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Key account representative skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Jonathan Byers,

Kaustav Misra Ph.D.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical key account representative skills. We ranked the top skills for key account representatives based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 14.5% of key account representative resumes contained business development as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a key account representative needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 key account representative skills for your resume and career

1. Business Development

Business development is the ideas or initiatives that work to make business work better. Selling, advertising, product development, supply chain management, and vendor management are only a few of the divisions involved with it. There is still a lot of networking, negotiating, forming alliances, and trying to save money. The goals set for business development guide and coordinate with all of these various operations and sectors.

Here's how key account representatives use business development:

Managed field sales representatives' entertainment expense budgets and territory business development planning & product promotion activities.
Maintain annual business development budget and expenses.

2. Account Management

The process of strengthening the relationship between a company and client is called account management. Effective account management has two key objectives, one is to retain loyal customers and the second one is to help the company grow by creating connections with new customers.

Here's how key account representatives use account management:

Top performing advertising sales professional with extensive sales and account management experience.
Provided superior account management for the company which represented 45 manufacturers.

3. Product Knowledge

Product knowledge is the skill of having better information and knowledge about the product you are selling. Product knowledge is essential for the employees of the companies so they can communicate and inform the customers about the product. Having great product knowledge is essential for a better sales pitch and to give the customer a better and complete idea of the product that will influence him to buy the product eventually.

Here's how key account representatives use product knowledge:

Managed and expanded existing accounts using product knowledge and customer service.
Shared product knowledge with customers and acted as customer liaison between sales management and personal accounts.

4. Post Sales

Here's how key account representatives use post sales:

Served in a dual position selling new personal computers and peripheral equipment and providing extensive pre-sale and post sales customer support.
Worked directly on pre and post sales for North American sales / national accounts for network based storage products.

5. Customer Complaints

Here's how key account representatives use customer complaints:

Solved customer complaints aligned with internal policies.
Handled and resolved customer complaints in a manner consistent with customer needs and company revenue expectations.

6. CRM

CRM stands for Customer relationship management and it is a complete process through which a business or organization monitors and administers its interactions with the customers. A process in which large amounts of data are collected through marketing via a company's website, polls, surveys, and other social media applications. The basic goal of CRM is to target the right audience for their product, and then fulfill their needs, to increase the sales and revenue of the company.

Here's how key account representatives use crm:

Maintained sales pipeline and customer activity within Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Answered and handle customer phone calls and emails, Followed up with customer for issue with CRM systems

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7. PowerPoint

Here's how key account representatives use powerpoint:

Created and executed numerous projects using Excel and PowerPoint to help develop sales based on each country's market.
Prepared catalogs, PowerPoint presentations, and cost spreadsheets in accordance with client product requests and within budgetary parameters.

8. Product Line

Product line is a collection of similar or related products that may be under a single brand manufactured by the same company. It may include different varieties of a specific product of a brand which comes in different categories. In other cases, the product line may differ in some characteristics despite being from the same manufacturer.

Here's how key account representatives use product line:

Developed company strategies for implementing Vacation Bible School product line into existing accounts, including bi-lingual series.
Recognized as the #1 sales person through tenure, and entrusted with launch of a new product line.

9. National Accounts

Here's how key account representatives use national accounts:

Negotiated and attained several National accounts through strategic planning, execution of sales presentations and excellent closing skills.
Verify pricing to validate merchandise returns from national accounts.

10. Territory Sales

Here's how key account representatives use territory sales:

Increased total territory sales by 40% in 12 months with market penetration strategy.
Expanded U.S. territory sales team from customer service focus to include sales initiatives.

11. Order Entry

Order Entry is the term used to describe and refer to the process of and steps necessary in order to log a customer's order in a company's or organization's order filing systems.

Here's how key account representatives use order entry:

Monitored order entry and production process to ensure accuracy of product and timely delivery to customer.
Researched and resolved customer issues including freight, credit, VAS, pricing and order entry.

12. Order Processing

Order processing plays a significant role when providing services to customers. It is the process of preparing and packing products to fulfill orders, delivering them in high-quality conditions.

Here's how key account representatives use order processing:

Initiated the implementation of streamlined Navision priority order processing that saved customer time and money.
Performed account maintenance, customer correspondence and order processing.

13. Sales Growth

Here's how key account representatives use sales growth:

Transformed under or low performing sales territories by establishing sales growth, gross margin maximization and solidified customer relationships.
Program success led to the release of individualized programs exclusive to regionalized sales territories to further drive sales growth.

14. POS

POS is an abbreviation of "Point of Sale" which is the time and place where a customer completes a transaction. It can either be a physical shop that consists of POS terminals or a virtual shop. A POS system helps simplify the retail functions and track important sales data.

Here's how key account representatives use pos:

Managed Point of Sale (POS), product placement, brand recognition and merchandising in 113 wholesale and retail accounts.
Utilized specialized technology tools, including K-mart reporting system and POS data, to produce detailed reports of account activity.

15. Inbound Calls

Here's how key account representatives use inbound calls:

Assisted taking inbound calls when the Customer Service queue was busy.
Answered inbound calls from major telecommunications supplier.

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What skills help Key Account Representatives find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on key account representative resumes?

Jonathan Byers

Assistant Director, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

- Professional skills related to career development competencies such as strong oral & written communication, teamwork & collaboration, leadership, problem-solving ability & creativity, and professional integrity, but we recommend that applicants do not just list these skills. They should provide evidence of how they have used them in their work experience, volunteer experience, academic experience, etc.
-The ability to use technology effectively to solve problems or improve collaboration; this could relate to social media management, computer hardware or software skills, proficiency with general programs like Microsoft Office Suite (also being able to demonstrate the use of these skills in various experiences).
-With diversity, equity, and inclusion becoming more important in 2020, the ability to appreciate different points of view, accept and appreciate different cultural backgrounds & types of identities, and increased awareness of one's own cultural biases and assumptions can also be important to market on a resume.

What key account representative skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Kaustav Misra Ph.D.

Associate Dean, Central Connecticut State University

This pandemic taught us many things and one important thing that we have an efficiency gap.

The way of doing business will be much more technology orientated. Hence graduates should be ready to unskill and upskill their credentials. This time it is necessary to forget the old way of doing business and learn new skills to get a job or stay in a current job. Soft skills have become much more important than before, but a different soft skill set would be essential to interact with future market participants. Thus, a gap year should be utilized to unskill-upskill and enhance relevant credentials by getting into short-long term programs, training, and workshops would be highly recommended.

What type of skills will young key account representatives need?

Dr. Vallari Chandna

Chair and Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay

Critically, for all graduates, expertise or interests, in sustainability will be important. The reason behind this is the shift in looking at sustainability holistically and not just as something one-person does. This would also give an edge to those with degrees, specifically in sustainability. Graduates with degrees related to sustainability will often be asked to oversee or manage these across-the-board sustainability endeavors. Also, soft skills are highly desired. The ability to be better at time management, work in teams, and have a strong work ethic, will be more desirable. These are all interconnected with remote work as well. Employees who "thrived" in the pandemic were those able to manage their work-life balance, work remotely in teams, all the while performing well. The skills are thus "transferable" to both modalities of work in this way.

What technical skills for a key account representative stand out to employers?

Todd Lee Goen

Instructor & Internship Director, Christopher Newport University

Technical skills are often industry and/or position specific. Applicants should highlight any technical skills related to the position advertisement and those that add value to the position/organization. Most importantly, requirements for technical skills change with time and technological advances. This means employers value workers capable of adapting to change and continually improving and acquiring new technical skills. Thus, it's usually more important to demonstrate you are capable of learning and developing technical skills than it is to have a specific skill set upon hire (although this is not true for some positions/industries).
That said, technical skills related to online presentations, virtual meetings, virtual networking, remote working and the like are hot commodities right now. While most organizations were in the process of adopting many of these technologies and ways of doing business pre-pandemic, the pandemic accelerated the process. Organizations are making it work, but they often don't know best practices or the most efficient means of working in the largely virtual, pandemic environment. Post-pandemic, many of the remote/virtual changes the pandemic brought will stay in some form. Technical skills that support this type of workplace will make applicants stand out to many employers because they need/want to do virtual/remote business better.

What soft skills should all key account representatives possess?

Eric Bostwick Ph.D.

Professor of Accounting, The University of West Florida

Similar to the answer above, oral and written communication skills have been important for a number of years, but in our current environment, these skills have become much more important. Our ability to pick up on the context surrounding email messages is reduced since we have fewer in-person interactions, and even our virtual meetings eliminate much of the body language that we use--both consciously and unconsciously--to interpret what other people mean by what they say. Thus, candidates will stand out when they can clearly articulate their thoughts in both written form, via email or chat, and in oral form, via the ubiquitous "Brady Bunch" layout on their coworkers' computer screens.

Do you want to know more?

List of key account representative skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a key account representative resume and required skills for a key account representative to have include:

Business Development
Account Management
Product Knowledge
Post Sales
Customer Complaints
CRM
PowerPoint
Product Line
National Accounts
Territory Sales
Order Entry
Order Processing
Sales Growth
POS
Inbound Calls
Sales Volume

Customer Accounts
EDI
Trade Shows
Product Availability
Customer Satisfaction
Business Sales
Sales Management
Sales Reps
Sales Strategies
Billing Issues
Direct Sales
Sales Presentations
Increase Sales
Customer Orders
Customer Relations
Sales Objectives

Upselling
Outbound Calls
Corporate Accounts
Customer Issues
Customer Inquiries
Gross Profit
Business Relationships
Inventory Management
Client Relationships
Inventory Control
Customer Support
Retail Accounts
Staff Training
Delivery Schedules
Retail Store
Coors

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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Key Account Representative Skills

Updated January 8, 2025

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