Key Account Team (KAT) Essay

As a result of the recent meltdown in mortgage-backed securities market, C&B’s changed its internal processes so as to react competitively and increase its market share. Two key changes occurred: the creation of a Key Account Team (KAT) and the restructuring of the division-wide performance management system, which would help determine a salesperson’s annual compensation. Although there are some disadvantages to the new system, Winston should recommend the KAT concept to other regional managers. The new system not only helps managers have a well-rounded understanding of its salespeople’s performance, it also helps the company to allocated appropriate resources to money-making accounts. Because the taxable securities group represented 60% of total sales in the office, C&B’s created KAT, a group of 5 highly specialized salespeople, to fulfill the need for more product expertise in higher margin segments. The advantage of having KAT was that customers now had salespeople who offered in-depth, technical advice on specific issues. Furthermore, Kat along with the new evaluation system increased the frequency of communication between the New York and Boston offices. Lastly, the new structure allowed the best salesperson to be focused on the product needing the most help. On the other hand, others argued that this change made it more complicated to make large, multiproduct trades because more people needed to be involved. Another con was that salespeople felt too specialized, thus, limiting their career prospects. Nevertheless, the change had generated higher profit per dollar of sales in the Boston Office. Additionally, with the new compensation system, commissions were driven by sales volumes in areas of specialization and not from demand in within the client base. This meant that there was an even higher possibility for salespeople to generate more income. Thus, specialized salespeople were compensated for this so called limitation, meaning that their inclination to leave the firm could be swayed. Although there are some disadvantages to becoming more specialized, C&B has to accommodate its clients and their needs in order to be competitive. Therefore, Winston should recommend its new structure to other regional managers because it’ll make the company the one stop for companies looking for specialization in riskier segments.