Managing customers directly

The business of value-selling and KAM

INTRODUCTION

There's an old question that haunts every revenue leader: "Is the juice worth the squeeze?" It's the moment when you've identified your most promising customers. The ones that could transform your business.

The challenge? You must decide how much energy, resources, and strategic focus to invest in winning and growing them.

Welcome to Stage 3 of our Customer Management journey: managing and developing the customers you've "anointed" to serve directly. These aren't just any customers. They're the ones that fall into three critical categories:

• Existing large customers you must protect (because losing them would hurt)
• Existing large customers you want to protect and grow (because the upside is potentially massive)
• Customers with little or zero sales today (but you recognise their future potential)

If you've decided these customers represent "the juice," then the next question becomes infinitely more practical: 

How exactly do I squeeze a bit harder?

Not all customers are created equal.

Here's where most organisations stumble: They treat all "key customers" the same way, applying a one-size-fits-all approach that is as effective as using a chainsaw to burst a pimple.

Your key customers exist on a spectrum: Local, Regional, Global, Strategic. Each type demands a different approach, resources, and relationship models. What works for a local key customer operating in one country will fail spectacularly when applied to a global customer with operations across multiple continents.

The brutal truth? Most firms fail at Key Account Management because they don't have the basics in place. They don't know how to sell value. Worse still, they don't understand what value is in the first place.

If you're new to introducing KAM or need traction after a few failed attempts, start with a solid Value-Based Selling program.

Walk before you can run.

Master the fundamentals of value creation and articulation before attempting Key Account Management's strategic complexities.

In today's turbulent trading environment, customer buying behaviour has shifted dramatically. Customers don't want to invest energy meeting suppliers directly unless those suppliers can provide significant, demonstrable value to their operations.

The result? Most suppliers find themselves serving 80% of their business through third-party distributors and digital channels. This reality puts enormous pressure on suppliers to answer four critical questions:

1. How do they add genuine value?
2. How do they organise themselves to deliver it?
3. What structure and people do they need?
4. What exactly constitutes "value" anyway?

Here's the mindset shift you need:

KAM is Strategy: "Customer By Customer."

It's not about managing accounts but crafting bespoke strategies for individual customers that create mutual value. Value-Based KAM sits at the intersection of three disciplines:

• Sales (the engine that drives revenue)
• Strategy (the thinking that creates sustainable advantage)
• Innovation (the capability that delivers differentiated solutions)

Supplying value to strategic customers is fundamentally different from selling products. It requires a more strategic approach, one focused on creating, delivering, and capturing real value for both customer and supplier.

The reality check: Why most KAM initiatives fail.

According to Gartner, most firms fail to realise the expected results from their KAM programmes.

That's not a comforting statistic when you're about to invest significant resources in a KAM transformation.

But failure isn't inevitable. The companies that master KAM and position themselves as the most influential suppliers in their industries follow five critical principles.

I have found that these factors contribute to successful KAM programme results.

Five Principles for KAM Success

1. Build Your Own House First

The Principle: Work out who your key accounts are.

Please be careful about this decision.

Most importantly, recognise that you have different "types" of key customers, each requiring a different management approach. A global customer with potential business across multiple markets demands a strategy different from a local key customer operating primarily in one country.

Stop doing this: Buy "The Big Book of KAM" and apply it uniformly to all key customers. That's like using enterprise software to manage a corner shop. It is the wrong tool for your specific purpose.

Start doing this: Design a model that works for YOUR business, YOUR customers, and YOUR industry context.

Quick Diagnostic Questions:

• Can you clearly articulate why each key account deserves that designation?
• Do you have different management approaches for different types of key accounts?
• Are you using tools and processes sized appropriately for each customer relationship?

2. Focus on the Most Important Thing

The Principle: Customers don't buy KAM. They buy the value that suppliers provide.

Your Key Account Manager might be the conduit that makes things happen, but customers actually purchase unique offers that provide unique value. This is a KAM fundamental: you identify high potential in a customer, designate them as a key account, and then provide something different for that customer that you don't offer to "non-key" customers.

This differentiation doesn't have to be complex or expensive. Sometimes simple changes make the biggest difference.

Real Example: One client started providing dedicated packaging designers/consultants for a key customer. Instead of just supplying "bespoke packaging," they offered a named expert for all packaging development issues. Over time, the customer began requesting packaging advice for categories outside the supplier's core offering. They started effectively purchasing consulting services. This simple change drove significant sales growth in the category.

Quick Diagnostic Questions:

• What specific value do you provide to key accounts that other customers don't receive?
• Can you articulate this unique value in terms that your customers would recognise and value?
• Are your differentiated offerings driving measurable business results?

3. Win Hearts and Minds (The Rest Will Follow)

The Principle: KAM is a fundamentally different way of working that requires internal alignment.

One of the biggest challenges for Key Account Managers is aligning resources within their organisation. It is surprisingly difficult to get people to focus their thinking, time, and energy on specific customers.

The secret lies in having Key Account Managers who can effectively network and engage their organisation. They need to build personal connections across teams, functions, and leadership levels to help create, develop, and deliver customer value propositions.

This is a real skill. It's about influence without authority, relationship building across silos, and internal selling of customer strategies.

Quick Diagnostic Questions:

• Do your Key Account Managers have strong internal networks?
• Can they mobilise resources across functions for customer initiatives?
• Are internal stakeholders genuinely behind/committed to key customer strategies