The Seven Keys to Managing Strategic Accounts

Strategic accounts are your firm’s lifeblood: they play a critical role in its success or failure. The Seven Keys to Managing Strategic Accounts is filled with best practices and examples of how to intelligently manage key interactions and relationships with these vital accounts mdash; for greater loyalty, higher profitability, and consistent competitive advantage.

Let this hands-on guidebook’s compelling case studies and examples help you to:

• Create firm-wide alignment and commitment to meeting the needs and expectations of strategic accounts
• Develop multilevel relationships within these accounts, from line managers to upper executives
• Continually quantify and communicate the value delivered to and received from strategic accounts

Discover how today’s marketing leaders are designing and implementing cost-effective, results-oriented strategic account programs, and how you can follow their lead, in The Seven Keys to Managing Strategic Accounts.

• Preface
• Why This Book
• What Qualifies Us to Address this Topic?
• Who Will Benefit From Reading this Book?
• What is a Strategic Account?
• S4 Consulting Acknowledgments
• Miller Heiman Inc. Acknowledgments
• For the Reader Thinking, "I Can t Read the Whole Book. Which Chapters Would Help Me Most?"
• Chapter 1: Introduction: What is Strategic Account Management?
• What is Strategic Account Management?
• How Does Strategic Account Management Differ From Key Account Selling?
• Key Account Selling Programs and Strategic Account Management Programs: A Comparison
• Reynolds & Reynolds — Southeast Toyota: An Example of Alignment
• The Benefits to Southeast Toyota
• The Benefits to Reynolds & Reynolds
• The Future of the Reynolds & Reynolds SET Relationship
• Part 1: Getting Everyone Headed in Roughly the Same Direction: What Didn't Work
• Chapter 2: Key 1: Define Strategic Account Management as a Business Rather Than a Sales Initiative
• Create Cross-Functional Executive Leadership
• Understand and Align Around Accounts' Business Challenges
• Start Strategic Account Management Programs as Business Initiatives: Honeywell Industrial Automation and Control Solutions
• The Minnesota Power Story
• Drivers for Minnesota Power's Strategic Account Realignment
• What Key Players Did to Strategically Realign Minnesota Power
• Initial Successes in Minnesota Power's Strategic Realignment
• Minnesota Power Realigns Around Critical Customers
• Why Minnesota Power Succeeded at Strategic Realignment
• Define Strategic Account Management as a Business Rather Than a Sales Initiative
• Chapter 3: Key 2: Create Firm Alignment and Commitment to Meet Strategic Accounts' Needs and Expectations
• What is Organizational Alignment? — Three Critical Elements
• What are the Benefits of Alignment?
• What Makes Alignment so Difficult?
• How can a Firm Create Organizational Alignment?
• How Account Aligned is Your Firm?
• Knauf Fiberglass Case — Video Focus Groups and Employee SWAT Teams
• Marriott International's Alliance Account Directors and Their "Volunteer Army"
• Create Firm Alignment
• Chapter 4: Key 3: Start with the Right Number of the Right Strategic Accounts
• Ways to Examine Strategic Accounts
• How to Conduct a High-Level Portfolio Analysis: The Six-Question Meeting
• The Gfk Custom Research Inc. Story: How One Firm Cut 66 Percent of its Customers, Doubled its Revenues, Tripled its Margins, and Won the Baldrige Award
• Using Strategic Account Selection Criteria
• Start with the Right Number of the Right Strategic Accounts
• Part 2: Tactical Issues in Strategic Account Management … Ironbolt Steel and Executive Visits: What Didn't Work
• Chapter 5: Key 4: Create Human Resources Support for Strategic Account Managers
• How do We Select Strategic Account Managers?
• The H. R. Chally Strategic Account Manager Competency Model
• The S4 Consulting Strategic Account Manager Competency Model 4 Categories
• How Do We Develop Strategic Account Managers?
• Strategic Account Manager Training: The Motorola LMPS Story
• How Do We Assign Strategic Account Managers?
• How Do We Pay Strategic Account Managers?
• The IBM Global Story
• Create Human Resources Support for Strategic Account Managers
• Chapter 6: Key 5: Create Firmwide Relationships at Multiple Levels of Relationships Between the Firm and its Most Critical Accounts
• Relationship Map Checklist
• The Strategic Account Loss Cycle
• Preventing the Strategic Account Loss Cycle
• The U.S. West/Dayton Hudson Story
• The 3M/IBM Storage Story
• Create Firmwide Relationships
• Chapter 7: Key 6: Regularly Quantify and Communicate the Value Received From and Delivered to Strategic Accounts
• Quantify the Value Strategic Accounts Provide
• Boise Office Solutions
• Quantify the Value Delivered to Strategic Accounts
• The Holland Hitch Story
• The National Office Supplies Story
• Regularly Quantify and Communicate the Value Received From and Delivered to Strategic Accounts
• Chapter 8: Key 7: Use Technology Judiciously
• A High-Level Overview of CRM Systems Challenges
• Seven Steps to Successful Systems Implementation for Strategic Account Management Programs
• The UPS Story: The Development of the LINK System
• Use Technology Judiciously
• Part 3: From Analysis to Action… Ticonderoga Chemical and Strategic Account Management: The Payoff
• Chapter 9: Conclusion: From Analysis to Action: Moving the Game Forward
• Benefit Number One: Strategic Account Management's Sustainable Competitive Advantage
• Benefit Number Two: Strategic Account Management's Greater Account Loyalty
• Benefit Number Three: Strategic Account Management's Greater Account Profitability
• The Marriott-Deloitte & Touche Story
• The Value Delivered to Deloitte & Touche
• The Value Delivered to Marriott International
• A Game Plan for Moving Forward
• The Getting-Started Actions
• Results

A very good overview on how to manage Strategic accounts and how they fundamentally differs from Key accounts. It could have been more in-depth, but as an overview it works splendidly.

Recommended reading, especially as it ain't very long.