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Sadly, there are lots of issues with strategic account plans, according to AKAM’s Programme Director Forum. It is hard to understand why organisations with so much business vested in the these accounts can tolerate the poor quality which is so common. In fact, they often misunderstand what strategic key account plans should be like, so…
There is no mechanism for deciding fair shares in any market, especially FMCG. It’s a famously hostile environment where higher profits go to those who have the scale, skill and tenacity to fight hardest for it. That usually means a hostile, confrontational, competitive battle between manufacturer and retailer. How can a collaborative KAM approach survive here? Peter Reynolds…
Customer Lifetime Value and Customer Profitability Companies – and Key Account Managers – must consider the long term profitability of their key accounts. Anything less could be considered a dereliction of duty to their shareholders. Ability to deliver differentiated value to the customer determines how successful you will be. Because if the customer does not…
Key Account Management and selling are not the same thing. Key Account Management does not mean selling to big customers – it is not just a higher form of selling or a synonym for selling to the C-Suite. KAM is very likely to engage with the customer’s C-Suite, but the process will involve much more than the…
Defining performance in key account management is not simple. As a first step, companies should articulate what they want and expect KAM to do for them and link the required performance of key account managers to it. Some companies introduce KAM in order to retain their most important customers but then frustrate their own intention…
Risk awareness has always been in the long list of skills required of key account managers, but it is rarely high enough on the list, and awareness is not enough anyway. Being in business is about managing risk as well as making profits. Most risk is considered as financial, and while the ultimate impact may…
Strategic account plans sit at the core of KAM: they specify the value to be offered to the customer and received by the supplier. They should be what gets done, and yet very little has been written about them. This paper lays out the essential elements of strategic account planning: the purpose of strategic account…
Value propositions have been described as one of the most valuable concept in sales and marketing, and at the same time, one of the least well understood and executed. So Alistair Taylor’s paper from bulletin No 2 performs a useful role in clarifying what the role of value propositions in KAM. The aim is for…
Short paper from Bulletin No 1. Targets are a commonly used device in sales management, but are they appropriate in key account management? They are normally closely linked with rewards, which is what companies expect and intend, but it is critical that reward schemes are seen as fair, and targets are the element most likely…
The Power Grid is a simple and effective way of maintaining focus on ensuring the right strategy and overall approach is used when developing or negotiating with key accounts. Recommended by Alistair Taylor.
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