One of the most important issues in sales is to decide which customers and prospects are the most important and where to allocate precious sales time and resource.

Understanding Customer Importance

Some customers provide most of the business, whereas some could be just as big if they received more attention. Alternatively, some customers provide very little and no amount of attention would create anything more. So which is which? 

Amount of attractive business available

There are two issues that determine the level of sales attention that customers should receive and the first is how much attractive business there is on offer.

What we mean by attractive business, is whether we have the capability or desire to deliver what customers expect or whether we might find it very difficult or unattractive to service this business.
Our current share of the business.

The next issue that determines the level of sales attention is the current share of the customers business that we currently enjoy.

To keep the analysis simple, we say that we either have a very large share or hardly anything at all.

Category1 – Key Accounts

These customers offer significant amounts of attractive business and of the business that does exist; we get a very healthy share of it.

These customers are therefore Key Accounts and require sophisticated account management by salespeople who are skilled at developing relationships at all levels within the customer.

Account managers working with these customers are also skilled at working within their own organisation to develop the necessary levels of support that these customers expect.
 
Category 2 – Development Accounts

These customers offer significant levels of attractive business but currently we have very little of it or even nothing at all.

These customers are Development Accounts and have the potential to be the key accounts of the future and as with key accounts, they therefore require sophisticated account management to try and make inroads into the business.

Category 3 – Maintenance Accounts

These customers do not have much attractive business on offer, but we currently have most of it. Our objective with Maintenance Accounts is to retain the business without providing much sales or service resource as we want to devote most of our resources to Key & Development Accounts.

Category 4 – Opportunistic Accounts

These customers offer little attractive business and our current share is negligible. We should therefore devote little sales or service resource to these Opportunistic Accounts and only respond if they approach us in the first instance with business we can easily pick up.

Conclusion

The ability to categorise customers and prospects into those that should receive the most sales and service resource is probably one of the most important abilities within sales.

This will ensure that the most important customers, our Key Accounts, receive the attention they need to protect this business and will ensure that the best prospects for additional business, the Development Accounts, also receive the attention they deserve.