What Key Account Management Taught Me About Product Work
What Key Account Management Taught Me About Product Work
Before I moved into business analysis and product ownership, I worked as a key account manager at LOTS Wholesale Solutions and as a senior key account executive at Reliance Retail, where I helped build JioMart B2B. Those roles were about sales forecasts, stock availability and keeping B2B customers happy. They turned out to be good training for product work.
Customers tell you what went wrong, not what to build
In account management, customers called when something failed: an order was short, a delivery was late, a bill was wrong. They rarely suggested a solution. Listening for the cause behind the complaint is the same skill a product owner needs when reading feedback or running discovery.
Operations is part of the product
A B2B customer experiences the whole chain, from the catalogue to picking, billing, packing and delivery. When I coordinated with warehouse and store teams to fix a customer issue, it was clear that no single team owned the experience. Products that ignore operations look good in a demo and fail in daily use.
Forecasts force honest conversations
Preparing monthly and quarterly forecasts meant agreeing on numbers with commercial teams, operations and customers. That habit of getting everyone to commit to the same view carries straight into roadmap planning and sprint goals.
Trust is built in small responses
Responding quickly and clearly to every enquiry did more for an account than any pitch. Stakeholders on a product team work the same way. Regular, plain updates build the trust you need when a hard prioritisation call comes. The tools have changed since my account management days, but that part of the job has not.
Rahul skipped presentations and built real AI products.
Rahul Shaw was part of the August 2026 cohort at Curious PM, alongside 24 other talented participants.