How does our account management really work in practice?
Before you carry out any serious review of your account management function, you have to know how it works in practice.  This can be very different from the theory!  It is vital to first get a clear idea of how your company, as a supplier, is perceived in the market.  Ask around systematically, and you will quickly find that most suppliers have a clear reputation within their channels. 

How do you set targets for your partners?
Many suppliers may pay lip service to the idea of consulting partners before setting the partner's sales goals for the year, but in practice fail to do so.  Intermediaries can tell whether the consultation process is a cosmetic exercise played whilst head office works out the annual quotas. 

A better approach is to visit partners, discuss their business goals in detail and then draw up unique, mutually agreed account plans for the year. 

This approach is the only way to get real buy-in and commitment from the partner.  Goals set this way have real meaning to both sides.  It also offers the chance to agree goals which go beyond simple sales targets.

How do you reward your account managers?
This is a crucial issue, which has to be addressed.  As one supplier put it: "We know it is important to look at our overall relationship, but, in this company, you are only as good as last month's sales."

If you really value long-term relationships with partners, then account managers should be rewarded on whether annual, rather than quarterly, targets are reached.  And some of these goals should be with reaching new market segments, or the completion of joint marketing campaigns, rather than hitting financial targets.

What is your attitude to sharing information with your partners?
For many suppliers, locked into short-termist account management strategies, knowledge is power.  Often, there is a fear of divulging weaknesses or concern that information may be passed to competitors.  For such companies a simple question such as "How are we as a supplier doing in meeting your needs?" is viewed as a sign of weakness.

In practice, you are far more likely to get serious benefit by sharing information and business plans.  You are unlikely to maximise your sales through a partner unless you have read their annual business plan. Your corporate knowledge base can be massively extended through this mutual exchange.

How much do your account managers understand your partners' business models?
It is still the case that account managers, in even the largest companies, fail to understand precisely how their individual partners make their money.  Could your account managers tell you how your top ten distributors differentiate themselves in the market?  Could they tell you the real source of profitability in each account?  It may be worth restructuring account managers by business model category rather than on a country-by-country basis. That way, they can develop real expertise and insight.

How do you measure your relationship with your partner?
Many suppliers still use sales as the yardstick.  Surely how profitable each account is to your organisation is a better measure?  And, if you want to develop solid long-term relationships, you should probably consider measuring your partners' satisfaction with you, as a supplier. 

Ultimately, what really counts is end-user satisfaction.  That may sound daunting, but such surveys can quickly reveal huge differences in treatment.

What actions do you take, if you are not reaching your plan?
This can be very revealing.  Distributors often say that they are first subject to a volley of phone calls exhorting them to buy more, followed by the withdrawal of marketing support and then silence. You are unlikely to learn anything from this process. Nor does it endear you to your partner.

Better to call a meeting to review and revise the plan. And this is where the power of mutual goal setting really comes into play. If you genuinely set the goals together, then you can genuinely review them together and ascertain why they are adrift.

How are your account managers perceived by your partners?
A revealing question to ask in your research.  Some account managers are still perceived as salesmen out to flog stuff.  Many are seen as people with whom one can have a discussion about joint marketing.  But very few are perceived as trusted business advisors, who can genuinely contribute to debates about the future of the intermediary. 

Frequent rotation of account managers kills momentum and prevents genuine trust developing.  Often account managers are just getting to grips with their partners when they are moved on.  Most suppliers move people after 18 months - three to five years would be better.

How do you really view your partners?
Time for some honest soul-searching.  If you are, in practice, setting unilateral sales goals and withdrawing support if they are not achieved, then you are treating your channel as not very bright employees, or, as Fabian von Kuenheim puts it opposite, as "slaves".  Better, perhaps, to view the partner as an outsourced function. Companies which see intermediaries in this light are likely to take a keen interest in how their channel operates and how they could do it better.

What is your attitude to training and improving your account management function?
Again, be honest. Is your real attitude "We don't mind doing that sort of thing, as long as it doesn't take up any time and so hinder us from hitting this quarter's sales goals!"  Or are you prepared to spend time and effort getting account management right?