Market-proven strategies to generate competitive advantage by identifying and always taking care of your best customers The Seven Keys to Managing Strategic Accounts provides decision makers with a proactive program for profitably managing their largest, most critical customers--their strategic accounts. Drawing on the expertise of S4 Consulting, Inc., a leading-edge provider of strategic account consulting, and Miller Heiman, a global sales training leader serving many Fortune 500companies, this how-to book shows how many of today's market leaders have learned to focus on their most profitable customers, avoiding or overcoming common errors before they become relationship-crippling disasters. Placing its total focus on the design and implementation of cost-effective strategic account management programs, this hands on book provides: A world-class competency model for strategic account managers Techniques for developing a program to manage and grow "co-destiny" relationships Examples and cases from Honeywell, 3M,and other leading corporations

"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.

Richard Santucci and David Hughes leverage their combined fifty plus years of experience in industrial sales in this guide that reveals how to take care of your most important customers. The Secrets of Successful Strategic Account Management begins by highlighting why companies must establish a strategic account program. The authors then lay out an easy-to-follow process to build such a program. The guide presents in layman’s terms a successful and proven process to enhance sales at twice a company’s average growth rate through strategic account management techniques. Learn how to: • identify strategic accounts; • select effective strategic account managers; • build out a team focused on bolstering business; • avoid common mistakes that cut into profits. Join the authors on a journey focused on boosting revenue growth and profitability, preventing losses, and converting customers into valued partners through strategic account management. “Santucci and Hughes have done a great job of laying out a playbook for developing a robust strategic account program, with some great tools and templates that will help the reader develop their own program.” —Naren Gursahaney, Non-Executive Chair of the Board-Terminix “The Secrets of Successful Strategic Account Management is the perfect blend of theory and implementation to guide your company in building strategic account management capabilities. Santucci and Hughes deliver insight and practical tips drawing upon their years of sales leadership. A superb handbook for corporate executives.” —Christopher Stevens-CEO, Unibloc-Pump, LLC

The current explosion in mergers and acquisitions has prompted a rapid change in the nature of sales straegies and ideologies. So say goodbye to traditional, tired and true systems, and say hello to customer consolidation, account partnerships and above all, increased sales pressure. It's a bold new business world, in which a firm's 'key' accounts are by far its most crucial assets. Recognising the central importance of managing key accounts, Noel Capon has written a timely and truly indispensable guide for the entire sales force, from the sales director to the key-account manager. He presents a powerful, step-by-step framework for developing domestic and global strategies, organising the process, managing the sales force, and effectively analyzing key accounts.

"With limited resources and increasing competition, managing strategic accounts requires a focused strategy, plan, and process. Developed collaboratively with world-class sales forces, the Large Account Management Process provides an enduring framework for protecting and growing your most important customer relationships."- Damon Jones, COO, Miller Heiman, Inc."The Large Account Management Process has implemented a discipline that allows people to work together and communicate, setting strategies and sales goals that benefit both our customers and our own company."- Joseph L Cash, senior vice president of sales, Equifax Corporation"Miller Heiman's Large Account Management Process delivers a disciplined process for gathering the information required to really understand the trends impacting our largest clients. This critical information defines the strategies that provide long-term customer value and drive consistently superior business results."- Paul Wichman, vice president and senior division sales manager, Schwab Institution'The New Successful Large Account Management' now in its third edition, is thoroughly revised and updated and takes into consideration recent changes in the industry. This hard-hitting and no-nonsense book advises you how to best manage your most important business accounts. The authors of the best-selling books The New Strategic Selling and The New Conceptual Selling provide comprehensive and practical lessons that will help you to protect and improve your most crucial customer relationships. By following their clearly definied and dynamic approach to the account planning process, you will learn how to devise a strategic action plan to manage your key accounts; manage them effectively and profitably; build long term client relationships; climb ahead of competitors and move your relationship up the buy-sell hierarchy. Whatever business you're in, this excellent book shows you how to protect those crucial accounts that you can't afford to lose.

Now more than ever, companies are faced with a critical and challenging truth. Today’s customer is demanding more attention, superior service, and the expertise of a dedicated sales team. Suppliers must make dif cult choices to determine how to allocate limited resources, including which customers receive the highest level of service. Increasingly, supply side organizations are working to design and implement key account programs to meet or exceed these expectations. Key account management is a specific business strategy that involves complex sales processes, large-scale negotiations, and the alignment of multiple internal and external stakeholders. This multi-pronged process is anything but straightforward, and the business world is filled with examples of key account programs that have not achieved the expected results. This book addresses the strategic challenges facing top executives and sales leaders as they build strategies to better manage their key accounts. By leveraging up-to-date research, testimonials drawn from interviews with experienced practitioners, best practices of successful companies, along with straightforward practical guide- lines for executives and sales leaders, this book can serve as an instruction manual and toolbox for organizations working to achieve success through their key account strategies to meet the demand of their key customers.

Key account management just got easier 'This little book is a real gem' Professor Malcolm McDonald Key account management is increasingly important and must keep pace with its customers as they continually develop and evolve, often resulting in increasingly sophisticated buying structures. The key account manager therefore requires a wide variety of skills in order to be successful; this is not only an important job role in its own right, it is often a stepping stone to career development, leading to more senior management jobs. Successful Key Account Management In A Week is a week long course. On Sunday you are encouraged to Know your customer as success depends on a relationship that is both rewarding and valuable. On Monday you will Analyse your growth opportunities. The competitiveness of the company must be appraised to enable the identification of sales growth opportunities and all major accounts should be compared in appeal and position to give an indication of the strategy to be adopted for customers. On Tuesday you will Measure profits by account. You will be shown how to measure the profitability of major customers and to draw up league tables to enable profit improvement strategies. On Wednesday you will Plan for success, building on the analysis of growth opportunities and profit measurement already considered, to result in a best judgement final plan. On Thursday you will learn to Negotiate to win-win; success relies on understanding the difference between negotiation and selling and being able to conduct negotiations to produce a win-win situation in which the objectives of both sides are considered. On Friday you will look at Control activity levels and the monitoring of standards of performance to enable the presentation of plans and progress, allowing the measurement of success against these plans. And finally, on Saturday you are reminded to Manage relationships with an introduction to the Relationship Model which describes how business with a customer changes as it moves from a transactional or short-term sales achievement, to collaboration with long-term customer value and retention. 'This little book is a real gem, which you should read, use and keep handy for continuous reference. If you follow the straightforward guidelines in this book, your company's future is assured' Professor Malcolm McDonald, Former Professor of Marketing and Deputy Director, Cranfield University School of Management