Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

Figure 14.11 
The transition from customer to strategic partner
Conventional buyer–seller relationship
Major account resource commitment
Major account orientation
Strategic account partnership
Selling
organisation
Selling
organisation
Relationship between buyer and seller
may be transactional or relational
Seller commits significant resources to
specialising in the account
Buyer and seller have a strategic relationship
based on collaboration and joint decision making
Seller has dedicated efforts to managing
the account because of its importance
Buying
organisation
Buying
organisation
Selling
organisation
Selling
organisation
Buying
organisation
Buying
organisation

---

410
CHAPTER 14 STRATEGIC CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT AND THE STRATEGIC SALES ORGANISATION
literature, a Google search reveals hundreds of Web pages detailing managerial books about 
SAM, countless consultants eager to offer advice, numerous training courses for executives 
and a growing number of business school programmes in SAM in universities across the 
world. The underlying concept is the shift from adversarial buyer–seller relationships 
towards collaborative or partnership-based relationships, with the company’s most impor-
tant customers.
Many major international companies have made SAM an important element of how 
they manage relationships with their largest customers. For example, IMI plc is a major 
UK engineering group, whose published strategy statement identifies SAM as a key theme 
in achieving its goal of ‘leading global niche markets’. The company is investing heavily:
to enhance our ability to create and manage close customer relationships with our clients 
[and] provide IMI business managers with the skills to create and develop close and suc-
cessful relationships with major customers. . . which places key account management 
among the central elements of IMI’s business approach.
(IMI, 2010)
For a growing number of companies, SAM is a deep-seated strategy for customer partner-
ing, often on a global basis.
At the same time, many major buyers have adopted radical strategic supplier strategies. For 
example, Ford Motor Company has spent considerable time and effort in recent years consoli-
dating its supply base for its $90 billion components purchases from 2,000 suppliers down to 
1,000 globally. Moreover, the first seven ‘key suppliers’ constitute some 50 per cent of Ford’s 
parts purchases, and will enjoy superior access to Ford’s engineering resources and product 
planning. Ford will work closely with its key suppliers, giving them access to key business 
plans for new vehicles and committing to give them business (Mackintosh and Simon, 2005).
On one hand, a compelling case can be made for the attractiveness of SAM as a strategy 
of collaboration and partnership with major customers. However, there are several assump-
tions and propositions underpinning the case for SAM, which appear to have been largely 
ignored by its adopters and advocates. As suggested in Figure 14.12, balancing these issues 
is an important challenge for strategic decision makers in marketing.
14.6.2 The case for strategic account management
One study suggests that strategic/key account management is one of the most fundamental 
changes in marketing organisation (Homburg et al., 2000), and yet one in which a sound 
research foundation to guide management’s strategic decisions remains almost completely 
lacking (Homburg et al., 2002). Indeed, while there is a long stream of research in the areas 
of national and key account selling, starting in the 1960s, this research has not addressed the 
long-term impact of SAM on buyer–seller performance (Workman et al., 2003).