When it comes to bringing value to an account, the importance of listening can’t be underestimated.
“It’s critical to begin every client relationship with a focus on the client’s business versus talking at length about our features and functionalities,” said Kirk Calvo, account manager at financial data company PitchBook.
Sharp focus on the client is the core of collaborative account planning, which requires staying deeply attuned to the customer’s needs and delivering the appropriately tailored solutions. Without roping a client into the planning process and seeking their input, account managers might misfire due to a lack of alignment between stakeholders.
“Everyone on the client side comes to the table with different needs and problems, so taking the time to understand them helps to create a unified picture of the account’s game plan,” said Calvo.
Here’s how Calvo helps stay in the “driver’s seat of the relationship” while steering the customer toward success.
When account planning, how do you work with the client to create an account plan that helps them meet their strategic business goals?
Creating an account plan with clients starts with their onboarding call and continues throughout the license term. It’s critical to begin every client relationship with a focus on the client’s business versus talking at length about our features and functionalities. During the onboarding call, my CSM and I align with our client’s relationship owners on key areas of the relationship.
Relationship owners on the client side are typically the main buyers of PitchBook, but can also include power users, senior team members or anyone whose business will be impacted by use of our product. My CSM and I take the time to understand the client’s current state of affairs, its desired business outcomes for the year and its central business problems that caused it to purchase PitchBook.
We then allocate the seats that the client purchased, schedule trainings, establish success criteria for the license term and set expectations for communication style and cadence. Finally, we plan the client’s first project or order of business. This allows us to fully service the client while staying in the driver’s seat of the relationship, ensuring that we cement ourselves as a lasting partner to the client.
It’s critical to begin every client relationship with a focus on the client’s business.”
Who are the critical stakeholders you work with internally?
The critical stakeholders to any client relationship will be a combination of buyers, decision-makers and users. There’s often a lack of alignment between each role: decision-makers might not be users, buyers might not be decision-makers and users might not have buying power. It’s important to understand the nuances of each perspective.
For example, decision-makers — like managing directors — may have more of a strategic, business impact-focused outlook, compared to the tactical, day-to-day concerns of users, such as analysts and associates. Everyone on the client side comes to the table with different needs and problems, so taking the time to understand them helps to create a unified picture of the account’s game plan.
What is a success story from this type of collaborative account planning, and what was its impact for your business?
I represented a boutique investment bank that historically used PitchBook to generate lists of potential buyers for its client companies. The CEO — who was my primary contact and decision-maker on the account — did not understand our full listing of use cases for investment banking clients. I worked with both the CEO and the account’s power user to understand the business and how they were hoping to grow. They had been stagnant with their current book of clients and were looking to expand their number of potential deals, and were also interested in involving comparable analysis to improve the valuations of their client companies. What was a three-user account turned into a firm-wide relationship with us, and the client was able to better leverage our platform to take their business to the next level.
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