# A key account plan and concentration risk > Map a big client's people, goals, usage and next step, measure how much of your revenue and margin it is, and lower that dependence without pushing the client away. - Course: [B2B Marketing and Sales: Win Your First Company Customers](https://productovi.com/courses/b2b-marketing-and-sales.md) - Module: Accounts, renewals and the first hire - Lesson 29/32, ~25 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/b2b-marketing-and-sales/key-account-plan ## Where we are **Alex Tutor:** Back at **Klasna for Teams**, where you're the first marketing-and-sales hire. It's April 2027: Veloria started in March, Cobalt starts this month, and Orchid's contract is with its lawyers. **Alex Tutor:** This last module is about keeping what you've won and handing selling over to a team. Today: a plan for your biggest client. ## A good problem with a bad tail **Marta:** March is closed. Veloria took 300 of our 790 lessons. I like the money. I don't like that one client can now make or break our month. **Sofia:** Isn't a client that big a good problem to have? **Alex Tutor:** It is, until it isn't. A **key account** is a client whose loss would change your plan and who could still grow. Veloria is both, so it needs more than "keep Pavlo happy". **Alex Tutor:** Size alone doesn't make a key account. A big client that will never buy more and is easy to replace needs good service, not a plan of its own. > **Exercise:** Which Teams client is the clearest **key account**? ## The account map **Sofia:** So what goes into a plan for Veloria? A revenue target? **Alex Tutor:** Start with a map, not a target. Four parts: the **people** and what each needs, the client's **goals**, what they **use** today, and the **next step** that would help them, such as a new team. **Alex Tutor:** For Veloria: Pavlo runs the program, Yaryna owns the budget, Stepan worries about shifts. Their goal is fewer mistakes on calls with foreign carriers. They use 300 lessons a month for 40 people, and attendance was 92% in March. **Marta:** Here's what worries me. Week to week we talk only to Pavlo. If he leaves Veloria, who there even knows us? **Alex Tutor:** That's the most common gap in an account plan: one thread. Build more, through Pavlo, not around him. A short quarterly review with Yaryna, results Stepan can see in his shift reports. > **Exercise:** Match each part of Veloria's account map with what belongs there. **Alex Tutor:** Marta's worry is real: one contact. What's the best fix? > **Exercise:** Week to week Teams talks only to Pavlo at Veloria. What's the best way to reduce that risk? ## How big is too big **Alex Tutor:** Start with the number. Veloria took 300 of March's 790 lessons. > **Exercise:** In March 2027 Teams delivered 790 lessons, 300 of them to Veloria. What share of March lessons is Veloria? In %, to two decimals. **Alex Tutor:** Now the risk itself. **Concentration risk** is how much of your revenue and of your margin depends on one client. Veloria: 300 ÷ 790 = 37.97% of March lessons. **Alex Tutor:** Every client pays 800 a lesson, so it's also 37.97% of revenue and of contribution. Check both anyway: a client on a discount or with extra service has a smaller share of margin than of revenue. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** if every client pays the same price per lesson and costs the same to serve, a client's share of revenue equals its share of contribution. **Sofia:** And if Veloria left? We'd lose 300 × 800 = 240,000 UAH of revenue a month and 300 × 339 = 101,700 of contribution. **Alex Tutor:** Right, and tutors' hours would go with it. The quieter risk is power: a client that big can ask for discounts, longer terms or custom work, and saying no feels dangerous. > **Exercise:** Veloria is 37.97% of March lessons. Which are **real consequences** of that concentration? Choose all that apply. ## Less dependent, not less close **Marta:** So do we slow Veloria down? Pavlo hinted they might add another team in autumn. **Alex Tutor:** No. Turning down a good client's growth to fix a ratio is the wrong lever. Reduce dependence by growing everyone else: new clients in other segments, more lessons with the small ones. **Alex Tutor:** Inside Veloria, make the account sturdier: more people who know you, results the budget owner sees, a renewal talk started early. And price custom work instead of giving it away. **Alex Tutor:** The course "From Idea to Profitable Product" has a lesson, "One customer too big", that looks at the same risk from a founder's side. Here we stay with the sales moves. > **Exercise:** Pavlo says Veloria may add another team in the autumn. Marta worries about dependence. What's the best move? ## The plan on one page **Alex Tutor:** Put it on one page that Marta can read and Pavlo could see without blushing. No secret scores about people, only what helps the client. > **Veloria: key account plan, April 2027** > > | Part | What we know | Next step | > |---|---|---| > | People | Pavlo (champion), Yaryna (budget owner), Stepan (operations), IT security lead | Quarterly review with Yaryna, invited by Pavlo | > | Goals | Fewer mistakes on carrier calls and customs paperwork | Agree one measure with Stepan's team | > | Usage | 300 lessons a month, 40 learners, 92% attendance in March | Watch attendance by shift every month | > | Next expansion | Another team in autumn (a hint, not a request) | Ask Pavlo which team and what it needs | > | Risk | 37.97% of March lessons; one person knows us well | Two more contacts by the summer; grow other clients | **Marta:** I like that the risk row has actions, not just a scary number. **Alex Tutor:** And review it every quarter. The share will change as Cobalt and Orchid start, so the plan has to change with it. **Sofia:** Map first, number second, actions last. Got it. **Alex Tutor:** Last check on the one-page plan: which risk row would you write? > **Exercise:** Which **risk** row fits Veloria's one-page key account plan best? ## Your turn: two moves for Marta **Marta:** Leo will ask me on Monday how we're handling Veloria. Give me three lines I can say. **Alex Tutor:** Two actions that lower the dependence without cooling the relationship, and one signal you'll watch to catch trouble early. **Sofia:** One move inside Veloria, one outside it, and a signal from their usage. **Alex Tutor:** Good split. Make each line concrete enough that Leo could check it in a month. > **Exercise:** Write Marta **three lines** for Leo: two actions that reduce Teams' dependence on Veloria without cooling the relationship (one inside Veloria, one outside it), and one usage signal you'll watch to spot trouble early. > **Key ideas** > > - A **key account** is a client whose loss would change your plan and who can still grow. Size alone isn't enough. > - A key account plan is a map first: people and what each needs, the client's goals, what they use, the next expansion that would help them. > - One contact is a single point of failure. Add more people through the champion, never around them. > - **Concentration risk:** the share of revenue and of contribution one client brings, and what its loss would cost a month (Veloria: 37.97%, 101,700 UAH of contribution). > - Reduce dependence by growing the other clients and making the big account sturdier, not by refusing its growth. **Alex Tutor:** Next time: renewals, expansion and complaints, and why keeping a client is selling too. - Previous lesson: [Case: a training agency asks for exclusivity](https://productovi.com/courses/b2b-marketing-and-sales/agency-asks-for-exclusivity-case.md) - Next lesson: [Renewals, expansion and complaints](https://productovi.com/courses/b2b-marketing-and-sales/renewals-and-expansion.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.