A Hardworking Team Needed Some Structure
In 2021, Rachel Brutosky, VP of Strategic Account Sales at Nilfisk, and her team embarked on a journey to improve the efficacy of the strategic account planning program. They set out to evaluate their practices and identify opportunities to propel growth for the global cleaning equipment manufacturer.
Step one was joining the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA). Step two was partnering with Valkre.
Challenge
Nilfisk leadership understood the impact large, enterprise-wide accounts could have on overall business growth. Unfortunately, Nilfisk did not have a consistent SAM sales management process or targeted account approach which resulted in inconsistent year-over-year sales growth. To capitalize on this untapped potential, Nilfisk set out on a journey to develop a successful strategic account program.
One of the challenges Rachel’s team identified was the lack of repeatable processes. Nilfisk’s strategic account team didn’t have a standardized approach to building strategic plans for their most important clients. To address this, they became SAMA members and adopted the organization’s seven stages of strategic account management.
As account managers know, planning is one thing, but execution is another. Rachel and her team found the Valkre platform because they needed to facilitate high-level execution.
Key Challenges
- Inconsistent customer success and lack of sustained growth.
- No standardized processes for repeatable planning or strategy.
- Lack of definition around which customers were “strategic accounts.”
"There wasn’t a lot of structure to the program in the US. We didn’t have documented account plans or even formalized criteria to select a strategic account. This contributed to our inconsistent results—we weren’t seeing the year-over-year sustainable growth we knew was possible to achieve.” - Rachel Brutosky, VP of Strategic Account Sales, Nilfisk
Solution
A Flexible Platform Built for KAM
When onboarding Valkre, the goal was for the Nilfisk strategic account team to become more process-disciplined. Rachel found Valke’s unique integration of SAMA’s seven-step process for strategic accounts very attractive. Unlike other platforms her team considered, Valkre didn’t lock them into a linear approach to managing strategic accounts.
Valkre’s team worked closely with Nilfisk to customize their implementation. Working with the account managers who would use the platform, Valkre was able to configure the options and interface to specifically support their approach. This customization and the already intuitive user experience helped Rachel’s team rapidly adopt and implement Valkre.
Rachel’s team also considered Valkre’s ability to connect with Salesforce. This integration will be an important bridge between the strategic account team and the outside sales team in the field. The shared data between teams will support an understanding of the day-to-day activities on accounts and how they impact the overall strategic goals.
Customized implementation
Onboarding included specific configuration and options to support Nilfisk processes and approach.
SAMA enabled
Support and adherence to the SAMA seven-step framework embedded in the Valkre platform.
Salesforce compatibility
Available integration to support data sharing with outside sales teams.
Results
Sustainable Growth and Repeatable Success
After the phased-in onboarding of Valkre, the Nilfisk strategic account team saw immediate results. Since 2021, the program has shown consistent, repeatable portfolio growth above their 50% goal.
Valkre’s systemization of strategic account management best practices helped the Nilfisk team build plans for all of their most important customers. The team went from a situation with no documented account plans to complete documentation for each key account. “It’s allowed us to go high, deep, and wide within each of these organizations and co-create value with our customers,” says Rachel Brutosky.
Perhaps most importantly, Valkre allowed the internal Nilfisk teams to align on the strategic account plan process and documentation. Recently, Nilfisk held an executive-led customer review, and each strategic account manager was able to present their plan. This consistent, apples-to-apples demonstration of account planning could not have happened prior to Valkre utilization.
- 70% of key accounts showed year-over-year growth in 2023.
- 100% of key accounts have value-creation plans.
- 100% utilization of Valkre across the strategic account team.
"With Valkre, we don’t feel like we’re just a number or another customer. We’ve developed very strong relationships with the Valkre account team. We feel like they are vested in our business, and they are advocates of our business.” - Rachel Brutosky, VP of Strategic Account Sales, Nilfisk
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