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.

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

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.​

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.

With a free CD ROM containing key account selection software and planning tools. Any organization's key accounts are its lifeblood. This highly practical book puts forward a unique yet simple planning methodology for identifying, obtaining, retaining and developing key customers. Completely updated and revised with lots of new material to reflect the latest best practice, this edition will reinforce its standing as the premier book on the subject. This is one of very few books to take the long-term, team-selling strategic view of Key Account Management (KAM). Apart from finding great resonance with business practitioners all over the world, Key Account Management has established itself on many academic reading lists. Translated into five languages, it was also short-listed for Business Book of the Year in Sweden (2002). This new edition features: lots of new case studies; several new chapters; significant updates on Selecting Key Customers, Key Account plans and the use of IT; a new and updated CD ROM containing the Insight key account selection software and planning tools.

Business to business markets are considerably more challenging than consumer markets and as such demand a more specific skillset from marketers. Buyers, with a responsibility to their company and specialist product knowledge, are more demanding than the average consumer. Given that the products themselves may be highly complex, this often requires a sophisticated buyer to understand them. Increasingly, B2B relationships are conducted within a global context. However all textbooks are region-specific despite this growing move towards global business relationships – except this one. This textbook takes a global viewpoint, with the help of an international author team and cases from across the globe. Other unique features of this insightful study include: placement of B2B in a strategic marketing setting; full discussion of strategy in a global setting including hypercompetition; full chapter on ethics and CSR early in the text; and detailed review of global B2B services marketing, trade shows, and market research. This new edition has been fully revised and updated with a full set of brand new case studies and features expanded sections on digital issues, CRM, and social media as well as personal selling. More selective, shorter, and easier to read than other B2B textbooks, this is ideal for introduction to B2B and shorter courses. Yet, it is comprehensive enough to cover all the aspects of B2B marketing any marketer needs, be they students or practitioners looking to improve their knowledge.