An Ounce Of Prevention Is Worth A Pound Of Cure

How long has it been since you were surprised to learn that one of your account managers had made the decision to resign? This is the kind of surprise that you wish would never come knocking, especially if the individual who has resigned was viewed to be one of your best, most reliable producers. The first thing one often asks oneself is, “Why didn’t I see that coming”, followed quickly by, “What could I have done differently?” Unless you can see it coming, and take the appropriate steps to backfill the position quickly, this kind of challenge can add one more factor to the equation that makes the incline a little steeper in the months ahead.

If an account manager leaves unexpectedly, the first order of business will always be to immediately do everything you can to firm up your customer base, as you wisely should. You should take nothing for granted. As you make the rounds to have face-time with your key clients, you will most likely be comforted by the assurance certain clients give you that this is business as usual, i.e. “People come, people go.” Interestingly, you will most likely learn something you did not yet know, or at least clearly understand…in many instances when someone resigns abruptly, they may have been planning their exit for much longer than you realize.

You might be surprised to hear one or two of your clients express a lack of surprise in the news that their account manager “has left the building.” Often, when an account manager is contemplating their exit, they will drop hints of their pending plan to clients with whom they feel a strong level of rapport. They may even tell them why they have become unhappy, or why they think it is in their best interest to try and find greener pastures.

On another note, if you do hear one of their former clients convey a lack of surprise regarding the news, they may proceed to tell you that they have felt like the account manager had been “checked out” for the last few weeks. In many instances, it is not uncommon for an account manager to make plans to leave their current position, but strategically hang around for a few weeks, even a few months, for some reason that serves their best interest. It could be they are waiting on a commission check or a major project to wind down, i.e. “not wanting to leave money on the table when they walk away.”

Once an account manager has an exit strategy in place, it is next to impossible for them to take care of their clients the way you would expect them to. One of the reasons for this is that they are not emotionally invested in making sure they are continuing to lay the ground work for a long-term relationship with the client. Perhaps they don’t return calls as promptly as they once did; they may be quick to ask a customer service representative to do the pick-up, or to deliver a project; they are not as concerned with making sure they are doing a final check on a project scheduled for delivery…all because they are not invested in the future of the relationship with the client.

Managing the reality of what I have just described is best done proactively, rather than reactively. The beginning of the New Year is an ideal time to schedule a one-on-one conference with each of your account managers, in an effort to make sure you minimize the possibility of the kind of unfortunate surprise described above.

“Results are the outcome of time and effort spent. Knowing the score when the game
is over won’t in any way allow you to make changes in the second quarter!” 

In such a conference, if you were to ask one of your account managers to describe what their success would look like in the coming months, what do you suppose their answer would be? In too many instances, you might discover that they won’t seem to be able to paint a clear picture of where they will be in six months, or in one year.

If they are able to describe what their success would look like, and your follow up question was directed toward asking them to map out the specifics of what their plan would include to ensure that they reached their targets, how well-thought out would you suppose their plan would be? It is not uncommon for someone to have an expectation of who they want to be, or at what level they want to perform, but if you ask them what their plan is for achieving their goals, they may not be well-prepared to answer.

This presents a real problem for you as the manager. If your objective is to make sure you are constantly monitoring an account manager’s progress, it is vital that the two of you agree on what the objectives are, and what the plan for accomplishing the objectives will be. Otherwise, you, as their manager, will be severely handicapped in your ability to help them make minor adjustments along the way.  As an account manager, they will not have an adequate perspective on whether they are on track, making progress, or possibly failing.

“If there were ever a time when it is vital to a company’s success that their
account managers are on the top of their game, it is now.”

As a manager, if you hired an account manager and gave them a performing territory (revenue producing), and one year later it had not increased by some reasonable percentage, would you conclude that they had done a good job with their assigned territory? The tendency is to focus on results, and understandably so, but it is critically important to also focus on the building blocks of success, and be able to do so on a weekly basis. Results are the outcome of time and effort spent. Knowing the score when the game is over won’t in any way allow you to make changes in the second quarter!

If someone were planning to build a house, they would begin with a vision of what the house would look like when finished, down to the smallest detail. They would then develop a blueprint for building the house, followed by formulating a “spec sheet” which would remove any subjective interpretation of the materials required. Unfortunately, it is altogether easy for a manager to be lacking in the area of following these same practices when it comes to managing and developing an account manager.

Returning to the “first-of-the-year conference”, a few additional questions might include:

• What will it look like when your goals have been reached? Why is that what you want to accomplish/Why is that important to you?

• How will you get from where you are today to where you want to be? If at some point along the way, you realized that you are not on track to hit your goals, what would likely be causing the shortfall?

• Assuming you are already making an effort to move in that direction, what is going right?  What is not going right?

• If you took corrective measures in the days and weeks ahead, what would that look like?

• What specifics can we agree on that you would like me to hold you accountable to that will insure that your goals are realized?

• What should you do today to begin moving in the right direction? 1) Agree on action steps, and 2) establish a follow-up schedule.

• Is there anything that you know to do that you may not be doing which holds you back, i.e. something that consistently robs you of your best performance?

• I will be completely committed to helping you make sure you are able to reach your goals. What specifically can I do that I am not currently doing which you believe would be of most help to you?

This type of conference will help you and the account manager become more focused on what is important. You might give some thought to scheduling this appointment a number of days in advance, giving the account manager the list of topics to be discussed, along with the assignment to think through their responses ahead of time. In certain instances, it might be a good idea to have them plan to turn in their written answers to the questions at the end of the conference. It would be very easy for an account manager to feel unduly awkward if you did not give them adequate time to prepare for this kind of forward thinking conference. It should also be noted that this visit needs to be scheduled at a time when neither you nor the account manager will be interrupted, and you will need to allow at least an hour to do this effectively (maybe longer in some instances).

If, based on the observations you are able to make as a result of this kind of one-on-one conference, you believe one or more of your account managers would have a better chance of realizing their goals in ’07 if they were more knowledgeable, more skilled, more motivated, more confident, and better able to make the case to prospective clients for using your company as their service provider, instead of the competitor they are presently using, the odds are we can help. As many of you well know, our sales training is made to order for equipping account managers to be able to optimize their efforts in selling to the litigation support market.

With the entire year ahead of you, an investment in sales training early in ’07 offers the greatest possible return on the investment. Technology is continually redefining the landscape of the legal services marketplace. In many ways, the coming year will predictably be a defining time for companies who are in the legal services niche. If there were ever a time when it is vital to a company’s success that their account managers are on the top of their game, it is now. If there were ever a time when you could take your company’s success for granted, that time has come and gone.

Our current class schedule for the coming months is posted on our website under “Training Schedule.”   Let us know if you have account managers you would like to register to attend one of the upcoming classes.  If you have any questions about the sales training course or any of our other services, please give us a call at 1-800-929-8740.