Educators providing Account Management courses in Birmingham

Successful account management requires time and investment to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction and develop new business opportunities. Ensuring you are equipped with the right tools to approach every customer interaction in a structured way will help you have productive relationships with your clients. Whether you're new to account management or experienced in business development and looking to expand your skillset, understanding how you can maximise customer relationships will be key to your success. We have developed this programme to be practical, fun and interactive. Participants will have the opportunity to learn and practice a number of key skills that will see successful results, and are encouraged to bring real life examples to the course so that learning can be translated to real world scenarios. This course will help participants: Learn how to plan growth and increase revenue from existing accounts Develop skills to build and develop essential relationships to increase value and visibility Learn how best to create loyalty and customer satisfaction Identify how to set account targets and development plan for building contacts and cross-selling Develop persuasion and influencing skills to better define needs and develop opportunities Learn how to add value at all stages; plus gaining competitive advantage Develop an up-selling, cross-selling strategy 1 Performance metrics for account management Introduction to the PROFIT account management model Using practical tools to measure account performance and success Planning your account strategy - red flags and green lights 2 Relationships for account management How to build and manage key relationships Producing a 'relationship matrix' Developing a coach or advocate 3 Setting objectives for your account Developing an upselling cross-selling strategy Setting jointly agreed goals, objectives and business plans Planning session 4 Feedback and Retention - building loyal and satisfied customers How to monitor and track your customer's satisfaction Building a personalised satisfaction matrix Customer service review meetings 5 Influence Getting your message and strategy across to C-level contacts Being able to better develop a business partnership within an accountes 6 Teamwork and time management Working with others to achieve your account goals Managing and working with a virtual team Managing your time and accounts effectively 7 Gaining commitment and closing the sale Knowing when to close for commitment How to ask for commitment professionally and effectively Key negotiation skills around the closing process - getting to 'yes' Checklist of closing and negotiation skills Practice session

Maximising the relationship and sales potential of each active account is key to the sustainability of any business relying on repeatable custom. In this workshop we start by looking at key techniques for analysing the profitability and development opportunities for different clients before deciding upon the strategy and skills needed for moving the relationship to that of trusted adviser and partner. By understanding and creating the need we can use our influencing skills to harness any sales development potential. By creating the habit of explaining our ideas in a way that also meets the need of the other party we help everybody make the right decisions for them. This course will help participants: Assess the sales profitability and potential of existing key accounts Prioritise where time and energy is directed for maximum profitability Understand the key players in the decision making unit Create a strategic plan for the development of each client target Develop proactive sales consultancy skills Learn advanced communication and influencing techniques 1 What makes an effective account manager? The difference between order taking and account management How do you define a key account in your business? Why should existing customers remain with your company? How do you compare to the competition? 2 How do I prioritise my account management activity? Use practical tools to help you assess revenue potential Analyse the investment required versus the return on your time Create a SWOT analysis on your clients - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats Appreciate how this knowledge will improve your sales development 3 Planning strategies for each account Create a list of priority accounts and activities Learn how to develop a long-term and sustainable relationship Discover how they make their purchasing decisions Research the make-up of the Decision Making Unit for each client 4 Learning and utilising the six principles of influence Learn the secrets these principles offer sales people Discover how these principles will work for you Create an influencing strategy for influencers within the client Learn new habits of influence 5 Proactive sales skills Plan proactive sales meetings for key accounts Set primary and secondary objectives for every touch point with the customer Structure sales meetings for maximum effectiveness Help the customer commit and achieve their objectives 6 Putting it into practice Discuss real scenarios to plan for putting these skills into practice Share common issues with fellow sales people Create a personal development plan

Overview Account Management is an important role within any organisation. Account Managers are responsible for nurturing customer relationships and increasing sales with their organisation’s key customers. The Account Manager will usually act as a first point of contact for clients; responding to complaints, purchases, project requests and any general queries. Their approach should help maintain client relationships in order to ensure that they continue to use the company for business. This one day course can help them learn the key skills they need. Description Build a strong account management team that are able to effectively manage customer relationships and drive sales The role of account manager is both important and demanding. The account manager acts as the ‘face’ of the business and should professionally represent the business by creating a strategy for success and delivering a high level of customer service. Account managers need to be effective communicators, needing to both engage with the client and also develop internal relationships to ensure promises are delivered upon. Another key responsibility of the account manager is to identify business opportunities and help drive business results for their company. Account Management can be a very challenging role depending on the number of clients, the range of industries the clients represent, and the nature and attitude of the client. The main focus of the role is to provide continual client service to clients, this may include quarterly or annual business reviews, additions to the account in terms of extra services supplied plus face-to-face and online meetings, on a regular basis. The Account Manager will also be responsible for delivering high levels of client service to ensure that clients do not leave and will need to create a strategy around this. This strategy will depend on the type of client in terms of size of the business commitment, Key Performance Indicators plus contractual agreements which may dictate the framework for the relationship. Building a personal relationship as well as a business one is key to becoming an effective Account Manager. After all, “It is easier to fire a business associate or employee than it is to fire a friend”. Why should people attend this training course? Well, just imagine if your employees were better able to: Build effective business relationships with clients and help drive sales performance. Add value to clients and help ensure their requirements are met or exceeded. Measure the performance of their key accounts and adapt their approach accordingly. Understand the key attributes required for success and work on developing them. Set a strategy for sales success and create action plans for pre-defined goals. Monitor and measure their own performance and set their own targets. Ultimately, this training course will help employees to focus on what is required to succeed in the role of account manager, building a strategy with clear actions and helping the organisation to business success. Who is this course for? This Account Management training course is for anyone that works in an account management role or relevant sales function and will assist the participants in improving their working practices, developing customer relationships and in turn increasing business performance and sales success. Requirements for Attendance Prior sales experience is recommended, but an awareness of the sales process as a minimum will suffice.

This programme has a simple objective: to help a sales team create and implementa comprehensive account development plan. If you want to earn strategic partner or preferred supplier status with your clients and customers then you need to add value to their business, consistently, and you can only do this if you have a plan - a key account management plan. This programme will help participants: Discover opportunities - through a deeper understanding of the customer's business Develop partnership - through a better 'value proposition' for the customer Increase repeat business - based on higher customer satisfaction Improve synergy - by getting everyone to 'sing from the same hymn sheet' Develop a collaborative account plan - validated by the customer and their own management Secure resources - management will align resources to execute soundly based account plans Win an increased share of 'customer wallet' - through systematic account development 1 The six principles of strategic account development Introduction to the PROFIT account development model:- Performance- Relationships- Objectives and goals- Feedback- Integration- Teamwork Practical account development strategies: overview and case studies 2 Performance Use practical tools to help you manage and measure account performance and success Design and build a monthly account dashboard for all sizes of account Prioritise and manage accounts and customers pro-actively and successfully, using proven planning tools Develop a cross-selling strategy to integrate products or solutions into the customer's business as closely as possible 3 Relationships How to build and manage key relationships within an account Qualifying and managing key influencers accurately Producing a 'relationship matrix' for each account quickly and easily Approaching and developing new contacts strategically Tools and techniques for successful tracking of contacts and call-backs Developing a coach or advocate in every customer organisation pro-actively 4 Objectives and goals Where are you now? - how to establish your competitive position within an account Know how to set, monitor and track key objectives for accounts over the short, medium and long term Selling against the competition - developing both long- and short-term sales strategies 5 Feedback - building loyal and satisfied customers The correct way to manage customer expectations and create listening loops within an account How to monitor and track your customer's perception and satisfaction with your organisation Building a personalised satisfaction matrix for each account Customer review meetings - best practice in building loyalty by regular joint planning events Understanding the concept of long-term customer value and the importance of adapting a customer-focused attitude 6 Integration How to integrate your products or solutions with the customer's business needs and processes Spot and react to early warning signals that may cause an account's loyalty to fade, reduce revenue or switch to a competitor Developing a loyalty strategy for key accounts or groups of smaller accounts Getting your message and strategy across to C-level contacts 7 Teamwork Working with others to achieve your account goals Gaining internal commitment from your organisation Managing and working with a virtual team Creating cross-departmental communication loops 8 Putting it all together Personal account reviews Personal learning summary and action plans

Integrating UNIX and Microsoft course description This course is designed for the enterprise-level UNIX professional and represents the highest level of professional, distribution-neutral UNIX certification within the industry. It covers administering UNIX enterprise-wide with an emphasis on mixed environments. What will you learn Configure and troubleshoot OpenLDAP. Use OpenLDAP as an authentication backend. Manage software packages. Use Samba - Share configuration - User and group management - Domain integration - Name services - with Linux and Windows clients Integrating UNIX and Microsoft course details Who will benefit: Enterprise-level UNIX professionals. Prerequisites: UNIX network administration. Duration 5 days Integrating UNIX and Microsoft course contents OPENLDAP CONFIGURATION OpenLDAP replication Replication concepts, OpenLDAP replication, replication log files, replica hubs, LDAP referrals, LDAP sync replication. Securing the Directory Securing the directory with SSL and TLS, Firewall considerations, Unauthenticated access methods, User/password authentication methods, Maintanence of SASL user DB, certificates. OpenLDAP Server Performance Tuning Measure OpenLDAP performance, Tune software configuration to increase performance, indexes. OPENLDAP AS AN AUTHENTICATION BACKEND LDAP Integration with PAM and NSS Configure PAM to use LDAP for authentication, NSS to retrieve information from LDAP and PAM modules in UNIX. Integrating LDAP with Active Directory and Kerberos Kerberos integration with LDAP, Cross platform authentication, Single sign-on concepts, Integration and compatibility limitations between OpenLDAP and Active Directory. SAMBA BASICS Samba Concepts and Architecture Samba daemons and components, key issues regarding heterogeneous network, Identify key TCP/UDP ports used with SMB/CIFS, Knowledge of Samba3 and Samba4 differences. Configure Samba Samba server configuration file structure, variables and configuration parameters, Troubleshoot and debug configuration problems. Regular Samba Maintenance Monitor and interact with running Samba daemons, Perform regular backups of Samba configuration and state data. Troubleshooting Samba Samba logging, Backup TDB files, Restore TDB files, Identify TDB file corruption, Edit / list TDB file content. Internationalization Internationalization character codes and code pages, differences in the name space between Windows and Linux/Unix with respect to share, names, user/group/computer naming in a non-English environment. SAMBA SHARE CONFIGURATION Linux File System and Share/Service Permissions File / directory permission control, Samba interaction with Linux file system permissions and ACLs, Use Samba VFS to store Windows ACLs. Print Services Printer sharing, integration between Samba and CUPS, Manage Windows print drivers and configure downloading of print drivers, security concerns with printer sharing. SAMBA USER AND GROUP MANAGEMENT Managing User Accounts and Groups User and group accounts, mappings, user account management tools, smbpasswd, file/directory ownership of objects. Authentication, Authorization and Winbind Local password database, password synchronization, passdb backends, Convert between passdb backends, Integrate Samba with LDAP, Winbind service, PAM and NSS. SAMBA DOMAIN INTEGRATION Samba as a PDC and BDC Domain membership and trust relationships, Create and maintain a PDC and BDC with Samba3/4, Add computers to an existing domain, logon scripts, roaming profiles, system policies. Samba4 as an AD compatible Domain Samba 4 as an AD DC, smbclient, how Samba integrates with AD services: DNS, Kerberos, NTP, LDAP. Configure Samba as a Domain Member Server Joining Samba to NT4 and AD domains, obtain a TGT from a KDC. SAMBA NAME SERVICES NetBIOS and WINS WINS concepts, NetBIOS concepts, local master browser, domain master browser, Samba as a WINS server, name resolution, WINS replication, NetBIOS browsing and browser elections, NETBIOS name types. Active Directory Name Resolution DNS for Samba4 as an AD Domain Controller, DNS forwarding with the internal DNS server of Samba4. WORKING WITH LINUX AND WINDOWS CLIENTS CIFS Integration SMB/CIFS concepts, remote CIFS shares from a Linux client, securely storing CIFS credentials, features and benefits of CIFS, permissions and file ownership of remote CIFS shares. Working with Windows Clients browse lists and SMB clients from Windows, Share file/print resources from Windows, the smbclient program, the Windows net utility.

Integrating Linux and Microsoft course description This course is designed for the enterprise-level Linux professional and represents the highest level of professional, distribution-neutral Linux certification within the industry. LPIC-3 300 covers administering Linux enterprise-wide with an emphasis on mixed environments. What will you learn Configure and troubleshoot OpenLDAP. Use OpenLDAP as an authentication backend. Manage software packages. Use Samba - Share configuration - User and group management - Domain integration - Name services - with Linux and Windows clients Integrating Linux and Microsoft course details Who will benefit: Enterprise-level Linux professionals. Prerequisites: Delegates must have an active LPIC-2 certification to receive LPIC-3 certification, but the LPIC-2 and LPIC-3 exams may be taken in any order. Duration 5 days Integrating UNIX and Microsoft course contents OPENLDAP CONFIGURATION OpenLDAP replication Replication concepts, OpenLDAP replication, replication log files, replica hubs, LDAP referrals, LDAP sync replication. Securing the Directory Securing the directory with SSL and TLS, Firewall considerations, Unauthenticated access methods, User/password authentication methods, Maintanence of SASL user DB, certificates. OpenLDAP Server Performance Tuning Measure OpenLDAP performance, Tune software configuration to increase performance, indexes. OPENLDAP AS AN AUTHENTICATION BACKEND LDAP Integration with PAM and NSS Configure PAM to use LDAP for authentication, NSS to retrieve information from LDAP and PAM modules in UNIX. Integrating LDAP with Active Directory and Kerberos Kerberos integration with LDAP, Cross platform authentication, Single sign-on concepts, Integration and compatibility limitations between OpenLDAP and Active Directory. SAMBA BASICS Samba Concepts and Architecture Samba daemons and components, key issues regarding heterogeneous network, Identify key TCP/UDP ports used with SMB/CIFS, Knowledge of Samba3 and Samba4 differences. Configure Samba Samba server configuration file structure, variables and configuration parameters, Troubleshoot and debug configuration problems. Regular Samba Maintenance Monitor and interact with running Samba daemons, Perform regular backups of Samba configuration and state data. Troubleshooting Samba Samba logging, Backup TDB files, Restore TDB files, Identify TDB file corruption, Edit / list TDB file content. Internationalization Internationalization character codes and code pages, differences in the name space between Windows and Linux/Unix with respect to share, names, user/group/computer naming in a non-English environment. SAMBA SHARE CONFIGURATION Linux File System and Share/Service Permissions File / directory permission control, Samba interaction with Linux file system permissions and ACLs, Use Samba VFS to store Windows ACLs. Print Services Printer sharing, integration between Samba and CUPS, Manage Windows print drivers and configure downloading of print drivers, security concerns with printer sharing. SAMBA USER AND GROUP MANAGEMENT Managing User Accounts and Groups User and group accounts, mappings, user account management tools, smbpasswd, file/directory ownership of objects. Authentication, Authorization and Winbind Local password database, password synchronization, passdb backends, Convert between passdb backends, Integrate Samba with LDAP, Winbind service, PAM and NSS. SAMBA DOMAIN INTEGRATION Samba as a PDC and BDC Domain membership and trust relationships, Create and maintain a PDC and BDC with Samba3/4, Add computers to an existing domain, logon scripts, roaming profiles, system policies. Samba4 as an AD compatible Domain Samba 4 as an AD DC, smbclient, how Samba integrates with AD services: DNS, Kerberos, NTP, LDAP. Configure Samba as a Domain Member Server Joining Samba to NT4 and AD domains, obtain a TGT from a KDC. SAMBA NAME SERVICES NetBIOS and WINS WINS concepts, NetBIOS concepts, local master browser, domain master browser, Samba as a WINS server, name resolution, WINS replication, NetBIOS browsing and browser elections, NETBIOS name types. Active Directory Name Resolution DNS for Samba4 as an AD Domain Controller, DNS forwarding with the internal DNS server of Samba4. WORKING WITH LINUX AND WINDOWS CLIENTS CIFS Integration SMB/CIFS concepts, remote CIFS shares from a Linux client, securely storing CIFS credentials, features and benefits of CIFS, permissions and file ownership of remote CIFS shares. Working with Windows Clients browse lists and SMB clients from Windows, Share file/print resources from Windows, the smbclient program, the Windows net utility.