Key Account Management: Being an Excellent Key Account Manager with Emily Yepes

Mark McGraw sits down with Emily Yepes to unpack the world of account management and what it really takes to succeed at the key account level. They dive deep into the essential mindset shifts, practical tools, and overlooked skills that separate average account managers from strategic partners.

To find our handout for this episode, click here. 

You’ll learn what makes a great key account plan (and why most fail), how to think beyond the organizational chart, and why internal selling is just as critical as customer conversations.

• Emily starts by defining key account management--a strategic business approach focused on building and maintaining strong, mutually beneficial relationships with a company's most important clients.

• For Emily, strategic account management is about creating lift, not just holding the line. If all you’re doing is maintaining the relationship, you’re not growing it. The real goal is to find leverage points that expand your impact.

• Every great account plan starts with clarity on the customer’s goals. Not your goals—theirs. Once you understand what success looks like for them, you can position yourself as essential to that journey.

• According to Emily, your key account plan should be a living, breathing document. It’s not a one-time deliverable—it evolves as the relationship and needs change. 

• Emily shares that the biggest leadership failure is not defining what “strategic” actually means. Telling your team to think strategically without teaching them how to do it sets them up to fail. 

• Mark and Emily agree that a strong key account plan should always connect back to business goals. The more your plan aligns with what the customer and your business actually care about, the more impactful it becomes.

• Most teams use the word 'strategy' without ever agreeing on what it means. And that creates chaos. If everyone has a different definition, then no one’s really executing on the same vision.

• Emily and Mark discuss why too many sellers rely on instinct over preparation. While instincts are helpful, they can’t replace strategy. Winging it might work once or twice, but it’s a gamble in high-stakes accounts.

• Emily shares that the best salespeople are chameleons, which is not inauthentic. They're very good at knowing how to show up and recognizing what my goal and intention is in this particular conversation. 

• Emily explains that a relationship map isn’t just a glorified organizational chart. It helps you understand who actually influences decisions about your work—not just who reports to whom.

• Think of the account plan as a yearlong roadmap. It should have clear touchpoints, with the right stakeholders involved at each step. Planning that out in advance helps avoid last-minute scrambles and missed chances.

• Emily shares why sellers spend a surprising amount of time selling internally. They’re negotiating for support, aligning departments, and getting investment just to serve the account well. 

• Mark and Emily agree that a good account manager is a simplifier. They take all the complexity around a deal and break it down into something clear and actionable.

• Emily explains why sellers should update their key account plans at least once per quarter. Use moments like QBRs or strategic reviews to refresh the plan and evaluate progress. Waiting too long means you’re flying blind and missing opportunities.

• Emily shares that the jump from regular account manager to key account manager is a bigger leap than most sellers anticipate. It’s not just about managing a bigger client—it’s an entirely different type of relationship. The conversations, expectations, and impact are all on another level.

• The best key account managers bring ideas, insights, and value to the customer before being asked. That mindset builds trust and positions them as true partners, not just vendors.

• Emily explains that one of the most overlooked skills in key account management is the ability to zoom in and out. You need to step back and see the full picture, but also know when to dig deep into the details. 

• Emily and Mark emphasize that a key account plan is not something you fill out for your manager and forget about. It should be the structure that challenges and guides your thinking all year long.

• According to Emily, many companies struggle because their key account managers aren’t actually thinking strategically.

• Emily says most sales teams are guilty of throwing around the word “strategic” without agreement on what it means. We use it to describe a hundred different things, which leads to misalignment. Until you define it clearly, it’s just noise.

• It’s not enough to know the product—you have to know the customer’s business. What’s keeping them up at night? What outcomes are they trying to achieve? That knowledge is what separates average reps from trusted advisors.

• Emily explains that key account management is more than just sales—it’s about stewardship. You assign your top reps to your most valuable clients, and their role is to protect and grow those relationships.

Mentioned in This Episode:

BuildingYourSalesEngine.com/follow

Sandler.com

BuildingYourSalesEngine.com/sandler

Emily Yepes on LinkedIn

BuildingYourSalesEngine.com/29

Building Your Sales Engine on Linktree