a therapy session for key account...

www.esource.com September 23rd, 2015

A Therapy Session for Key Account Managers

VP, Consulting Solutions, E Source

WEI Key Accounts

Mike Hildebrand

www.esource.com || © 2015 E Source 2

I’ve been in account management

for 20 years and have more

anxiety than ever before!


…grid connected

renewables, behind

the meter

technology, battery

deployment, solar,

solar, solar….

Aaarghh!

Customers are

demanding more

and at a much

faster pace…


Solar Becoming Economically Viable

Source: E Source C&I Reliability, Resiliency, Storage, and Microgrids:

Understanding the Business Customer’s Perspective (2015)


When Will You Install Your Next / First PV System?

Half of the customers expecting

to install PV in the next 5 years

anticipate that the system will

cover 50% of their electric load.

Source: E Source How Photovoltaic Systems and Distributed Generation

Will Disrupt the Utility Industry 2015 (n=802)


New Products, New Players, New Policies, New Way of Doing Business


And our staple ‘energy-

efficiency’ is harder to sell

than ever…


Barriers to EE Action

Programs not a match

Up front costs

Management priorities

Leased spaceLack of

information

Not confident in the

technology

Not in budget

Source: E Source Large Business Gap and Priority Benchmark 2014 (n=1,773)


Will utilities have forced separation from EE / DSM because these folks do it better?

Third Party Implementers:

CLEAResult

Lockheed Martin

CB&I

ICF

Nexant

EnerNOC

Franklin Energy

Etc., etc, etc….


and I have more

customers assigned

to me than ever

before….

My Boss says

Customer

Satisfaction isn’t

high enough


Overall Business Customer Satisfaction

6.9

8.2

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

SMBs Large Businesses

Source: E Source Large (2015) and SMB (2015) Gap and Priority Benchmarks


Average Number Of Key Accounts Assigned Per Rep Are Rising!

Source: E Source Account Management Assessment (Avg. N = 38)


Are you changing as the

market changes?


The market is defining our job for us!O

ld Account Manager

Curr

ent Facilitator?

Advocate?

Fu

ture Energy

Advisor


RAM to

a PEA

top 10

list


A RAM to a PEA Transformation

Be a Team Leader

Be an Advocate

Be a Communicator

Be Trustworthy

Be a Listener

Be Informed

Be a Relationship Architect

Be Compelling

Be Nimble

Be Proactive


Do you know your

customers desires… are

you doing the right things

for the right customers?


Utility Satisfaction Drivers

Reliability TrustworthinessWorking to keep

prices downOffers variety of

programs



Room For Improvement When Communicating Energy Emergencies

9.6

8.0

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Effectively communicates during energyemergencies

Average rating on a 10-point scale where 1 represents the lowest score and 10 represents the highest score

Util

ity a

ttrib

ute

Performance

Importance

Base: Large business key accounts included in the benchmark (n = 1,701). Question S1_1: Using a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 = not at all

important and 10 = very important, how important is it for a utility to have the following attributes?; S1_2: Using a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 =

poor performance and 10 = excellent performance, for the same set of attributes we asked about in the previous question, now please rate

how well your utility performs.

–1.5



Do you know how your key account customers want to be contacted?



Room for Improvement with Trust



Price Perception



Nearly Half Of Customers Said They Participated In Energy-Efficiency (EE)

Source: E Source Large Business Gap and Priority Benchmark 2014 (n=762)


Majority of EE Program Participants Likely to Recommend it to Others

Utility EE program NPS=61

Source: E Source Large Business Gap and Priority Benchmark 2014 (n=762)


Half of Large Businesses

Have Specific Financial

Thresholds

Payback < 3 years:

40%

Payback 3-5 years:

46%

ROI > 30 percent:

17%

ROI 10-29 percent:

44%

N=1,620

Know your customers

decision making process!

Source: E Source How Photovoltaic Systems and Distributed Generation

Will Disrupt the Utility Industry 2015 (n=802)


Who do large businesses trust most for energy advice?

62% of large business

customers selected their utility when

asked who they trust most for energy

advice



Account Rep Satisfaction Drivers

Attentive to needs

Communicates when

appropriateTrustworthiness

Actual visits equal or greater

than desired



Utility Account Reps Receive Positive Net Promoter Score (NPS)

NPS is the difference

between the percentage of

“promoters” and the percentage of “detractors”



Satisfaction Improves When Actual Rep Visits Meet Customer Expectations



Prioritize Your Key Accounts

Criteria to Consider:

• Political and regulatory influence

• Complexity to serve

• Annual revenue to the utility

• Type of business

• Energy load or demand

• Customer revenue

• Account activity

• Load growth

• Relationship

• Risk of Loss


Customer Ranking Example

Criteria 1 Criteria 2 Criteria 3 Criteria 4 Criteria 5 Criteria 6

30% 10% 20% 15% 10% 15%

Customer NameAccount

Revenue

Risk of

LossDemand

Sales

Growth

Potential

Political

Influence

Lack of

Relationship

Depth &

Breadth

Weighted

Score

Tier

Ranking

Company A 3 3 3 1 3 2 2.55 1

Company ZXY 3 1 1 2 1 1 1.75 2

Company 123 2 1 1 1 2 1 1.4 3

…

Company Z 1 2 1 1 1 1 1.1 3

E Source Customer Prioritization Matrix


How are you innovating

yourself and your

department to keep up

with the customers

demands?


Foundations for Successful Account Management Innovation

• Know why you show up every day

• Connect with strategic vision of utilityDefine your

mission

• Elevate awareness of your role and resultsSell internally

• In customers and tasksSpecialize

• Anticipate changes and needsTeam of proactive energy advisors


HAVE YOU CONSIDERED ACCOUNT BASED MARKETING?

Account-based marketing (ABM), is a strategic approach to business marketing in which an organization considers and communicates with individual prospect or customer accounts as markets, even markets of one.

Account-based marketing (ABM) is being adopted at a much larger scale than ever before! clickz.com 8/14

ABM delivers the highest Return on Investment of any B2B marketing strategy or tactic. Period. ITZMA.com 7/15

"ABM is fast becoming the B2B strategy of choice because it truly aligns sales and marketing while focusing their teams on the highest value accounts. I expect adoption to grow rapidly as companies that have made this switch have seen tremendous results by focusing their efforts on attracting, engaging, converting and measuring the accounts that are most likely to buy."

Peter Isaacson, CMO at Demandbase


Day in the Life of an Account Manager

Source: E Source Account Management Assessment 2013 (n=35)


Specialization by Task

Have non-administrative support staff,

57%

No support staff, 43%

55%

60%

65%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

DSM program support

Billing

Rate Analysis



Specialization by CustomerTwo-thirds of utilities see just:

vs.


Office / Congregations

Retail / Service

Government / Education / Healthcare

Restaurants / Lodging

Groceries / C-Stores

Manufacturing / Warehouse

Etc.

Specialization by CustomerShould be consistent, value-added and focused


Specialization by Customer49% have inside account managers for midsize customers

Placement

w/in the utility



1. Create the plan collaboratively with the customer (88 percent do)

2. Review plans with management (56 percent do)

• Consider regular

“executive briefings”

3. 67 percent update the plans each year.

• Consider making

“live” documents

TIPS FOR SUCCESS

Strategic Customer Planning

53 percent of respondents create a customized strategic account plan for key accounts (n = 35).

Of the 18 respondents who said they create customized strategic account plans, 50 percent review them with their key account customers.



Approach to Strategic Customer Planning


Strategic Customer Planning

Executive presentations

Management review

“Live” document

Forward looking

Wider and deeper relationships

Co-create

Memorandum of Understanding Page

Forward looking

Elevator pitch to the CEO

Number of visits/year


Key account management groups drive most sector-planning initiatives.

Thirty-five percent of utilities create strategic plans specific to a particular segment or industry sector for all sizes of business customers (n = 34).

Of the utilities that create strategic segment or sector plans:

4 out of 12 say that the key account management group drives most of the sector planning.

7 out of 12 gain insights from relevant business associations to inform the plans.

7 out of 12 review the plans with utility management on an annual basis.

9 out of 12 update the plans annually.

Who Owns The Segment Strategy?


Managing business as usual

Managing for growth and

change

Reliably supply a commodity

Create strategic value

Single view of customer (i.e. kWh savings)

Holistic, energy long-term view

One size fits allPrioritization on

customer level of strategic value

Reactive account manager

Proactive energy advisor!!!

Industry Current State

Future State


Ahhh… thanks, Doc.

I feel so much betterSorry our time is up.


Mike HildebrandVP, E Source Consulting Solutions

303-345-9176

[email protected]

Thank You! Questions?

mailto:[email protected]

a therapy session for key account...

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