Job profile
Key Account Manager (m/f/d)
As soon as companies realize that stable customer relationships are crucial to their success, one role becomes particularly important: the key account manager. This is because this position is responsible for always being available to the most important customers as a point of contact and taking perfect care of their concerns.
What other tasks does a key account manager have? What soft and hard skills are required? And what is the salary in this area? We address these questions in this Hays job profile.
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What is a key account manager?
The importance of key account management
Key Account Managers (KAM) are absolute sales professionals and are responsible for looking after their company's key customers.
They ensure the long-term success of the company by acting as a constant point of contact for their customers and thus strengthening the business relationship. As a Key Account Manager, you therefore establish a strong basis of trust with your most important customers.
To achieve this, you need to be very familiar with the needs and requirements of your company's key customers.
They maintain an overview of the markets, products, sectors and new technical developments in order to be available for their customers in all matters and to identify innovative forms of cooperation. At the same time, they acquire new customers, advise them and build long-term relationships.
Key Account Manager salary: a comprehensive overview
For a full-time position, key account managers in Germany receive an average gross annual salary of €70,228.
Depending on professional experience, the size of the company, the location of the company and the importance of the customers to be looked after, earnings can vary between around €60,000 and €80,000. In many companies, it is common for remuneration in KAM (Key Account Management) to depend on success. An increase is therefore always possible and variable additional payments are not uncommon.
The success of a key account manager and the bonus payments that depend on it are largely measured in terms of customer-specific sales. In second place comes the contribution margin achieved with the key accounts. The additional benefits can be derived from these figures.
Key Account Managers in Hesse and Baden-Württemberg can expect the highest salaries, while earnings are lowest in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
Starting salary as a key account manager (junior level)
Senior Key Account Manager Salary
After more than ten years with the company and a promotion to Senior Key Account Manager, you can expect a salary of around € 76,000. The earnings of a Senior Key Account Manager are heavily dependent on the size of their key customers and there is a lot of upward scope. It is therefore essential in key account management to demonstrate your skills and achieve regular success.
Senior Key Account Manager salaries are highest in large German cities such as Stuttgart or Munich.
What is a Key Account Director?
These are the differences to a Key Account Manager
As the term suggests, a (key) account director is a manager in account management. This function includes the coordination of (key) account managers and budget planning, as well as the target management of all employees reporting to them.
In addition to these management matters, the Account Director is also responsible for contact with key customers. As a rule, the other key account managers are subordinate to this role.
What does a Key Account Manager do?
The most important task of the Key Account Manager is to increase sales in the company by building relationships with and supporting important customers.
Good key account management makes it possible to open up new markets, but also to convince new customers of your own service. This work is therefore crucial for the current and future success of a company.
In key account management, you therefore hold an important key position in sales and belong to the area of customer management.
You develop effective customer strategies and successfully mediate between the company and existing customers. In doing so, you never lose sight of the management's targets in terms of the annual turnover to be achieved and at the same time represent the interests of your key accounts.
- Customer acquisition
- Maintaining customer relationships
- Recording customer requirements with regard to products and services
- Responsibility for key account sales
- Cooperation with product development
- Presentation of new products and services
- Management of complaints and grievances
- Planning of various marketing measures and events
- Industry knowledge and market analysis
- Development of new sales strategies
- Analyze and identify sales potential
Junior Key Account Manager Tasks
This includes tasks such as:
- Customer acquisition through contact
- Discussion of customer needs and information and the associated documentation
- Answering customer inquiries
- Providing all information about product and service information
- Increase customer satisfaction and build relationships
Senior Key Account Manager Tasks
In addition to traditional KAM tasks, Senior Key Account Managers are often increasingly responsible for strategic issues in their area. Due to their many years of experience, they are often responsible for several key accounts or several sectors.
The special tasks of Senior Key Account Managers include
- Negotiation and support at C-level
- Coordination and management of subordinate account managers
- Acquisition of new key accounts
- Responsibility for specially assigned sectors
- Strategy development in your own team
How do you become a key account manager?
- Training, studies & further education
A career in key account management requires you to meet a number of demanding expectations. After all, the key account manager makes a significant contribution to the company's success. Nevertheless, there is no specific training path to becoming a key account manager.
A commercial apprenticeship, a (business) economics degree or an engineering degree serve as a basis. After completing a Bachelor's degree, a Master's in Sales Management is also advisable. Comprehensive sales knowledge and a flair for dealing with customers are an important prerequisite for pursuing a career in KAM.
Another way to become a key account manager is to complete further training. Key account manager training courses are recommended, such as a certificate course at the IHK. Such courses are suitable for career changers, people in sales management or current account managers.
Many companies also train and develop key account managers themselves. This usually requires several years of service with the company.
As a rule, key account managers rarely start their career directly in this position. In most companies, extensive professional experience is required before these people are allowed to come into contact with the most important customers.
Key Account Manager training: getting started in practice
The practical way to become a key account manager is via a certificate course, such as the one offered by the IHK. In around 60 hours, you will learn the most important skills and the necessary theory to become a key account manager. Ideally, participants should already have experience in sales or even account management. A previous degree in economics, for example, is also advisable in order to excel as a key account manager. However, the most important thing is practical experience, which should follow any training.
With a combination of certification and sufficient professional experience, nothing stands in the way of a career as a Key Account Manager. Many companies already require experience as a Junior Account Manager when advertising vacancies for Key Account Managers.
Key Account Manager studies: the academic path
No specific degree is required to become a Key Account Manager. However, there are various degree courses that will prepare you for a career as a key account manager and are welcome in the application process. These include, above all, economics subjects such as business administration, sales management, economics or business administration.
These courses can be completed at many universities and universities of applied sciences in Germany and abroad. Although a Bachelor's degree is usually sufficient, Master's graduates can expect a higher starting salary.
It is often advisable to attend further account management training after completing a bachelor's or master's degree in order to enter this profession in a qualified manner. However, many key account managers start their career "on the job" by slowly but surely working their way up to this position.
However, a career as a Key Account Manager without a degree is absolutely possible, as this role primarily requires professional experience and certain soft and hard skills.
Key Account Manager training: what's next for you
For many junior account managers, it can be useful to expand their skills even further through key account manager training. There are numerous offers for this, for example in the form of 3-day online seminars or longer face-to-face training courses.
It is fundamentally important for account managers to undergo regular further training, strengthen their skills and broaden their horizons.
Possible further training topics for key account managers could be:
- (Agile) project management
- Negotiation tactics
- Additional qualification: Global Account Management
- Management coaching
- Specific industry knowledge training
- Strategic selling
You can complete these further training courses and many more at institutes such as the Haufe Academy or the IU University.
Key Account Manager lateral entry
Knowledge is power
Skills of a key account manager
Key Account Managers are true sales professionals and therefore have several years of professional experience in sales and account management.
They often start out as sales managers and build up an indispensable wealth of knowledge over the years. This is particularly important if the product or service being sold is complex. It is precisely then that the Key Account Manager should also have a technical understanding and knowledge of the industry.
To be successful in key account management, you should also have the following skills.
Hard skills for key account managers:
- Market expertise: A good key account manager knows the market they are in inside out and therefore always has the right information for their key customers.
- Strategic knowledge: As a Key Account Manager, you are responsible for a functioning and innovative sales strategy.
- Target and results-oriented action: Key account management thrives on figures and results, which you need to present and understand on a regular basis.
- Sales skills: In this role you should be an absolute sales professional, which is why you must already have strengths here.
- Technical knowledge: As a Key Account Manager you will be working with different tools and software, such as Salesforce or Hubspot - this should not be difficult for you.
- Excellent English language skills: Depending on the industry and customer, language skills are also required in this role. You will use English most frequently.
Key Account Managers must also have the following soft skills:
- Organizational talent
- Entrepreneurial thinking and action
- Negotiating skills
- Good rhetoric and communication skills (by e-mail, telephone, in conversation)
- High service and customer orientation
- Partly: Willingness to travel
Key Account Manager career:
opportunities on the job market
Key account managers are employed in almost all industries to look after key customers and to organize and manage the communication processes between companies and important customers. From medium-sized mechanical engineering companies to large corporations in the consumer goods industry. All of them rely on qualified key account managers for their company's success.
They are currently particularly in demand at IT companies, automotive suppliers and food and consumer goods manufacturers. However, pharmaceutical manufacturers, life science specialists and financial service providers are also looking for experienced key account managers.
The Hays Specialist Index shows that although marketing and sales specialists are less frequently sought after than in other sectors, key account managers are in high demand. After falling demand at the start of 2023, KAM positions are being filled more frequently again at the start of 2024.
The salaries in key account management are also promising if a lot is done in return. This is because companies are demanding when it comes to filling these important positions and in contact with their most important customers.
Top Vacancies: Key Account Manager Jobs (m/f/d)
FAQ
The key account manager is the main contact person for a company's key customers. The most important tasks of the key account manager include strategic support, sales and the development of the business relationship, which benefits both sides.
The key account manager is the main contact person for a company's key customers. The most important tasks of the key account manager include strategic support, sales and the development of the business relationship, which benefits both sides.
In Germany, key account managers earn an average salary of €70,000. Generally, they earn between €60,000 and €80,000, although there is plenty of scope to go up if their performance is outstanding.
In Germany, key account managers earn an average salary of €70,000. Generally, they earn between €60,000 and €80,000, although there is plenty of scope to go up if their performance is outstanding.
Key account means key customer in German. The key account manager is therefore the person who looks after a company's largest and most important customers.
Key account means key customer in German. The key account manager is therefore the person who looks after a company's largest and most important customers.