Progress Report on Strategic Account Management

With Thomas Duncan, Business Analyst

Transwestern’s Strategic Account Management (SAM) program is taking shape. Intended to provide an innovative and structured approach to serving high-value clients, the platform will combine collaboration across the Transwestern companies with business intelligence, customized research and targeted service offerings. Mark Doran and Steve Pumper direct the initiative, working with business analysts Sergio Alcantar and Thomas Duncan. We asked Thomas how the work is progressing.

TW: Has SAM passed any significant milestones in preparing for a rollout?

Thomas: Over the past year we’ve built a client intelligence database, thanks to an incredible amount of support from team members across the country. We’ve done extensive research on companies, combining and cross-referencing data from internal and external sources to produce analytics that give us a deeper and more accurate understanding of each. We do this by mapping out every client asset across the country – including size, product type, occupancy rate, sales record, competing firms, etc. – and tracking performance. The database is combined with our own research, market data and experience with each client.

Using Microsoft Power BI, a data visualization and business intelligence tool, we are developing a comprehensive picture of our top clients’ needs, challenges and opportunities. We will track every asset they own, how that real estate is used, trends in the respective markets, and how this all overlaps with our service footprint and capabilities.

TW: What’s next?

Thomas: We are beginning to use our data and analytics capabilities to create a national strategy behind each client. This involves applying our deepening business intelligence not only to inform decision making, but also to address conditions we believe are impeding clients’ success, and we’re collaborating across our geographies and service lines in the process. For SAM, the rubber really meets the road in these next steps – We want team members across the country to work together, translating information into action items that will help us serve clients better and produce tangible results.

Penetrating insight and actionable data are excellent tools, but those aren’t the SAM program’s ultimate objective. The main goal is to bring together relationship managers and team members in serving clients better.

TW: When the program is fully operational, what are some of SAM’s differentiating features?

Thomas: We are expanding and coordinating our resources to bring the best of Transwestern to each client and every opportunity. We’ve set a goal to open up communication and increase the flow of client intelligence/data across the company. It’s an exciting, differentiating feature that builds on Transwestern’s collaborative culture, and it’s already being well received by the team members with whom we’ve shared it.

THOMAS DUNCAN