaction scores.

The Chapman Group works with you and your team to determine the appropriate Strategic Account Management metrics (leading and lagging) to implement, incorporate them into a Metric-based Strategic Account Plan and / or a Joint and Balanced Customer Scorecard, and ultimately empower your organization with more accurate and intimate account knowledge leading to improved relationships and increased revenues and margins.

It is not possible to overstate the impact preparation and planning has on the success of a Strategic Account Management Program. At the core of the planning process is a living, breathing document of account intelligence. Organizations have long been creating such data intensive documents about their accounts, often referred to as the Strategic Account Plan. Many of these plans have gone unused, proved of little value to the Account Team (no output for considerable input), and ultimately proved too time consuming for any Account Team to integrate into their already packed workday.

The Chapman Group believes in implementing a simple “metric-based” account plan that provides the ultimate value to the Account Team by incorporating the right situational metrics (quantitative measurements) to eliminate endless hours of research, documentation and discussion.

The Chapman Group brings considerable experience in developing a well-organized, metric-based account plan that can be used by the Account Team to develop and execute strategy, and can be used by management for more effective and accurate coaching and reporting.  We will work with you and your team to tailor critical elements of the plan including:

• Account Overview and Knowledge Points (i.e., points of relevancy)
• Financials
• Relationships and Relationship Ratings (Account Relationship Penetration Index)
• Account Team Alignment
• Opportunity Management and Qualification
• Strengths and Weaknesses
• Goals, Strategies and Tactics
• Account Dashboards