I was talking on the phone with a client of mine one Tuesday, the owner of a security integration company. They’re updating their website and about to discuss a content marketing plan with their vendor. I suggested that he let my marketing manager take a look at the site when they were done and we could give them some suggestions on how they could position their marketing plan – I was just offering this as a favor. He didn’t realize that we had this type of service. We’ve been working together for 10 months and he didn’t know that I have a marketing manager, nor that we tie our marketing programs into our sales programs to deliver one seamless system. Whose fault is that? They guy typing right now, that’s who.
In my defense, our marketing services were in development when this client and I started talking. However, these services have been live since last November and we talk every week … that’s about 40 weeks and I never mentioned it… and I teach this stuff! Which brings me to Strategy #2 in helping your Account Managers become better hunters...
Strategy #2: Account Managers should lead a campaign to educate their top clients on all of your services (that could be five or twenty-five clients, depending on your model). I guarantee most of your clients, even the top ones, don’t know about all of your services. Your fire clients don’t know that you can offer access control; your video clients don’t know that you provide badging services; and your AV customers don’t know about your engineering and design department. Get in front of your top clients and make sure they know about all of these services
How? Simply schedule a quarterly or annual review meeting with them. You’re their Account Manager – updating them is part of your job. If you think they already know, schedule the meeting anyway. It’s amazing how much clients forget.
