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This is a blow-by-blow set of instructions for building your key account matrix, firstly to select key accounts from your customer base and secondly to identify what kind of key accounts they are – because they are different, will behave differently and perform differently for your organisation. Developing a matrix view of them is a…
Professor Marco Sisti of SDA Bocconi University in Milan presented the matrix approach to key account selection at AKAM’s meeting in Paris. It’s important to consider carefully what criteria are applied to make up the axes of the matrix and whence the data to inform them is sourced, internally and externally. The matrix approach is…
Simon Hazeldine explains his three keys to KAM success. You should be mindful that “You will be delegated to people you sound like. Be a business-person not a salesperson.” Which has to be based on having a customer business-focused strategic key account development plan, with core elements identified by Simon. Sound, practical guidance for key…
In this Bulletin article AKAM Chair Diana Woodburn lays bare all the ways that companies get this wrong – and why getting it right matters so much! Including poor performers in the key account portfolio can bring down the whole KAM initiative. But still there are suppliers with a feeble process for selection – or…
In spite of its name – key account selection/categorisation matrix – the matrix has many more uses than choosing key accounts. It represents your organisation’s portfolio of key accounts, which should be managed, measured and assessed as a portfolio. The position of a customer in the matrix should be used to decide how much resource…
These two spreadsheets prefaced with instructions for use are designed to make the process of building the key account matrix easier for you. They make clear what data you need to collect and supply ready-made blank tables for inputting it. You really must give contributors scales to get some consistency across their ratings, so make…
Account segmentation is as fundamental to KAM as the differentiation that has to go with it. This report of the Programme Directors Forum complements the report on differentiation and digs into what segments are generally applied, and the well-established process for allocating customers to each. Segmentation is just the beginning: it leads to questions like…
Differentiation is a cornerstone of KAM, yet some companies seem to believe they are operating KAM without giving key accounts anything significantly different from other customers. Suppliers standardise to lower costs, gain efficiencies and avoid making mistakes, but this isn’t enough for key accounts to spend their valuable time with you. This report of AKAM’s…
In this podcast, John Bailey (Hiab), Armelle Dupont (Vetropack) and Diana Woodburn (AKAM) talk about how and why key accounts are chosen, and why some major accounts don’t make the cut. Key strategic accounts should be selected for their potential and willingness to partner, allied with their strategic fit with the supplier. But suppliers need…
Companies often make the mistake of applying the same compensation schemes to key account managers as they do to salespeople. Understandably, employees reckon that what they are incentivized for is what the organisation really wants from them. So if short term sales are incentivized, short term sales are the output – not KAM. In this…
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Stay focused and current with the expert knowledge and practitioner experience you’ll find in the AKAM Bulletin. Every two months you’ll get an injection of KAM news, thought-provoking articles and tools/ideas you can utilise.
