Implementing KAM 2: the KAM Framework

18th December 2018 |   Javier Marcos, Mark Davies, Rodrigo Guesalaga & Sue Holt

As we explore how to build a KAM programme, we need to consider strategy – customer by customer.

In the first article of this series inspired and adapted from our book Implementing KAM, we explored the reasons why KAM is becoming critical for selling organisations and the customers they serve, why a shift towards a customer-centric approach is critical, and how a greater focus on understanding and communicating value to a much greater depth than may have been considered previously is necessary.

This article provides more context to this initial premise and describes guidance for companies that want to shift and develop their organisation so that it can consistently deliver growth by providing quantifiable value to more complex key customers. This is a challenge, and one that we have found many organisations struggle with. There is often an underestimation of the challenges that a shift towards a KAM business model presents.

Implementing Key Account Management book

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Javier Marcos is the Director of Learning for Performance, a boutique sales training firm. He is a Visiting Fellow of Cranfield School of Management and a member of the board of Trustees of the Association of Professional Sales (APS).

Mark Davies is the Managing Director of Segment Pulse Limited and a Cranfield University Visiting Fellow, where he has co-directed the KAM Best Practice Club for ten years.

Rodrigo Guesalaga is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Management at Cranfield University, and leads the Key Account Management and Strategic Sales Forum.

Sue Holt is an independent educator and consultant, a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield School of Management, and a Visiting Professor at IESEG School of Management.