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Many companies are still unclear about what KAM is and what it takes to implement it successfully. Richard Ilsley starts with the basics and identifies the essential elements of KAM programmes, which still go beyond the minimal changes that many suppliers think will suffice – they won’t!
Managers have tried numerous structural and cultural adaptation methods to achieve integrated, cross-functional approaches but with limited success. But internal conflicts arising from attempts to integrate across functional and national barriers risk leading to customer dissatisfaction on a critical scale. KAM has succeeded in overcoming internal conflict where other approaches have failed.
In Lugano presenters and breakout discussion groups agreed that size wasn’t necessarily a crucial factor – SMEs often have an appropriate instinctive approach to key customers, but they may miss formalising some elements that would help KAM work better if they were clearer. Big companies are under more pressure to standardise initiatives because there are so many…
Companies frequently ask whether they have the right people for key account management (the answer is often ‘no’) and how they can tell if they are right people. In fact, the question should really be ‘What job do we want them to do?‘ If you start with the wrong job description, you are not likely to find…
KAM is misunderstood and misapplied in big Pharma. An interview with Paul Wilson of Viatris
How are they recognised, what do they do? Identifying highly successful key account managers requires measurement of success resulting from their work rather than the luck of the market, i.e. not revenue, which is often a false indicator. Richard Ilsley explores the traits of highly successful account managers, such as willingness not only to embrace change, actively looking…
This article argues that training paths for key account managers should depend on the development stage of the organisation’s KAM initiative: simple and focused in companies starting a KAM initiative, but further enriched for companies with an established KAM programme. Either way, an ideal start point is an individual KAM Competencies Reference Framework and an…
Is the company itself fit for KAM? Key account managers cannot deliver KAM on their own – the organisation has an important role to play in KAM, so it must also have the competencies/capabilities needed to fulfil that role. A high-level litmus test of appropriate capabilities is a good starting point for discussion of the extent to…
There is a lot of unhelpful confusion around Account Management and Key Account Management and a lack of clarity about the difference in nature and goals. AM is a plain necessity for B2B suppliers, while KAM is a strategic choice that should be a core element of the operating model and strategic capabilities of the organisation. Companies with…
Changing the reward system is one of the adaptations to KAM that organisations are most reluctant to change, but poorly focused reward schemes – usually sales volume based incentives – are not merely an unfortunate detail that will need to be sorted out at some stage: they can be a major driver in the wrong direction…
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