KAM – Less is more and take a different perspective

June 10, 2024|Accountants, Kim's Blog, Lawyers, Management Skills, Marketing, Relationship Management|

At the recent PM Forum – PM Forum workshop on “Towards KAM and ABM:
Helping fee-earners with client relationship management” we were joined by delegates from across the UK in legal, accountancy, actuarial and engineering firms. I’ve summarised the delegate aims, poll results and key takeaways below as an addition to the learning resources for the session which covered: a) Understand – KAM context, aims and strategy b) Plan – KAM process, data and systems and c) Implement – KAM activities, skills and motivation. KAM – Less is more and take a different perspective.

Less is more on KAM

Experience shows that often firms try to do too much when they establish a KAM process. They sometimes attempt to establish a KAM for too many accounts. Then neither the MBD team nor the fee-earners have sufficient time to support the programme. Or they are unclear on their aims and try to do too much where the expected results are unclear – an unfocused programme.

Many delegates – at the end of the session – agreed that they should attempt to do less (but achieve more) with their KAM programme. This involved either reducing the number of key accounts (perhaps by reviewing the criteria to select a key account), streamlining the process for the firm or key accounts, having a pilot scheme or focusing KAM activity on particular projects or areas (e.g. training or reporting).

It is better to attempt to achieve a small, focussed result and achieve it than have grand ambitions that are unobtainable with the resources available. Several firms reported that their KAM programmes ran out of steam or lost momentum after launch. This conclusion – to do less but better – was reflected in the key delegate takeaways.

Keep it simple
Focus – Don’t try and spread yourself and colleagues too thinly. Sometimes less is more.
Review our current programme and focus on less but doing it well
Consider which accounts are in the programme and why
Prioritising relationships grid – map out loyalty/seniority
The process (looking at our next initial stages in our program)
Improve upskilling and training
Embed training and support for colleagues
The importance of having a plan and reporting on it
Review our current reporting practices for key accounts
The importance of sharing success stories
Coaching fee-earners before they make certain calls
Look at best practise within the firm and share/replicate it
Motivate colleagues to support KAM programmes

Take a different perspective on KAM

Typically, the KAM or ABM programme is led by the marketing and business development (MBD) team with the support of the senior leadership team. But what if we took a different perspective to designing and implementing the KAM process?

What if we let the firm-wide and client specific KAM processes just emerge?

KAM programmes often start with a central team trying to design the relevant systems and processes for KAM at a firm-wide and client level. But what if we adopted a more agile approach and simply focused on what behaviours and activities in different teams generated the most successful client outcomes?

Many KAM programmes seek to identify the best practice key client teams. And then capture what those exemplar teams do and use it to help others. We know that there is rarely a “one size fits all” KAM approach – different teams, practice areas, offices and clients demand that we flex the process to meet their needs and situations more precisely.

By allowing different KAM processes to emerge throughout the organisation, and focus on identifying successful approaches, we could offer those learnings to other fee-earners so that they can adopt those practices which suit their clients best.

What if we asked our fee-earners to design the KAM process?

What if we shared with the fee-earners what we wanted to achieve – whether this was revenue or profit improvement, client satisfaction and referrals ratings, cross-selling ambitions or something else – and asked for their views on how best to go about it?

Taking a different perspective might suggest that something else needs to be addressed rather than a KAM programme. For example:

Changes to the way the firm is structured and organised
Improvements in client service and client delivery
Client planning processes
Changes to the way systems deliver client data and knowledge
Different training and coaching solutions
Time recording system changes
Changes to the recognition and reward policies and systems
Pricing, billing and contractual changes
Improved internal communication

Having the fee-earners involved in identifying the best way to achieve the goals would mean that they are more likely to participate in the programme – buy-in would be built-in.

What if we let the client listening team lead the KAM process?

Most firms will have some form of client listening process – occasional or regular research processes looking at quantitative data (e.g. Net Promoter Score Client satisfaction benchmarks – How do you measure up? (kimtasso.com)) or qualitative data (e.g. post matter reviews and annual client service interviews).

Client listening and/or research projects are often a major component of the KAM process. We need to measure current client satisfaction, identify weak spots in the client experience, learn about emerging client needs and find ways to really add value to clients.

So what if we let client listening drive the way our KAM teams and processes operated? It would certainly ensure a client-focused approach was adopted. It would also focus attention on those areas which clients see as having particular value or needing specific attention. Our KAM processes would be entirely focused on ensuring that the client needs were embedded at the heart of the KAM process.

What if we allowed our clients to design the KAM process?

It would take great courage, but we could ask our clients how they think the KAM process should be designed and operate. The experts in KAM all suggest that we involve the client in talking about the plan for the development of the relationship – but it is rarely practised.

We could explain to the client what we hoped to achieve – to strengthen the relationship so that it added greater value to them and to us. And then ask the client what we could do to achieve that. The client may suggest different processes and activities to those that we have thought about. And it would ensure a more collaborative approach to KAM.

This way the clients would see the value in the KAM programme and would be super-keen to work with us to design it in a way that suits them. Their expectations and needs would be totally the main priority. And they would be welcoming of the resulting process.

Delegate Poll Results

Delegates find it helpful to benchmark their views against other each.

Delegate aims

Refresh KAM knowledge
Ensure we are supporting fee-earners with our key accounts
Obtain a general understanding of KAM
Develop our roles to provide a really good client experience
Better engage with fee earners on improving their client relationships and therefore offer a better client service
Learn best practice and tips
Transition from marketing to a business development role
Learn what can realistically be achieved with KAM
Develop my role as account coordinator for a key client
Refine our KAM processes
Embed our KAM programme
Learn from other people’s and firm’s experience