The KARE tool and how to use it.

One of the biggest challenges for you as a salesperson is how you spend your time. You have certain accounts that you're most likely managing, and you’re also likely doing some new business development. How do you balance it all?

Today I want to share with you an account management tool called KARE.

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KARE is a tool that, when you boil it down, is a thinking tool to be able to figure out where you need to spend your time.
It's really an account planning tool at a 30,000-foot level.

The four letters of K-A-R-E stand for “Keep, Attain, Recapture, and Expand”.

And putting accounts into those four categories, I’ve found, simplifies all the complexities you have when trying to balance it all. In a quick visual tool, you're able to get your head around where you’re really focusing your time.

Which accounts do I want to keep? (Which ones am I protecting?)
What's accounts do I want to attain? (This is, basically, the new business development.)
‘Recapture’ are the accounts that you’re going to go back to or try to get back.
And finally, ‘expand’, which are the accounts that have the potential for growth. Either other divisions, a higher wallet share, selling them more stuff, or possibly selling them other product lines you’re not selling them now.

You’ve got so much going on that to be able to map out, on a document, a really simple, visual reminder of where you need to focus is super important.

Check out the KARE tool if you haven't yet. This time of year, going into 2019, is a great time to get our head around this kind of thinking.

So, to recap, the KARE tool is for account planning and really thinking about where you should be spending your time as a sales professional.

The next step is, once you've identified accounts (with each quadrant having five to six accounts), how do you actually approach it?

And this is where a cookbook comes in.

I suggest you have one of the KARE tools filled out (with your accounts on it), and you have a second one titled KARE cookbook where you say;

"Okay, let's simplify this. Let's get in and do a behavioral plan that's easy to manage. Because I have a bunch of account names on here. That's great, but what do I do right now? I’ve thought it through, but what are my actions?"

Just like cookbook does overall, this is a way to simplify how you’re going to execute the accounts that you have in your KARE document.

This is just an example of a KARE cookbook.

In the keep area: Making one temperature meeting a week where you sit down and say ‘one to ten how are you doing’. A client scorecard once a quarter.
In attaining new business: 40 dials a week. Talk to five people. Ask for a referral a week. Go to LinkedIn five times.
Recapture: "Where are they now" calls ("Where are they now" calls are those calls where you had them at one point, but you are figuring out where they’re currently at), four a week. One recapture meeting a month.
And then expand: 25 attempts a week into existing accounts. Looking for conversations and one meeting.

This is just an example, but I want to illustrate the importance of simplifying it. Because if you have a bunch of account names on the document, it's just too complex. This is oversimplifying it a bit, but you're going to have to have more planning involved. I’ve found having a visual will help in keeping you focused.

So look at your KARE cookbook and your accounts you've put on it and then start asking yourself, "What kinds of behaviors and activities do I need to do to get the KARE document to really have the value? To be able to keep, attain, recapture, and expand accounts?"