Thinking that compounds.

Posts carry the argument as it develops. Resources are the tools and decks we keep current. Both free to use on a real account this week. The vocabulary lives in the glossary.

Latest posts

19 September 2026 · Mark Davies

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.

ai

12 August 2026 · Mark Davies

The 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.

sales

5 August 2026 · Mark Davies

Why 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.

capability

28 July 2026 · Richard Brooks

The Plan in the Filing Cabinet

Somewhere in your organisation there is a key account plan that nobody has opened since the day it was approved. It does not die from lack of discipline. It dies because no team ever had the hours to keep it alive. Now, finally, something has the time.

planning

21 July 2026 · Mark Davies

What 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.

value

16 June 2026 · Mark Davies

Five 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.

capability

19 May 2026 · Mark Davies

Five 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.

sales

21 April 2026 · Mark Davies

Five 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.

capability

24 March 2026 · Mark Davies

Three 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.

capability

24 February 2026 · Mark Davies

Customer 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.

planning

27 January 2026 · Mark Davies

Seven 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.

ai

16 December 2025 · Mark Davies

Three 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.

capability

11 November 2025 · Mark Davies

Problem 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.

value

30 September 2025 · Mark Davies

The 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.

capability

19 August 2025 · Mark Davies

Sell 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.

sales

8 July 2025 · Mark Davies

Selling 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.

sales

27 May 2025 · Mark Davies

Three 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.

planning

15 April 2025 · Mark Davies

The 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.

capability

4 March 2025 · Mark Davies

The 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.

planning

21 January 2025 · Mark Davies

KAM 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.

planning

10 December 2024 · Mark Davies

Three 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.

capability

12 November 2024 · Mark Davies

Is 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.

capability

1 October 2024 · Mark Davies

Value-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.

value

20 August 2024 · Mark Davies

How 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.

value

9 July 2024 · Mark Davies

Consultative 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.

sales

28 May 2024 · Mark Davies

How 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.

planning

16 April 2024 · Mark Davies

The 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.

capability

5 March 2024 · Mark Davies

Creating 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.

value

23 January 2024 · Mark Davies

Think 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.

capability

5 December 2023 · Mark Davies

Managing 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.

capability

24 October 2023 · Mark Davies

Building 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.

planning

12 September 2023 · Mark Davies

The 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.

planning

1 August 2023 · Mark Davies

Are 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.

sales

20 June 2023 · Mark Davies

Do 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.

value

9 May 2023 · Mark Davies

Are 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.

value

28 March 2023 · Mark Davies

The 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.

value

14 February 2023 · Mark Davies

What 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.

planning

The resource library