Kevin Wilson & Diana Woodburn 
Handbook of Strategic Account Management 
A Comprehensive Resource

A compilation of the established knowledge in strategic account management

While companies and academics expend tremendous effort on mass marketing, they often overlook their immediate customers (which are critical in both senses) and hence the importance of strategic account management (SAM). This handbook is a compilation of papers that present researched knowledge of SAM across the academic community which fills a void in the existing academic literature. Handbook of Strategic Account Management identifies drivers of the SAM approach, key issues and success factors, operational needs and areas still awaiting exploration. Each paper includes an overall referenced summary of the tenets of SAM relevant to the area it reports, and together with the combined list of references, it creates an indispensable resource for academic readers, students, and researchers.

Handbook of Strategic Account Management is written by over 40 knowledgeable experts with substantial experience of SAM from teaching, researching, writing and advising companies on why and how it works, spread widely across Europe and the US. It represents the balanced, researched body of knowledge in SAM and will be an invaluable resource to anyone exploring the approach, whether for a student thesis, for original research or for answers on how to approach SAM as a company initiative.

‘Today’s strategic, key and global account management professionals owe thanks to a small community of academic researchers who, over the past three decades have been pioneers in identifying, cataloguing and analyzing the selling and business management practices of an emerging profession we now call strategic account management. This Handbook is an important milestone to mark SAM’s still evolving impact on corporate business strategies and its ever-increasing relevance as a proven engine for growth in business-to-business strategic customer relationships.’

Bernard Quancard, President & CEO of SAMA (US-based Strategic Account Management Association with over 3, 000 members worldwide)

Table of Content

Acknowledgements vii

The editors ix

About this book xi

Key strategic account management: where are we now? 1

Editors Woodburn and Wilson

Section 1: Strategic dimensions of KSAM 35

Making the case for managing strategic accounts 37

Capon and Mihoc

Drivers for key account management programmes 53

Brehmer and Rehme

KSAM as an organizational change: making the transition 77

Woodburn

Switching costs in key account relationships 103

Sengupta, Krapfel and Pusateri

The strategic buyer: how emerging procurement strategies may
support KAM/SAM relationships 115

Croom

Social and ethical concerns in strategic account management:
emerging opportunities and new threats 141

Piercy and Lane

Section 2: Value creation through KSAM 169

Value in strategic account management 171

La Rocca and Snehota

Value dimensions and relationship postures in dyadic ‘key
relationship programmes’ 191

Henneberg, Pardo, Mouzas and Naudé

‘Vertical coopetition’: the key account perspective
205

Lacoste

Key account management in business markets: an empirical test of
common assumptions 227

Ivens and Pardo

Strategic account plans: their crucial role in strategic account
management 245

Mc Donald and Woodburn

Using customer profitability and customer lifetime value to
manage strategic accounts 267

Lemmens and Vanderbiesen

Section 3: Developing KSAM programmes 287

A configurational approach to strategic account management
effectiveness 289

Homburg, Workman and Jensen

The appropriateness of the key account management organization
317

Wengler

Organizational structures in global account management 337

Yip and Bink

Strategic account management programmes: alignment of design
elements and management practices 355

Storbacka

Global customer team design: dimensions, determinants and
performance outcomes 379

Atanasova and Senn

Key accountization at Bosch Automotive Aftermarket Italy:
managing and implementing a strategic change 405

Guenzi

Section 4: Operationalizing KSAM 419

Recent developments in relationship portfolios: a review of
current knowledge 421

Zolkiewski

Account portfolio management: optimizing the customer portfolio
of the firm 441

Gök

Strategic account management processes at corporate,
relationship and annual level 461

Ojasalo

Developing strategic key account relationships in
business-to-business markets 495

Wilson

The role of the key/strategic account manager 515

Wilson and Holt

The influence of personality on the job performance of strategic
account managers 539

Mahlamäki, Uusitalo and Mikkola

References 555

Author profiles 605

Index 615

About the author

Diana Woodburn researches, writes, teaches and consults
in Key/Strategic Account Management. She started exploring the
subject in 1997, and in 1998 she set up Cranfield’s KAM Best
Practice Club with Professor Malcolm Mc Donald, with whom she wrote
Key Account Management: The Definitive Guide (3rd
edition 2011). She has taught thousands of key account managers and
directors about KSAM and developed much of the teaching material
used in the subject. Her prior career in marketing covered a wide
range of sectors and continents.

Kevin Wilson is a Professor of Marketing at Kedge
Business School in Bordeaux where he holds the Chair of Selling and
Client Relationships. He is a researcher, writer and presenter of
over twenty years standing in the field of strategic account
management, a past board member of the Strategic Account Management
Association (SAMA) and a founder of the Sales Research Trust. He
has published over 70 academic and practitioner articles and two
books on the subject, Harnessing Global Potential for SAMA
(2000) and Successful Global Account Management Wiley,
(2002).

Contributors: Yana Atanasova, Audrey Bink, Per-Olof
Brehmer, Noel Capon, Simon Croom, Osman Gök, Paulo Guenzi,
Stephen Henneburg, Sue Holt, Christian Homburg, Björn Ivens,
Ove Jensen, Robert Krapfel, Antonella La Rocca, Sylvie Lacoste,
Nikala Lane, Régis Lemmens, Tommi Mahlamaki, Malcolm Mc Donald,
Florin Mihoc, Toni Mikkola, Stefanos Mouzas, Peter Naudç,
Jukka Ojasalo, Catherine Pardo, Nigel Piercy, Michael Pusateri,
Jakob Rehme, Sanjit Sengupta, Christoph Senn, Ivan Snehota, Kaj
Storbacka, Olavi Uusitalo, Tom Vanderbiesen, Stefan Wengler, Kevin
Wilson, Diana Woodburn, John Workman, George Yip, Judy
Zolkwieski