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The KAM Club Podcast - Real Talk for Key Account Managers

The KAM Club Podcast - Real Talk for Key Account Managers

Di: Warwick Brown
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A proposito di questo titolo

 The KAM Club Podcast is real talk for real key account managers. Cut through the BS to grow client revenue, reduce churn and build your career. Warwick Brown delivers 25 years of hard-won key account management wisdom in 15-minute episodes tackling real challenges - difficult clients, internal politics, revenue pressure. No fluff, just practical strategies you can use immediately. 📧 Sign up to the free Account-Minded newsletter: https://accountminded.me 💬 Get in touch: hello@thekamclub.com 🎧 Show Notes https://podcast.thekamclub.comWarwick Brown Economia Ricerca del lavoro Successo personale
Episodi
  • Let Me Think About It (And Other Lies Clients Tell)

    Let Me Think About It (And Other Lies Clients Tell)
    Feb 12 2026

    Your best deal just went silent. Again. Three weeks ago they said they'd "circle back." Last month everything seemed perfect. Now? Radio silence. And somewhere in your pipeline right now, there's a client who's choosing to do nothing—dressed up as "let me think about it."

    Here's what's really happening: you're not losing to competitors. You're losing to fear disguised as consideration. Join us as we expose why 40-60% of all sales die from indecision, reveal the five hidden reasons clients freeze, and share four strategies to make change feel safer than standing still. If you've got deals gathering dust, this is how you bring them back to life.


    HIGHLIGHTS

    • (0:00) The Real Meaning Behind "Let Me Think About It": Discover what clients are actually saying when they use these five polite but deadly words.
    • (1:03) Your Biggest Competitor Isn't Who You Think: Learn why 40-60% of sales are lost to indecision, not competitors.
    • (1:18) Five Reasons Clients Choose the Status Quo: Uncover the hidden forces keeping your deals stuck—from risk aversion to change costs.
    • (3:25) Why Pushing Harder Backfires: Find out how increasing pressure actually feeds the thing that's killing your deal.
    • (4:39) Strategy #1 - Quantify the Cost of Inaction: Make the invisible costs of waiting visible and concrete for your clients.
    • (6:12) Strategy #2 - Reduce Perceived Risk: Learn how to make change feel safe through pilots, phased implementation, and guarantees.
    • (7:16) Strategy #3 - Create Urgency Without Pressure: Connect to their timeline and goals, not your quota deadlines.
    • (8:38) Strategy #4 - Make "Yes" Easier Than "Let Me Think About It": Remove friction points ruthlessly to clear the path to decision.
    • (11:16) The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything: Transform how you view stalled deals—from "they're wasting my time" to "my job is to remove friction."


    NEXT STEPS

    • Audit your pipeline: Identify deals where you've heard "let me think about it" and are currently stuck.
    • Ask four critical questions for each stalled deal:
      • What's the cost of them doing nothing?
      • What's making change feel risky?
      • What's the urgency in their world?
      • What friction can I remove?
    • Calculate the bleed: Work out the monthly cost your client is paying by maintaining the status quo.
    • Build a safety net: Create pilot programs, phased implementations, or guarantees that reduce perceived risk.
    • Map to their timeline: Connect your solution to their goals and deadlines, not yours.
    • Pre-solve procurement: Anticipate and remove friction points before they become reasons to delay.


    RESOURCES

    Unsticking Deals by James Muir - A comprehensive guide to the biggest problem in sales: stuck deals. The book covers the three root causes of stuck deals, five prevention strategies, and five unsticking plays with templates and examples. Includes bonus resources like a deal assessment tool and sample mutual action plans.

    Show Notes - https://podcast.thekamclub.com/episodes/63


    WANT MORE?

    Want more strategies like this? Join The KAM Club—a global community for key account managers packed with training, templates, coaching, and expert playbooks to help you grow accounts with confidence.
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    12 min
  • Is it Me or is it The Job? What to Do Before You Rage Quit

    Is it Me or is it The Job? What to Do Before You Rage Quit
    Feb 5 2026
    It's Monday morning and you're back to hating your job. You're not burned out. You're not failing. You're just... done. Or at least you think you are.Before you polish up that LinkedIn profile, let's figure out if it's time to fall back in love with your role—or finally walk away.HIGHLIGHTS(0:00) That Sinking Feeling: Why "Is that all there is?" hits so hard when you're in sales, account management, or customer success.(2:08) Your Frustration Is Valid: Stop letting people tell you to "be grateful." Your feelings are real, and they matter.(2:31) Why You're Really Struggling: Boredom. Feeling invisible. Broken systems. Endless meetings. Moving goalposts. That creeping sense you've outgrown the place. We break down the usual suspects.(7:47) Wait—Is Your Job Actually Amazing?: Real impact. Strategic influence. Skills that travel. Money on the table. Let's not forget why you took this gig in the first place.(12:57) The Question You Should Be Asking: It's not "Should I quit?" It's "Have I actually tried everything to make this work?"JOB BITTERNESS WARNING SYSTEM(13:34) Where Are You on the Bitterness Scale? Before you can fix anything, you need to know how deep you're in. Four stages—catch yourself early and you can turn it around.(13:50) Stage 1 – Boundary Collapse: Work follows you home. You're checking emails at dinner, waking up at 3am worried about clients. Your boundaries are broken, but this is totally fixable.(14:18) Stage 2 – Venting Becomes Identity: Complaining is now your default setting. Friends change the subject. Your partner's eyes glaze over. You're becoming "that person who hates their job."(15:10) Stage 3 – Emotional Dysregulation: Your fuse is gone. Small things set you off. You're irritable before you even get to your desk. You're running on empty and it shows.(15:55) Stage 4 – Victim Mentality: Nothing is ever your fault. You've stopped looking for solutions—just validation that everything's broken. This is the danger zone. Time to make a move.RE-ENGAGE FRAMEWORK(17:52) Layer 1 – Stop the Spiral: How to reset your mindset and quit feeding the negativity monster. Shift from victim to strategist.(21:33) Layer 2 – Shake Things Up: Challenge yourself. Learn something new. Remember what it felt like to be excited about your work.(24:20) Layer 3 – Cut the Dead Weight: Energy vampires, pointless meetings, soul-crushing admin—time to audit what's draining you and ditch it.(27:49) Layer 4 – Design Your Next Move: Five types of change you can make. Spoiler: quitting might not be the answer.NEXT STEPSGet honest about your bitterness level. Boundaries slipping? Complaining to anyone who'll listen? Snapping at colleagues? Full victim mode? Name it so you can fix it.Do a drain audit. Grab a pen. List everything you did last week. Mark each one: energy boost or energy suck? Does it actually matter? Then ruthlessly cut, delegate, or automate the garbage.Tackle the thing you've been dodging. That awkward conversation. That skill you keep meaning to learn. That AI tool everyone's using except you. Pick one. Do it this week.Get specific about what's broken. Is it your role? Your boss? Your accounts? The company culture? Your entire career path? You can't fix "everything sucks." Give yourself 90 days. Make changes. See if they stick. No rash decisions. No dramatic exits. Just a real experiment.If you leave, leave clean. No bridge-burning. No truth bombs in the exit interview. Walk out with your reputation intact.RESOURCES⁠⁠The Re-Engage Framework (Full Breakdown)⁠⁠ – All four layers with step-by-step action plans⁠⁠The KAM Club Newsletter⁠⁠ – Weekly strategies delivered straight to your inbox⁠Career Dreamer⁠ - a fun tool from Google that uses AI to help you imagine career possibilities.Want more strategies like this?Join ⁠⁠The KAM Club⁠⁠—a global community for key account managers packed with training, templates, coaching, and expert playbooks to help you grow accounts with confidence.
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    35 min
  • 10 Books Every Key Account Manager Should Read in 2026

    10 Books Every Key Account Manager Should Read in 2026
    Jan 22 2026
    It's mid-January. Be honest... how are the resolutions going? Here's a better idea: forget the 5 AM wake-ups and juice cleanses. Instead, invest in something that actually compounds...Knowledge. These 10 books will transform how you manage accounts, navigate tough conversations, and think strategically in 2026. From mastering the art of influence to speaking the language of CFOs, this is your account-ability reading list (yes, we went there). The difference between you and AI? AI reads for information. You read for transformation.HIGHLIGHTS(0:57) Why Reading Matters for KAMs. The role is constantly evolving—clients are more sophisticated, buying committees are larger, and expectations are sky-high. Books give you the mental models you can apply immediately.(2:26) Communication Powerhouses. The foundation of everything we do: managing information, securing resources, convincing people, and navigating chaos.(2:50) 1. Look: Leading Yourself by Elizabeth Lautado. Focus on what you can control—your mindset, reactions, and priorities. If you can't lead yourself, you can't lead your accounts.(4:04) 2. Exactly What to Say by Phil M. Jones. Twenty-three simple phrases for closing deals and getting information. A toolkit of effective language for those moments when you're caught off guard.(5:20) 3. Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg. Adapt to different conversations—from procurement to CFOs to internal teams. Recognize what type of conversation you're in and match it.(7:04) Strategic Thinking Trio. Communication gets you in the door, but these books help you think differently once you're there.(7:04) 4. Think Again by Adam Grant. Challenge your biases and question assumptions. Being able to unlearn and relearn is your superpower.(8:19) 5. Objections by Jeb Blount. Handle commercial "nos" without feeling pushy. Turn resistance into dialogue and get momentum.(10:30) 6. Smart, Not Loud by Jessica Chen. Don't do invisible work. Learn strategic visibility—communicating your value internally is just as important as delivering it externally.(12:27) Business Acumen Builders. Numbers are how decisions get made. Learn to talk the language of decision-makers.(12:27) 7. Financial Intelligence by Karen Berman. Understand the three financial statements every KAM should know and frame conversations around financial outcomes.(13:45) 8. Unsticking Deals by James Muir. Stop pushing deals out quarter after quarter. Learn why deals stall and get a diagnostic approach to reignite them.(15:37) Relationship Lifecycle Picks. Win the business and keep it.(15:37) 9. Selling With by Nate Nasrallah. Leverage your relationships with champions to grow accounts. Move from reactive to proactive account growth.(17:21) 10. Onboarding Matters by Donna Weber. The first few months are where customers decide if promises were kept. Protect your future self from inheriting problems.(19:00) Making It Actionable. Pick your weakest area first, aim for one book per month, and read with action in mind.NEXT STEPSPick one book by the end of this week and commit to itAim for one book per month with a two-month buffer for lifeAfter each chapter, identify one thing you can apply that week and do itBuild the reading habit—find your time and protect itRESOURCESFull book list: https://amzn.to/3L3II5TPodcast Show Notes: https://podcast.thekamclub.com/The KAM Club Business Briefs: Short courses at https://www.thekamclub.comWANT MORE STRATEGIES LIKE THIS?Join The KAM Club—a global community for key account managers packed with training, templates, coaching, and expert playbooks to help you grow accounts with confidence.
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    23 min
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