When we hear of an asset manager, we often think of an investment analyst, financial planner, or a high profile position in the banking industry. However, there are many other types of asset managers who work in a number of different industries and fields. Assets are any item of monetary value to an organization.
Whether it is the computer and office equipment, the building itself, or the manufacturing equipment, all are considered to have some monetary value. However, in terms of customer management, can customers be classified as Assets? They can and if you don't handle them properly, someone will!
For some enterprises, an asset manager could be involved managing physical assets. For example, an asset manager could be employed by either a hospital or a construction company to manage monitors, sterilizers, x-ray machines, electrocardiogram (EKG) machines of the hospital, or the dump trucks, cars and bulldozers of the construction company. The approach to managing these assets is to apply a value to them.
The asset manager analyzes these physical assets against repair costs, resell value, or scrap value, and tries to maximize their return. Some large corporations have full time asset managers whose sole responsibility is to manage all of the corporation's assets. From capital expenditures on new equipment, to selling off old equipment to pay for future repairs or spare parts, the asset manager can be an important resource to manage assets and their values.
What would happen if sales professionals managed their customers like an asset manager would? What would the approach be, and is there an argument to support such an idea?
All sales professionals have small, medium and large accounts they manage on a day to day basis. What one considers big, someone else may consider small. Are they big because of potential, actual business, or because they take up so much time? Because there are so many variables that go into how individual salespeople view their clients, there has to be agreed upon criteria to measure the value of the company's customers.
1. Come up with an asset grading system correlated to how much money each account spends.
Redefine what it means to manage and sell to your customers. Refer to them as company assets that are managed by sales. There is no hard and fast rule to be applied here. You can refer to your top tier accounts with any kind of reference you chose. As long as you make it clear that the company's customers are to be viewed as assets. What you call these assets, is up to you. As long as they can be differentiated by the amount they spend with your company. For simplicity, we have used the following example as a reference to how a company might determine their "A", "B" and "C" asset accounts, by how much these customers spend in a given year.
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Customers spending $10,000.00 and more are considered "A" asset accounts.
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Customers spending $5,000.00 to $10,000.00 are considered "B" asset accounts.
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Customers spending less than $5,000.00 are considered "C" asset accounts.
2. How many "A,B,C" assets is the sales person in charge of?
It's surprising to know how many sales professionals and companies don't grade their customer's value. They tend to know a customer spends a lot, and have an understanding that they are important, but where they fit in the big picture is usually left to interpretation. Everyone should know how many assets are being managed. It encourages competition amongst sales, and provides the internal support sales needs by demonstrating just how many assets they manage for the company.
The essentials of B2B sales negotiation
3. Make everyone involved, regardless of position, aware of the grading system and value of the company's customers.
It's never easy for sales to run around trying to convince everyone just how important a customer's value is. Often, they have to justify the action that needs to be taken by explaining who the customer is and how much they spend. Those that work with sales, often view them as simply trying to save their commission. It is much easier when everyone understands what type of asset the customer represents, the account's gross profit potential and can immediately know what value they are to the company.
4. How many customers has sales moved from "C" to "B" assets, and from "B" to "A" assets?
Has the sales professional done a good job of upgrading his/her accounts? How many accounts have they increased business with, and how many have actually declined in business? Analyzing the total growth of sales is important, but equally important is which customers are growing, can continue to grow, and what opportunities still remain. Indoctrinating sales to constantly move accounts up the asset scale, will provide motivation to manage customers like an asset manager would.
5. How is the sales professional performing when it comes to customer retention?
What are the reasons for the decline in business at some accounts? Is it service related, or something else entirely? Understanding how accounts move up and down the asset scale encourages everyone, not just sales, to become active participants in reviewing what went right and wrong with a given account.
Coworkers tend to assume that business lost is a direct result of how the sales professional handled the account. While it does play some role in lost business, there are other factors completely out of the salesperson's control that play a part. When everyone understands just how much is involved in winning and keeping business, it becomes that much easier to set plans in motion to correct mistakes, and duplicate success.
The video above outlines how to use a simple customer retention plan that will keep your customers coming back for more. To learn more, please go here.
6. Liquidate under performing assets or develop a new plan?
The approach here is not to dump customers as a financial planner might with underperforming company stock. No company is in the business of pushing customers away. However, it is important to know which accounts are occupying too much time without rewarding hard work with orders.
Every salesperson will be faced with an account that drains their time and the resources of coworkers. It is important to be aware of who these account are, and develop new strategies to move them up the asset scale. At some point, the account either has to stop taking up so much time, stop using your company's price against you to lower their own pricing, or move up the scale.
Sales can often walk a fine line between business won and lost. They tend to spend a lot of time chasing accounts who may not produce the desired results. Often they are unaware of their top tier accounts, and what role they should play in their day to day responsibilities. It is up to the sales professional and the company, to understand why a given customer is not providing the same returns as they were.
The ultimate goal is not only to increase total sales, but to grow all accounts, retain customers and keep them moving up the asset scale. It all amounts to proper customer management practices.
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