What Should be Included in an Account Management Training Program?

Crucial to business, effective account management contributes to revenue generation by understanding client's needs and challenges. This approach boosts sales and creates enduring customer loyalty, emphasising personalised solutions and client relationships built on trust. To ensure account managers continue this vital work, businesses need to ensure their account managers are driven and have the knowledge and skills to succeed. So, upstep account management training.

In our guide, we explore the day-to-day roles of account managers, the benefits that account management brings to the business and its customers, what an account manager training course should include, and how you can measure its success. 

What Does an Account Manager do?

To develop an effective account management training program, it is vital to understand exactly what they do. Account management is developing and maintaining customer relationships that drive elevated customer experience and retention. They oversee the entire customer lifecycle, working with the clients to ensure their satisfaction with their products and services and researching and presenting new solutions that generate extra revenue from the customer. 

By being a point of contact for the customers and ensuring they receive the highest level of service, they increase loyalty and support company growth. 

Some of the typical day-to-day roles of an account manager include:

• Supervising a diverse portfolio of existing client accounts

• Formulating and overseeing campaign ideas, ensuring their successful implementation

• Utilising existing industry contacts and clients to identify new business opportunities

• Leading a team of sales professionals, offering guidance, and conducting training sessions

• Ensuring team members have the necessary resources to achieve their sales targets

• Analysing customer feedback to identify areas for improvement

• Establishing sales territories within the organisation

• Providing updates on campaigns and presenting statistics to key stakeholders

• Collaborating with existing clients to manage expectations and nurture relationships

• Performing administrative tasks such as audits and conducting performance assessments

What are the Benefits of Account Management? 

When investing time and resources into an account management training program, an understandable question arises: is it worth it? All businesses want a healthy ROI from any account manager training program they provide employees. To understand why having well-trained and driven account managers is so precious for a business, you only have to look at the benefits they bring. 

• Increased revenue - Effective account management increases sales and builds revenue through the strength of the relationships they build. By gaining an in-depth understanding of each stakeholder's people, challenges, and specific needs, account managers can ensure they maximise the profitability of this partnership by ensuring the products and services offered meet their requirements. 

• Elevated Customer Experience - By valuing the customers and supporting them in overcoming pain points and meeting their needs with a highly personalised approach, account managers are able to increase customer satisfaction. 

• Reduce Customer Churn - This elevated and tailored customer experience increases loyalty and customer trust in your brand. Customers, therefore, are more incentivised to return time after time, helping to drive customer retention and enhance brand image. 

What Should be Included in Account Management Training? 

Now you’ve seen the importance and benefits of what account management brings to your business, let’s explore what should be included in account management training to ensure you have exceptional employees that will give you a competitive edge. 

Building Customer Relationships and Trust 

One of the fundamental elements of account management is the ability to develop strong customer relationships. Account managers should be trained to create genuine connections, understand customer needs, and establish a sense of trust. Effective communication and active listening are crucial skills that contribute to the development of lasting relationships. 

Examples of what could be included in account management training:

• Interactive workshops - Conduct workshops that simulate real-world scenarios where account managers collectively practice effective communication and relationship-building skills.

• Role-playing exercises - Create role-playing exercises to help account managers develop empathy and understand client perspectives. This builds their ability to build trust through authentic interactions. 

Identify and Solve Customer Problems

Account managers need the skills to identify potential issues that customers may face. Account management training programs should focus on teaching them how to proactively identify challenges, ask probing questions, and collaborate with customers to find viable solutions. Problem-solving skills contribute to the maintenance of customer relationships and loyalty. 

Examples of what could be included in account management training: 

• Case studies - Present case studies that highlight common customer challenges. Ask the trainees to analyse and propose solutions, encouraging critical thinking and problem-solving skills. 

• Mock-Problem Solving Sceanoris - Simulate customer meetings where account managers work together to identify and solve hypothetical problems. Provide feedback on their approach. 

Upselling and Cross-selling to Customers

Upselling and cross-selling are vital techniques to maximise revenue from existing clients. Training should cover the art of identifying opportunities for an up or cross-sell, understanding the client's needs, and presenting additional products or services that genuinely benefit the customer. 

Examples of what could be included in account management training: 

• Product knowledge sessions - Deepen product knowledge through regular sessions. This could be in the form of quizzes like Kahoot, presentations, and eLearning. This will enable account managers to confidently identify opportunities for extra business and present the product or service effectively. 

• Customer Journey Mapping - Work together to create customer journey maps, pinpointing ideal opportunities for upselling and cross-selling. This visual depiction supports participants in gaining insights into the customer's viewpoint and recognising strategic touchpoints.

Managing Customer Expectations 

Clear communication is the key to managing client expectations. Training programs should emphasise the importance of setting realistic expectations from the outset, ensuring transparency in all dealings, and keeping customers informed about potential changes or challenges. 

Examples of what could be included in account management training: 

• Group Discussions and Brainstorming - Foster open discussions and brainstorming sessions where participants can share their experiences and collectively generate ideas for effective expectation management. This encourages peer-to-peer learning and idea exchange. 

• Guest Speakers - Bring in professionals with experience in customer relationship management to share their experiences and insights. Real-world illustrations and practical guidance from industry professionals can offer a new viewpoint and valuable insights.

Resolving Customer Complaints 

No matter how well a business operates, customer complaints do happen from time to time. Therefore, account managers should be trained in effective complaint-resolution strategies. This includes active listening, acknowledging concerns, proposing solutions, and following up to ensure customer satisfaction. 

Examples of what could be included in account management training: 

• Customer Service Role-play - Conduct role-playing sessions to simulate customer interactions. This allows account managers to practice maintaining composure and finding solutions under pressure.

• Provide Real Complaint Examples - Provide the trainees with genuine customer complaints and ask them to discuss and share ideas of how they would best resolve this particular situation. This is particularly useful for new account managers as it prepares them for the type of complaints they will deal with. 

Measure the Success of Your Account Management Courses

There’s little point in investing time, effort, and resources into an account management training course if you simply let the attendees finish it and have no way of tracking its success. So, what are the benefits of measuring the success of your training program?

• To determine if the training benefited the account managers

• To see the impact on business performance and determine the training’s return on investment (ROI)

• To find any areas of improvement in the training so you can make changes to the next program

Key methods of measuring the success of your account management training program include:

Employee Survey 

Survey questions can uncover participants' preferences and areas of dissatisfaction with the training. They provide insights into necessary enhancements for future sessions, ensuring improved relevance and effectiveness.

Conducting an effectiveness survey immediately or at a later predefined period after training allows for capturing feedback when participants' memories are still vivid. This approach enables the measurement of both short-term impressions and the enduring impact of the training. It is also a good idea to do the surveys anonymously. This will encourage the trainees to give their honest feedback. 

Examples of questions you can ask in your employee survey include:

• Did the training meet your expectations?

• Was the training program interactive and engaging?

• Was the content relevant to your position?

• Was there a good mixture of activities and presentations?

• Did you understand the purpose of this account management training program at the start of the course?

• Were you provided enough time to fit the training into your schedule?

• Do you think the number of learners in the training session was suitable?

• Do you have any suggestions to help us improve the experience or environment for future account management training workshops?

• Was your trainer engaging and supportive?

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

These metrics indicate the effectiveness of your training program. They demonstrate to employees that the training supports their career and executives and boards the value of investing in the course. These performance indicators are directly tied to the training program, assessing its efficiency and gauging participant engagement. 

Examples of KPIs you can use to measure the success of the training include: 

• Employee retention

• Average deal size

• Customer satisfaction ratings

• Number of calls or emails in a day.

• The number of deals closed.

• Number of post-sales follow-ups done

Follow-up Training Sessions 

A follow-up training session is an extra or subsequent training after an initial program. It aims to strengthen, elaborate on, or review the fundamental concepts covered initially. These sessions extend the groundwork set during the initial training, addressing lingering questions, offering additional clarification, and confirming that participants have maintained and applied the knowledge and skills gained earlier. You can also do quizzes to ensure trainees don’t just forget what they learned. 

Such follow-ups foster continual learning, fostering ongoing improvement in participants' comprehension and application of the training material.

Let’s Wrap Up What Account Management Training Should Include 

An effective account management training program is key to optimising your business operations. Recognising the vital role of account managers and their positive impacts on revenue, customer satisfaction, and brand loyalty underscores the importance of investing in their development.

The highlighted training components, covering relationship-building, problem-solving, upselling, expectation management, and complaint resolution, provide practical foundations for cultivating a proficient account management team. The suggested training approaches offer pragmatic ways to refine these crucial skills, fostering an environment of continuous learning.

Implementing evaluation methods such as employee surveys, KPIs, and follow-up sessions ensures the ongoing relevance and success of the training initiative. This commitment to assessment and improvement underscores the notion that a well-prepared account management team is not only valuable for individual growth but also instrumental in contributing to sustained business success.

In essence, allocating resources to enhance the skills of your account management professionals is a strategic investment in the efficiency and prosperity of your business, developing enduring customer relationships and positively impacting your bottom line.

Need Expert Support with your Account Management Training Courses? 

Our guide has shown the benefit highly-trained account managers have on your business. Our specialists are ready to support you by providing tailored and effective account management courses that will elevate the customer experience and maximise the value of their accounts. 

Contact the team today and discover how our account management training course can empower your business.