Metrics for Technical Account Managers (TAMs)

Many thanks to Ravi Desai for suggesting this topic.

Many support organizations offer the services of a Technical Account Manager (TAM) or Service Account Manager (SAM) to larger accounts, either as a fee-based option or as a complimentary service for customers that meet certain criteria, typically large annual fees. The scope of the account management service can vary, from glorified escalation management (not what I would recommend, certainly not for a fee-based option) to  comprehensive proactive support including regular health checks, custom recommendations for using the product, and exposure to the marketing roadmap. Not a few programs also hope to sell more products to customers with a TAM, based on a better knowledge of the account. All that to say that the metrics for a service that can be so multiform are necessarily varied as well.

1. Is it selling?

If you sell the service, an obvious metric is whether customers are choosing to purchase it and especially renew it. Not that account management will necessarily sell widely: it is usually designed for the top 10% of accounts so the selling targets need to be adjusted accordingly. On the renewal side, however, you should see a much better performance than for regular support contracts. Non-renewal events outside of large changes such as  acquisitions should be questioned.

2. Is it working (for the customer)?

The whole point of account management is to help the customer be more successful so an obvious success metric is that the customer is satisfied with the service. An annual formal survey would fit the bill and allow measuring the TAMs as well as the service overall.

3. Is it working (for the company)?

The TAM’s performance also lies with internal issues: communicating appropraitely with the various resources within the company and managing to be the customer’s advocate without forgetting that their loyalty needs to lie with the company. For that, I would suggest a 360 evaluation from the various parties with whom the TAM interacts: other support responses, Engineering, Marketing, and Sales.

I would not rely too much on additional revenue opportunities with the account. It’s true that TAMs can be very helpful in ferreting out opportunities but I find that if they are compensated on sales it changes the relationship with the customer and erodes the trust of the customer in the impartiality of the TAM. Better to rely on an evaluation from the account team (which will, necessarily, include a judgment on whether the TAM is able to find and report opportunities for follow-on sales).

I would also not rely too much on mechanical measurements of how many customer meetings are held, for instance. A TAM could hold lots of meetings where nothing is accomplished and the customer relationship would be no better. By all means use such mechanical metrics day-to-day, but when performance review time arrives rely on customer satisfaction reviews and 360 reviews since they will speak about effectiveness, not just efficiency.

What metrics do you use for your TAMs?