Cranfield KAM Forum online

11th January 2022 |   Richard Vincent

Reports from the Q2 and Q3 sessions

While things are slowly returning to normal, the Cranfield KAM Forum seminars are continuing to complement the regular face-to face meetings that will resume when it is safe to do so.

The webinars continue to address both strategic and operational themes and personal development topics of interest for key account managers. In this series, there were six subjects of great interest to anyone already involved with or in the process of introducing, Key Account Management.

  • Getting inside the head of a buyer – John Viner-Smith, Visiting Fellow Cranfield University and founding partner of Amplius Partners.
  • KAM strategy masterclass: What techniques can be used to capture customer insights? – Mark Davies, Visiting Fellow of Cranfield University and Managing Director of Segment Pulse Limited.
  • One Golden Nugget – Steven Foster founder of One Golden Nugget, on a journey to raise the consciousness of humanity by sharing wisdom, truth, vulnerability positivity and kindness.
  • What makes someone truly influential? – Gordon Glenister marketing expert and consultant with a specialism in influence and building value-added trust; Author of the 2021 book Influencer Marketing Strategy.
  • Who are the Institute of Sales Professionals? – Andy Hough CEO of the ISP and Visiting Fellow Cranfield University.
  • How can strategic suppliers and strategic procurement collaborate more effectively? – Dr Jurgen Scherer, Former GVP Sales/KAM Cognis (now BASF).

Getting inside the head of a buyer (or what techniques and tips can you adopt to improve your commercial strategic negotiations?)

John Viner-Smith has a Master’s in International Purchasing, and has been a senior category manager at JP Morgan, Dixons Stores Group and BP. He is a Founding Partner at Amplius Partners and a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield University.

Key account managers and others involved in sales often feel that all of the power lies with the buyers and the purchasing professionals, but in practice ten times more money is spent on training salespeople than on training purchasing people – and very often, the buyers have significant concerns too. Understanding that can be a great help in planning your negotiations.

Richard Vincent

Fellow at Cranfield University | + posts

Richard Vincent spent nearly 29 years at HP and Hewlett Packard Enterprise where he specialised in Strategic Business Operations and Key Account Management. He is a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield University where he has been an active member of the Key Account Management and Strategic Sales forum, since its early days. He is also a self-employed consultant, helping companies build long-term profitable relationships with complex and demanding customers.