Global Account Management

Global Account Management explains the challenges of establishing a global account strategy and guides the reader through the process of decisions and actions required to manage global accounts successfully. The book provides a thorough, workmanlike template for all businesses with global clients. Peter Cheverton highlights the difference between an international company operating in different markets and one that can be considered truly global. He explains that company directors need to understand whether a client has consistent needs across different countries, possesses a global operational structure, and has the ability to implement global decisions. Cheverton then details the factors critical to successful handling of a global account. The implications of making the wrong decisions in a global marketplace are enormous. Global Account Management gives readers the information and insight they need to ensure the future success of their companies.

Based on a major global research study into Global Account Management (GAM), Successful Global Account Managment shows companies how to adopt a radically different approach to dealing with their key accounts to operate as truly global suppliers.

"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.

Multinational companies need to manage their relationships with multinational customers with a globally integrated approach. This book provides a systematic framework for developing and implementing such global customer management programs. It draws on in-depth research at over 20 major U.S. and European multinational companies, such as ABB, Bechtel, BP, Bosch, British Airways, Carrefour, Daimler-Chrysler, Hewlett-Packard, HSBC, IBM, Schlumberger, Shell, Siemens, Tesco, Unilever, Vodafone, Wal-Mart, and Xerox. Readers will learn how to · think about managing global customers in the context of their overall global strategy · develop effective global customer management programs · overcome barriers to implementation and success · build better relationships with important customers · get the entire company to engage with managing global customers This book takes a strategic, total business, and not just sales approach to managing global customers. It also takes a customer as well as a supplier perspective. The book provides guidance on both strategy and implementation. Yip and Bink's Managing Global Customers takes a systematic and logic driven approach, yet provides many creative insights and practical advice. Managing Global Customers highlights the rewards of taking a step beyond global account management to create a Global Customer Management approach, integrating globally all aspects of the relationship between supplier and customer. The book gives a framework that guides international companies in using their relationships with global customers to their full potential. George Yip, author of the widely-praised Total Global Strategy, and Audrey Bink tackle in-depth one of the most important aspects of global strategy: How to manage global customers.

If you buy a new BMW you may be surprised as much by the owner's manual as by the car itself. Thin, personalized, and containing information only on the features you have selected in the language you speak, it is the result of a year's collaboration with Xerox that has radically improved the product and decimated costs. It is just one example of the new organizational structures and processes being developed at leading companies to serve the global marketplace. As firms realize that dealing with global customers is not simply an extension of key account management, their most common response is to launch a formal global account management initiative. Done well this is powerful and effective; however without proper planning it can spell disaster. Drawing on widely accepted 'key success factors' for global account management as well as new elements revealed by their research, David Hennessy and Jean-Pierre Jeannet redefine the process global account management around the premise that sustainable value springs only from an expert understanding of the customer's industry, its structure and its strategy. The book covers all critical aspects of the topic (the planning process, account selection, team building, executive support, global IT requirements, compensation structures and more) and draws on interviews with top global account managers at leading companies including IBM, Cable and Wireless, Siemens, HP, Guinness, Cisco, and Procter & Gamble.

Learn to effectively manage your global accounts from global account authorities! With practical and proven insight for developing and maintaining a global account program, MANAGING GLOBAL ACCOUNTS delivers invaluable tips for selecting global accounts, developing line organization, securing senior management commitment, finding effective account managers, demonstrating value, optimizing the global account relationship, and more.

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.

The vastly increased level of competitive intensity faced by corporations and the increased costs of selling have radically changed the nature of the traditional selling process. Key or "strategic" accounts have now become a company's most important asset, in some cases supplying in excess of 80 percent of a firm's revenues. Here, in one powerful volume, key account management expert Noel Capon provides the most comprehensive treatment of key account management and planning yet published. For the first time, Capon introduces his breakthrough four-part "congruence model" of key account management -- a new, thoroughly researched approach to optimally managing your key account portfolio. First, the author shows how to select and conceptualize the key account portfolio; second, how to organize and manage key accounts; third, how to recruit, select, train, retain, and reward key account managers; and fourth, how to formulate and execute strategy and issues of coordination and control. This congruence model serves as a backdrop as Capon takes the reader step-by-step through the vital functions of key account management including identifying key account criteria, considering the threats and opportunities for the key account, and understanding the roles and responsibilities of critical players. Capon backs up his points with extensive research, real-life stories of successes and failures at a variety of companies, and clarifying figures. Special chapters are devoted to partnering with key accounts and in-depth information on global key account management, an increasingly important weapon for staying ahead of the competition. Timely, important, and essential, Key Account Management and Planning is the only reference handbook those with key account responsibilities will ever need.