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endeavour to influence buying rather than
overtly sell.
Rather than mouth generalizations, ‘winners’
concentrate upon specific and practical
steps to build relationships. They are prepared
to commit, to extend partnership to the terms
of business, and to integrate processes and
systems. As a consequence of their attitudes
and approach winners realize the many benefits
of strategic customer relationships that
elude the losers.
Overall, these findings reveal a wide spectrum
of effectiveness and considerable potential
for improvement. By their own admission,
even the winners could do much better
(Hurcomb, 1998).
Improving key account
management
Turning to what needs to be done, in many
companies key account managers (KAMs)
have prime responsibility for customer relationship
management and business development
through cross-selling and winning new
accounts within the sectors for which they are
responsible. A first step would be to review
their responsibilities in relation to those of
other staff in order to address any gaps, overlaps
and boundary issues.
A profile of the competences and ‘role
model’ behaviours required by an effective
KAM could be developed and agreed, and
KAMs assessed against it to identify personal
and team development needs. Important next
steps might be to define and agree a key
account development process, a customer relationship
management process, and a process
for winning business in competitive situations.
It may be necessary to develop or acquire
the approaches, tools and techniques needed
to cross-sell and win and retain accounts.
These might include the thirty tools in the
‘The Contract Bid Manager’s Toolkit’
(Bartram, 1999), the twenty skills profiled in
the ‘Bidding for Business, the Skills Agenda’
(Kennedy, 1999) report and a suggested systematic
approach to key account management
(Hurcomb, 1998).
Customer relationship managers and KAMs
may require training, individually or as a
group. Collaborative arrangements can supplement
skills, experience and reference sites
in areas of relative deficiency. Communicators
ought to be able to provide help and support
in the development of communication and
relationship building skills.
The allocation of existing customers and
eligible prospects to individual KAMs should
reflect the sectors in which they and the company
and its partners have particular expertise
and distinctive strengths. Rules, arrangements
and terms covering access to the staff of partners
and the use of their know-how for business
development, customer support and
service delivery purposes may need to be
negotiated.
Revenue and profitability targets for each
sector and KAM should reflect corporate strategy
and priority objectives. Specific business
development and marketing plans may be
needed for particular sectors. Communicators
may wish to participate in the formulation of
account development plans for existing key
accounts, and account capture plans for
eligible target accounts.
The Winning Business Research Programme
(see www.luton.ac.uk/cfc) has produced
reports on the critical success factors for winning
business in particular business sectors
and various professions. KAMs could use these
to identify ‘best practice’ approaches. Specific
sector and cross-sector applications, offerings,
events and marketing materials may also need
to be developed.
© 2004 Sandra Oliver for editorial matter and selection;
individual chapters, the contributors