Book description
"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.
Diana Woodburn
BSc MSc MBA FCIM
Diana is the Managing Director of
Marketing Best Practice, a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield School of
Management and Associate Fellow at Warwick Business School. In 1998,
together with Malcolm McDonald, she founded Cranfield's KAM Best
Practice Research Club of blue-chip companies, which has proved a
major driving force in understanding and advancing KAM. An
exceptionally experienced practitioner, she has developed the key
account management capabilities of leading companies and about three
thousand of their people worldwide, through consultancy, teaching,
coaching and writing. She has created some of the most popular
concepts and tools in KAM in use today.
Email: woodburn@marketingbp. com
Malcolm McDonald
MA(Oxon), MSc, PhD, D. Litt. FCIM FRSA
Malcolm is Emeritus Professor of Marketing at Cranfield
University School of Management, where he was until recently Deputy
Director. Formerly Marketing and Sales Director of Canada Dry, he is
the author of forty three books, including the best seller, Marketing
Plans: How to prepare them, how to use them. He is Chairman of six
companies and works with the operating boards of major companies all
over the world, particularly helping them to take profitable advantage
of the opportunities afforded by the growing number of big, powerful
customers. Together with Diana Woodburn at Cranfield, he has been
researching best practice in key account management for over a decade.
He is also a Visiting Professor at Henley, Warwick, Aston and Bradford
Business Schools
Email: m. mcdonald@cranfield.
ac. uk
