Mark Davies
Chair of the Association for Key Account Management and Visiting Fellow at Cranfield and Aston. Thirty years across engineering, operations and commercial strategy, advising blue-chip firms including MSD Animal Health and Zoetis. Author of Infinite Value and co-author of Implementing Key Account Management. He proved the method works before anyone wrote it down.
Writing by Mark
What the Technology Cannot Do
Last Thursday at the IET we showed a room of business owners a tool that draws a customer value proposition in seconds. Then we showed them the slide that matters more: the four things it will never do for you.
aiThe Johnny Cash Principle
A rockabilly band, a Cotswolds festival, and the moment everybody finally looked up: why every pitch should open with what your audience already knows, and the ABC model that makes it happen.
salesWhy you keep rebuilding your KAM programme
Four out of five sales organisations rebuild their key account programme every few years. The rebuild is treated as a failure of effort. It is almost always a failure of capability.
capabilityWhat is this customer actually worth to you?
Revenue tells you what a customer paid you. It says nothing about what they spent. The gap between the two is your share of wallet, and most account teams cannot state it within twenty points.
valueFive Steps to a High-Impact KAM Training Programme
Most key account management training fails because it treats KAM as a sales technique. Five steps to a KAM training programme that changes how people work.
capabilityFive Steps to Sell Anything: B2B Lessons From an Old Vase
For forty years I kept my keys in a rare piece of flambé pottery. What it taught me about hidden value, and five steps to stop B2B value evaporating.
salesFive Warren Buffett Principles for Key Account Managers
Warren Buffett's philosophy was never about the money. Five of his principles map closely onto what separates good key account managers from great ones.
capabilityThree Ways Key Account Management Powers B2B Innovation
Most B2B innovation dies after the lab, when someone has to sell it and make it work. Your key account managers are best placed to stop that happening.
capabilityCustomer Segmentation: The Kingpin of Customer Management
Most companies segment customers on last year's sales, and pay for it. Here is a five-stage method for customer segmentation that looks at future value instead.
planningSeven Reasons AI Makes Key Account Management More Critical
AI is dismantling traditional B2B selling. The same forces are making strategic key account management more valuable than ever. Here are seven reasons why.
aiThree Dolly Parton Principles for Key Account Managers
Dolly Parton was one of the sharpest business operators of her generation. Three principles she lived by map straight onto the key account manager's job.
capabilityProblem Framing: Define the Problem Before the Solution
Most lost proposals were lost before they were written, because nobody defined the customer's problem. Problem framing fixes that, and here is how to do it.
valueThe Missing Function Costing B2B Companies Millions
Most B2B firms have no one who owns how key customers are managed. Why you need a customer management centre of excellence, and ten steps to build one.
capabilitySell Me This Pen: Value Selling With the PAINS Method
Why most salespeople fail the 'sell me this pen' test, and how the P.A.I.N.S. value selling cycle fixes it: Problem, Agitate, Indicate, Navigate, Solution.
salesSelling Wins the B2B Game, and It Always Did
AI is not killing B2B selling. It is killing transactional selling, and the human conversations left behind are worth more than ever. Five skills that now matter.
salesThree Techniques to Understand Your Customer
You cannot solve a problem you do not understand. Three techniques to understand your customer: ten background questions, their outside world, and their inside.
planningThe Value-Based KAM Framework: 3 Phases, 7 Steps
Most key account programmes get rebuilt every few years. The Value-Based KAM Framework gives key account managers three phases and seven steps to grow sales.
capabilityThe 5-Stage Model for Breakout B2B Sales Growth
Brilliant products, flat sales? This 5-stage customer management model brings the rigour you use in R&D to strategy, segmentation, selling, channels and value.
planningKAM and Causal Ambiguity: Your Hidden Competitive Edge
Competitors can see your key account relationships but cannot copy them. That is causal ambiguity, and KAM may be the last advantage that resists imitation.
planningThree Things That Kill KAM Performance
Most key account management programmes fail before they start. Three things kill KAM performance: a generic offer, timid leadership and the wrong people.
capabilityIs Your KAM Programme Good Enough? 20 Questions
Talented people, smart templates, plenty of training, and key accounts still not growing? Score your KAM programme against 20 questions and find the gap.
capabilityValue-Based Pricing: Stop Letting the Buyer Set Your Price
Value-based pricing is the fastest route to profit most suppliers never take. Why price is set customer by customer, and how to hold it when buyers push.
valueHow Customer Value Propositions Power B2B Growth
Customers do not buy products or services. They buy better futures. How a customer value proposition gets the boardroom leaning in, and how to write one.
valueConsultative Selling: The 10 Dirty Little Secrets of B2B
None of the ten secrets of B2B consultative selling is complicated. The dirty part is how few companies act on them, and what that costs in margin and loyalty.
salesHow to Write a Compelling Strategy on One Page
Most executives cannot say what their strategy is. A six-step method for writing a compelling strategy on one page, and the habits that make it stick.
planningThe 8 Competences of Great Key Account Managers
Your best salesperson may be your worst key account manager. The eight competences that separate KAMs who grow strategic accounts from those who struggle.
capabilityCreating and Selling Customer Solutions: Five Tips
Is your customer solution really for the customer, or is it your product in a new wrapper? Five tips for creating and selling solutions key customers pay for.
valueThink Smarter: Critical Thinking for Key Account Managers
Most key account managers are winging it. Ten ways critical thinking, sharpened by AI, turns instinct into better decisions and strategic sales growth.
capabilityManaging Key Customers Directly: Five Principles for KAM
Is the juice worth the squeeze? Once you have chosen the key customers you will manage directly, five principles decide whether key account management pays off.
capabilityBuilding a Competitive Advantage with Channel Partners
Most suppliers treat channel partners as distribution points. Ten steps to manage them as customers and turn your supply chain into a competitive advantage.
planningThe Power of Channels: Why and When to Use Channel Partners
How much of your revenue reaches customers through someone else? Why channel partners matter, when to use them, and how value leaks out between the links.
planningAre You Selling or Solving? The Four Tensions of KAM
Every key account manager is pulled between this quarter and the next two years. Here are the four tensions that trade tomorrow for today, and how to hold them.
salesDo Your Strategic Customers Trust You?
Trust holds every key account together, yet it rarely makes the account plan. How to measure trust with strategic customers, and how to build it on purpose.
valueAre You a Strategic Supplier, or Just Another Cost?
You classify your customers. Their buyers are classifying you, using a 1983 matrix. Here is how the Kraljic Matrix works and how to become a strategic supplier.
valueThe Three Constant KAM Challenges, and How Value Fixes Them
Fifteen years of listening to key account managers produced the same three KAM challenges every time. All three have one root cause, and one way out.
valueWhat Is a Key Customer, Anyway?
Ask five senior leaders to name your top 10 customers and you will get five lists. Here is how to decide what makes a key customer, and why it matters.
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