The 4 tensions that sacrifice your tomorrow for today.
If you work in Key Account Management, you're living in a world of constant tension. Not the uncomfortable kind that gives you a migraine (though sometimes that happens too), but the productive one that drives daily business decisions.
Like a tightrope walker balancing between two towers, successful Key Account Managers must find their equilibrium between competing business priorities. If you go too far in either direction, the performance of your entire account strategy could falter.
In my work with organizations across multiple industries, I've observed that the most successful KAMs don't eliminate these tensions, they harness them. They understand that excellence comes not from choosing one approach over another, but from knowing when to apply a toolbox of techniques at the right time and in the right measure.
The four tensions can be seen in figure (1) and were first published in Infinite Value / Bloomsbury 2016 / Davies
They are:
- Results and performance (the period that the supplier focuses on for sales impact)
- Focus ( Are you looking to deliver your agenda or the customer's?)
- Value proposition (How do you frame and describe the impacty of your goods and services?)
- Risk & reward (Do you see the need to change?)
Looking a bit deeper, the four fundamental business tensions that impact your KAM performance and discover how to navigate them effectively can be describes as:
Tension 1
Results & performance
The Next Quarter vs. The Next 1-2 Year
If we don't make this quarter's numbers, we won't be around to see next year's strategy anyway - so go and sell..
This is perhaps the most immediate tension that Key Account Managers face. Your leadership team wants immediate results, and your bonus structure probably rewards quarterly achievements. Yet your key accounts need long-term nurturing and strategic development.
The short-Term Focus (Next Quarter)
- Closing deals to hit immediate targets
- Meeting current customer needs with existing products
- Resolving immediate issues and maintaining relationships
- Driving volume and transactions through established channels
The Long-Term Focus (Next 1-2 Years):
- Developing strategic account plans that align with customer's future direction
- Building deep relationships across multiple stakeholder levels
- Positioning for growth opportunities that may take years to mature
- Creating value frameworks that capture lifetime value, not just immediate wins
How Skilled KAMs Navigate This Tension:
The best account managers don't view this as an either/or proposition. Instead, they build "stepping stone" strategies where short-term wins are deliberately designed to build toward long-term objectives. They're transparent with both their customers and their leadership about this approach.
For example, they might negotiate a smaller initial deal that solves an immediate customer need, but with contractual frameworks that establish pathways to broader implementation. Or they might accept a lower margin on initial business to secure a foothold that enables higher-margin opportunities over time.
When presenting to leadership, effective KAMs translate long-term potential into quarterly milestone achievements, helping everyone see how today's numbers feed tomorrow's growth. They become skilled at "chunking" long-term opportunities into measurable short-term progress points.
Tension 2
Focus
We know our products are excellent, but does the customer see the same value that we do?
The second key tension revolves around perspective. Are you leading with what you want to sell or what your customers need to buy?
The Inside-Out Approach:
- Leading with your product features and capabilities
- Positioning based on your organizational strengths
- Finding customers who fit your existing solutions
- Measuring success by how much of your portfolio you can place
The Outside-In Approach:
- Starting with deep understanding of customer challenges and objectives
- Developing solutions based on customer priorities, not yours
- Adapting your offerings to fit customer needs
- Measuring success by customer outcomes achieved
How Skilled KAMs Navigate This Tension:
The most effective account managers become bilingual. They are fluent in both their own company's capabilities and their customer's business language. They translate between these worlds constantly.
Rather than abandoning product knowledge, they contextualize it. They don't talk about what the product does; they discuss what the customer can achieve with it. They become experts at mapping internal capabilities to external needs.
Smart KAMs also recognize when their standard offerings won't meet customer needs and advocate internally for adaptations. They become the customer's voice inside their organization while simultaneously being their organization's translator to the customer.
One practical technique is to create dual-perspective value propositions for key opportunities. Document both the internal view ("what we want to sell and why") and the external view ("what the customer wants to buy and why"). Where they align, you have powerful momentum. Where they differ, you have work to do.
Tension 3
The Customer Value Proposition
Our products are excellent...but our competitors have excellent products as well - how do we stand out?
The third tension focuses on how you frame your value proposition. Is your differentiation product-based or solution-based?
The Products & Brands Approach:
- Emphasis on product features, quality, and brand reputation
- Competing primarily on product superiority
- Discussions centred on specifications and capabilities
- Value is measured by product performance
The Customer Solutions Approach:
- Emphasis on customer business outcomes and experiences
- Competing on understanding customer context and challenges
- Discussions centred on process improvement and business impact
- Value is measured by customer success metrics
How Skilled KAMs Navigate This Tension:
High-performing account managers don't abandon their product strengths, they build upon them. They start with solid product knowledge but quickly elevate the conversation to business outcomes.
They become adept at "solution storytelling." They construct narratives that begin with customer challenges, introduce capabilities as plot points, and conclude with business outcomes as the resolution. Their proposals integrate products into broader solutions frameworks that speak directly to customer priorities.
Skilled KAMs also excel at measurement frameworks that capture product performance and business impact. They track not only that the product is working as specified but that it's delivering the promised business value.
Perhaps most importantly, they manage customer expectations across both dimensions. They're clear about what the product will do technically and what outcomes the customer should expect operationally and financially.
Tension 4
Risk & Reward
We're successful today, but will our current approach keep us succesful tomorow?
The final tension concerns innovation and risk tolerance. How much should you change your approach to key accounts when current methods are still working?
Keep Doing What We've Always Done:
- Rely on established sales processes and methodologies
- Continue with the same service and delivery models
- Maintain existing products and incremental improvements
- Stick with familiar relationship patterns and buying processes
Innovate & Beat the Competition 'Customer by Customer':
- Experiment with new engagement models tailored to specific accounts
- Co-create novel solutions with individual customers
- Develop account-specific innovation pathways
- Challenge established buying patterns with new approaches
How Skilled KAMs Navigate This Tension:
The best account managers are calculated risk-takers. They don't innovate for innovation's sake but constantly look for opportunities to deliver differentiated value through new approaches.
They create "innovation sandboxes" within their key accounts. These are controlled environments where new approaches can be tested without endangering the entire relationship. They might pilot new solutions in one division before rolling them out more broadly or create innovation committees with customer stakeholders to co-develop new approaches.
Effective KAMs also become skilled at risk management, not just risk avoidance. They identify potential failure points in new approaches and build safety nets around them. They're transparent with customers and internal stakeholders about what they're trying, why it matters, and how they'll measure success.
Perhaps most importantly, they reframe the risk equation. They help everyone understand that in rapidly changing markets, maintaining the status quo often represents the greatest risk.
Finding your balance: The Value-Based Approach.
These four tensions aren't problems to be solved: they're polarities to be managed. Excellence in Key Account Management doesn't come from eliminating these tensions, but from developing the agility to navigate them effectively.
The value-based approach to KAM provides this framework. By focusing on customer value creation rather than product transactions, skilled account managers can:
1. Balance short and long-term performance by showing how immediate wins build toward lasting value
2. Integrate inside-out and outside-in perspectives by mapping capabilities to outcomes
3. Combine product excellence with solution thinking by "nesting" products within outcome frameworks
4. Balance innovation and consistency by creating safe spaces to experiment with new value creation approaches
The pathway to exceptional KAM performance doesn't eliminate these tensions it harnesses them. By embracing both sides of each polarity and developing the judgment to know when to emphasize each approach, today's account managers can deliver both quarterly results and long-term strategic value.
In a business environment where suppliers are increasingly commoditised and price pressure is relentless, this balanced value-based approach isn't just nice to have, it is becoming essential for survival.
The question isn't whether you'll face these tensions in your key account relationships. The question is: How effectively will you navigate them?
When you are ready, there are a few ways I can help.
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Footnote
The insights, strategies, and opinions shared in this newsletter reflect the author's personal perspectives and experiences. While we strive to provide valuable and actionable information, please use your own judgment when implementing any recommendations. Results may vary based on your specific circumstances, market conditions, and implementation approach. The author and publisher accept no liability for decisions made based on this content. You're the expert in your business, we're just here to spark ideas!
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