Stefan Wengler provides a well founded answer to the question of the economic value and shows the need for the implementation of key account management. He presents a comprehensive, but easy-to-handle decision-making model that supports the decision on the most efficient key account management organization for individual companies. In addition, he gives a comprehensive overview on the key account management conception and its controlling tools.

"This book is crammed with distilled, practical wisdom for key account managers and their directors. Organizations claiming to practise key account management should equip everyone involved with a copy, so they really understand what they are supposed to be doing. Anything less is just old-fashioned selling." Developing successful business-to-business relationships with more customers in highly competitive markets requires processes and skills that go beyond traditional selling activity. The very best state-of-the-art strategies are set out clearly in this book by intentionally known authors who have worked at the highest levels with more key and strategic account managers worldwide than probably any other leading advisors. Based on the hugely influential KEY CUSTOMERS it looks at: Why has account management become so critical to commercial success? What are the key challenges and how do successful companies respond? What part does key account management play in strategic planning? How do companies build profitable relationships with their customers? How does key account management actually work? What does a successful key account manager look like and what skills does he/she need? How should key account managers be evaluated and rewarded? How do companies achieve key account management? By addressing these key questions Woodburn and McDonald provide tools and processes for success honed by tough consultancy projects with the boards of some of the world's leading companies. The book stresses the elements that really matter - from developing a customer categorization system that really works and analyzing the needs of key accounts; to understanding the new skills required by key account managers and ensuring that key account plans are implemented. The 'real world' approach is backed by tested principles and the latest research from the renowned Cranfield School of Management. Key Account Management comes from authors who have taught leading companies how to approach their most powerful and demanding customers and still make money. It is essential reading for all senior management with strategic responsibility, for key or strategic account directors, and for marketing and sales executives. The clear and authoritative approach also makes it an outstanding text for the serious MBA and executive student as well as business-to-business company directors and key account managers.

This volume includes the full proceedings from the 2011 World Marketing Congress held in Reims, France with the theme The Customer is NOT Always Right? Marketing Orientations in a Dynamic Business World. The focus of the conference and the enclosed papers is on marketing thought and practices throughout the world. This volume resents papers on various topics including marketing management, marketing strategy, and consumer behavior. Founded in 1971, the Academy of Marketing Science is an international organization dedicated to promoting timely explorations of phenomena related to the science of marketing in theory, research, and practice. Among its services to members and the community at large, the Academy offers conferences, congresses and symposia that attract delegates from around the world. Presentations from these events are published in this Proceedings series, which offers a comprehensive archive of volumes reflecting the evolution of the field. Volumes deliver cutting-edge research and insights, complimenting the Academy’s flagship journals, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS) and AMS Review. Volumes are edited by leading scholars and practitioners across a wide range of subject areas in marketing science.​

Key account management is a natural development of customer focus and relationship marketing in business-to-business markets. It offers critical benefits and opportunities for profit enhancement to both sides of the seller/buyer dyad. Based on extensive and unique research by Cranfield School of Management, Key Account Management presents a new framework for understanding the development of key account relationships. It incorporates a comprehensive guide to the current practice of key account management, and comments on the challenges for the future of key account management practice. The research was based on in-depth interviews with key account managers, their managers and their main contacts in the customer organization. Addresses one of the key new areas in strategic marketing practice Ideal for practitioners and students Based on the unique expertise of the Cranfield Marketing Faculty

An organization's key accounts are its lifeblood. Key account management focuses on the long-term investment of resources in customers that can offer an exceptional return on resources. But which are the key accounts? Are they the ones growing the fastest? The ones that are most financially secure? Or are they the ones that shout the loudest? Key Account Management puts forward a straightforward and effective planning methodology. This fully updated 6th edition of Key Account Management takes a long-term, team-selling strategic view of the whole process, from defining the customer, to managing the relationship and achieving key supplier status. With coverage of latest best practice including IT's role in account management, plus new case studies, online supporting resources and a new section comparing how different industries/markets approach key account management, it stands alone as the premier book on managing key customers. Online resources include helpful templates, guides for students and lecturers, and self tests to ensure that best practice is being followed.

Implementing Key Account Management is a highly practical handbook that guides readers through the realities of rolling out a functional key account management programme. The book offers an integrated framework for key account management (KAM) that businesses can use to design or further develop strategic customer management programmes, enabling them to overcome the obstacles that organizations often face when rolling out their strategies. Bringing together the experiences of leading experts within this field, Implementing Key Account Management draws on two decades of research and best practice from Cranfield University School of Management, one of the foremost centres for researcher and thought leadership in KAM. Between them, the authors have designed and delivered programmes globally for clients such as Rolls-Royce, Unilever, Vodafone, The Economist and many more. Rigorously researched, well-grounded and practical, this book is - quite simply - the definitive, go-to resource for implementing key account management programmes.

This path-breaking Handbook is targeted primarily at marketing academics and graduate students who want a comprehensive overview of the academic state of the business-to-business marketing domain. It will also prove an invaluable resource for forward-thinking business-to-business practitioners who want to be aware of the current state of knowledge in their domains.