Another benefit of Valkre is the abil- ity to capture the facets of traditional account plans, relationships, locations and backgrounds in the same tool.


Our account review meetings are


focused on aligning the priorities of our customers. Having all our informa- tion in one place aids in healthy con- versations among the GAMs focused on customer challenges, our ideas and projects. We have visibility into both where we may need more internal align- ment


various successes we have delivered to customers. The reports we can auto- generate for internal stakeholders enable us to communicate the impact of our role in the organization by providing a clear picture of value delivered by the internal group and customer.


Another aspect of Valkre that has


worked well for us is how simple it was for us


to get from our organization and the started and grow from


there. We were able to quickly con- vert our existing account plans into the system; after a couple calls, our team


was up and running without having to involve any IT resources. Together with the Valkre team, we developed a roadmap for our team starting with the features that addressed our alignment challenge. As the GAMs grew more comfortable using Valkre, we methodi- cally expanded into the other features of the system. Today, it is second nature for our team to run our meetings and reporting from Valkre.


Summary As mentioned earlier, these are five


areas from our experiences where tech- nology can make a major impact in advancing SAM as a corporate strategy. SAMA research suggests that 50 to 70 percent of a SAM’s time is spent trying to secure internal alignment, with most of the balance of their time spent gaining customer align- ment. In so many ways, the five challenges discussed align along the dimension of where a SAM’s time is spent. This is important because if technology aligns along SAM activities that consume, say, 2 percent of their time, then it is hard to achieve adoption and drive impact. Think about the five areas:


• Customer-facing experience: getting aligned with the customer


• Enable SAM playbook: making sure the SAMs operate in a consistent manner so the organization and the customer learn what to expect


• Quantify customer value: reducing the time spent justifying the impor- tance of projects and negotiation


• Integrate with Marketing: aligning 3 4 VE L O C I T Y ®


with Marketing on customer com- munication and potential customer outcomes


• Create organizational alignment:


getting everyone on the same page regarding who’s doing what, by when and why


These are five great


companies with examples of where technology is being leveraged to drive SAM strategy advancement.


These are five great companies


with examples of where technology is being leveraged to drive SAM strategy advancement and focus on continuing to achieve the sorts of results SAMA benchmarks as best-in-class: 2X growth, 10 percent higher margins, 61 percent customer satisfaction improvement and 69 percent risk of loss mitigation.


These last several years working with


and seeing SAMA community members advancing their programs with the help


of tech has been a blast. Now that SAM technological foundations are being set across many companies, it will be excit- ing to see how integration into advances such as IoT and AI platforms play out in the next couple of years. Rest assured, Valkre will be in the middle of it help- ing companies create hyper-focus on value creation to their key and strategic accounts.


One way to experience Valkre


for yourself is to take SAMA’s Core 0 SAMA Academy training course. Valkre is integrated into the course, and after a couple of days you’ll have a plan in place for an account and a new perspective on how SAM technology can help


your program. Another way that works just fine as well is to check out valkre. com or send a note to info@valkre.com to learn more and set up a demo. n


Valkre is a Chicago-based company that has developed cloud-based SaaS solutions to help B2B companies enable key account management and strategic account-based marketing. Valkre has enabled companies with technology that improves how they articulate value propositions, understand customer needs and develop strategic customer relationships focused on value creation. For more information, please visit valkre.com.


VOL. 21 ISSUE 3 2019


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35