Steps to Consider in Assuming a New Account

So you’ve acquired a new date…  Now what?

By Ellen Manzo

Situation:  Out with the old; in with the new.  A former colleague announces retirement or that he’s leaving the firm and you’ve been given a “new opportunity to excel”.  You inherit one of the accounts in his territory.  Sound familiar? 

Taking on a new client is no different than courting a new date with one exception.  If you’re lucky, you might have access to the old date to find out about your new client.  So, assuming you are fortunate to have access to the former account manager, capitalize on that knowledge base before it walks out the door!  Offer to take your former colleague out to a congratulatory lunch in celebration of his or her future and take the opportunity to pick the former rep’s brain as he or she dives into an appetizer.  Find out about the:

• company – its mission, directives, business objectives, industry position, acquisitions, divestitures, locations, upcoming mission critical applications, it’s competitors;
• client contacts - decision makers and influencers, their professional backgrounds, personal interests, titles, contact information -- addresses, phone numbers and email addresses, preferred communications approach – preferred time to meet, favored executive in your firm to include on sales calls, favorite restaurant, etc.; 
• account history;
• critical applications for your product or service – past and future;
• prospective sales opportunities and liabilities;
• current sales forecast and how that compares to previous sales history;
• available client budget for upcoming decisions;
• account billing and receivables;
• why they’ve chosen your product in the past and just as important, why they might have chosen someone else’s product in the past;
• competitive inroads;
• buying signals;
• what works well in sales approach;
• contact information and
• last but not least, kindly secure the account file if your colleague is willing to part with it as he or she is promoted or leaves the firm. 

Finally, be sure to include a question that asks for advice.  People love to give advice.  Consider:  “Were you to continue selling this to this account, what would you advise as a plan for the next year or two?”  There is plenty more that can be added to this list, but you get the idea.

Second – Do your research on the account!  Use those college acquired skills on research papers to learn about the clients business.  (See “Researching Your Client - Just cause you’ve graduated, don’t think you should take exodus of the school library!”)

Third – Announce to your new client contacts that there has been an account representative turnover.  Several delivery methods work well here:

• A letter of introduction or telephone call from your mutual boss often works well;
• A telephone call from the former account manager presuming your soon-to-be former colleague is leaving under positive terms; or
• A letter of introduction co-signed by the former and new account managers.  

Fourth – Arrange a first date.  The turnover call or initial sales call can often be quite lengthy.  Carefully think through how you might choose to manage this visit and carefully plan your agenda.  Participants should include the key client decision maker along with only you or you and others.  Keep in mind that it is important to carefully orchestrate this initial call as you choose to bring in more participants to the visit. 

Option 1:  An introductory sales call - going solo.  Making this very important sales call solo minimizes chances of being compared or associated with a predecessor other than through the logo that appears on your collective business cards.  My favorite approach in taking on a new client was to request that a telephone call be made to target contact by my boss to introduce the turnover.  During that telephone call I asked my boss to tell my new client that I would be contacting him or her within the next 24 hours to schedule a visit.  I preferred to handle my initial visit solo, for going alone always allowed me to ask the tough questions without putting anyone in a position of feeling awkward.  I could ask the client questions about the business and more importantly about his or her perspectives on my company, my firm’s former representation and the handling of the account.  Clients, I find, are usually straight up when it comes to providing a prospective on their suppliers.  What could be better than to hear from a new client about how he or she would like to be handled? 

Questions I often asked about past account management typically included:

“What did you think of your former account representative?”  

“What do you feel he or she did exceptionally well in handling your account?”  I advise that this question be asked from the perspective of the positive.  I do this for two reasons:  First, were I to pose this question in the reverse and ask “What did my predecessor do that you’d like me to avoid in the future?” assumes that the client has something negative to say about your former colleague and can bring down that first meeting with your new client.  I find that it is always smart to portray one’s own firm in a positive light.  Second, even though the above question is posed in the positive; invariably the client will also articulate what your former colleague didn’t do well so be prepared to hear the negative anyway.

“Why did you buy from our representative and our firm?  What did you like most about the value he or she brought to your table?”  Or, stated another way “If our firm could replicate the value the former account rep brought to your table in future representatives, that value would be what?  Is there something in his or her approach to your firm that one should attempt to emulate in handling your account?”

“Who else have you met from our firm?”  This is an important question for it will tell you if your client met with support representatives – technical, service, or admin reps, as example, your company leadership – your boss, the regional head, or top executives.  If your client has met with others from your firm, carefully inspect his perspective on those he has met. Most especially, find out what he thinks of your leadership.  This discussion will quickly tell you if an established trust exists with others from your firm with whom your new client has previously met.  Let’s face it.  It takes time to establish trust with any new date.  These familiar faces and previously established levels of trust can be extremely useful to maintain and build upon while your new client is sizing up his new representative, you, to see if he can build trust in his new account manager.  It shortens the dead time, the time devoted to transition management.  Seldom is one lucky to receive additional territory without additional quota.  Shortening dead time is critical to quickly turning around results and meeting new sales objectives. 

Remember to keep the questions positive.  Asking these questions allows for a dialogue to be open and honest from the get go.  And remember, people buy from those they like and trust. 

Option 2:  An introductory sales call - three players - Participants include the 1) client, 2) the former account rep and 3) you, the new account rep.  Keep in mind however that an introductory visit by the former rep and you can deliver mixed results.  If your former colleague was very successful, the risk you take on is often minimized.   If, on the other hand, your former colleague was not very successful with your account, the risk factor is increased as your face becomes associated with his or her face.  A great lesson is learned on this one from grade school teachers in their handling of identical twins.  Often times grade school teachers attempt to divide twin siblings into separate classes to minimize the chance of one twin being compared to that of his/her partner twin.  Keep in mind that your new client will compare you to the former rep from your firm. 

Option 3:  Four players – Participants include the client, the former account rep, you as the new account rep and your boss.  This could be a solid approach providing the former account rep is getting promoted or leaving your firm under good terms and as long as you don’t feel that the number of participants would overwhelm the client.   This is also a great approach should you sense that it is important to validate the forecast you’ve just been handed from the former account rep in contrast to the additional quota you’ve been asked to take on from your boss.   

This was a life saver to me once.  My company had just undergone a huge reorganization which resulted in a future loss of personal income as much of my territory which included significant backlog (and we earned commission upon installation of orders) was being splintered.  The reorganization called for the majority of my huge money making accounts to be moved to several newly established branches in a new organization.  My management wanted me to continue to work for them and stay behind.  In return for my anticipated income loss, my management gave me some new territory to include a new client – the largest city government account in our region who had the benefit of recently being sold to by one of the top sales people in my company.  The former rep was awaiting the announcement of his new promotion, so he was obviously leaving the account under good terms.  The better news for me was that his account included a lot of backlog.  While the backlog didn’t come close to matching what I had just sacrificed, it lessened the loss. 

I organized a four player sales call to include my new customer, the former account rep, my boss and me.  I walked into the call with agenda in hand expecting the call to be positive.  Instead, the outcome was disaster. 

In my first sales call to the client we discovered that all the customer orders in our backlog were suspect.  In addition to not wanting the equipment the client ordered, the client disclosed that he discovered that the former rep forged a bond accompanying his proposal to the account.  Not only were all the pending orders in jeopardy (and therefore the possible commission I would have been paid upon installation); but furthermore, the client informed us that within days our firm would be the recipient of legal notification of a lawsuit.  Within a week, my shining star predecessor was fired and my new objective was to handle the legalities of a law suit.  Not a fun way to break into a new account.  I can only thank my lucky stars that my boss was in attendance to hear the news in my presence.  My new quota was quickly adjusted to accurately reflect my new challenge. 

Fifth – Host the introductory meeting.  The introductory meeting is a great opportunity to validate what you heard from your predecessor – sales opportunities, current projects, product attractiveness, etc.  I advise that this be a key component of the agenda.  But be sure to do so in a way that is open ended.  Example:  Do ask:  “Can you tell me why your firm chooses to use our product?”  Do not ask:  “I hear you use our product because we are able to deliver within 24 hours of ordering.  Is that right?”  Do ask:  “What is your understanding of your backlog with our firm?”  Do not ask:  “Here is a list of the backlog.  Can you validate this?”

Take the opportunity of the first meeting to review the client’s business goals and objectives, the roles of others within his or her firm, upcoming applications or projects, budgetary concerns and any immediate needs on the table that should be addressed (and be sure to address them as quickly as possible to establish a reputation of follow-through.) 

Finally, establish a communications plan for your “courtship” and working together.  In doing so, consider suggesting approaches that you have found to be particularly successful for you in other sales endeavors.   Use your previous success and experience as your guide.   A word of caution:  be conservative in this first meeting.  I have seen too many overly zealous account managers who are anxious to quickly impress their new client by over promising at this first meeting.  Hold back if necessary and don’t plow on too many promises or “sales pitches” on this first call.  Keep in mind that you will build greater credibility by under promising and over delivering. 

If this account is your only account or one of perhaps 40 or so in your patch, consider convincing your client to allow you to host a planning session once a quarter or semi annually after you’ve had some time to become familiar with your new client’s business.  The purpose of a planning session is to allow your client’s team - decision makers and influencers – to get together with your team to discuss mutual business objectives.  (See “Hosting a Planning Session”.)

Sixth – Send a letter of appreciation to your new client that thanks him or her for the time and summarizes the key points from your discussion.  Sending flowers might be the right form after a first date but poor form after a client meeting.  Instead, consider sending a note of thanks along with something promotional oriented.  As example, if I noticed the client used a competitor’s promotional coffee mug, I traditionally sent my customer one of mine along with a note suggesting “Until I’ve had the opportunity to earn your trust, I would appreciate it if you would consider minimally giving me equal time.  Enclosed is a coffee mug and coffee for your next break.  Please feel free to use this along with the mug from (my competition) that I noticed in your office.  Thanks for your time yesterday.” 

What I didn’t write in my thank you is that if and when my account team was successful in earning their client’s trust to the extent of displacing the embedded competition of an account, our reps would return to our sales office grinning from ear to ear.  And in their hands if they held a promotional coffee mug advertising our competitor, we knew how to read the code for exactly what that meant.  We won.  The other guys lost.  And the competition just took a scalping!