April 2009

Spring is here and it's time for us to think about growth. That is, cash efficient growth, an essential strategy in today's toxic economic environment.

Strategic Account Management is an important strategy to produce cash efficient growth right now. Here are five reasons why:

1/ We need ground-level intelligence. The best source of ground-level intelligence are strategic accounts teams, ideally including suppliers and field forces' contacts. Each sales and service person needs to become a skilled intelligence agent who provides timely ground-level intelligence that forms the basis for our fundamental business decisions.

Improving our field forces' analytical and dialoguing capabilities is therefore a top priority.

2/ Strategic Accounts are cash generators we count on. We must know their financial viability for the short and longer term. In fact, account teams have to innovate ways to ensure our strategic accounts succeed in these trying times.

Their success is our success.

3/ We need strong cross-functional teams to continuously evaluate strategy and execute tactics faster than ever. Strategic Account Management is an excellent approach to building effective cross-functional teams internally, and externally with strategic clients.

Pulling people together is in itself energizing, as long as we keep the discussion upbeat and focused.

4/ Our C Level Executives need to be more intense and visible, closer to strategic clients and our own people on the front-lines. Participating in strategic account teams is a time-effective approach to making this a reality.

We must position C Level Managers to change strategy and tactics quickly when required.

5/ We need to determine which customers to drop because of low margins and high costs. Today, with fewer resources to work with, we need a deep understanding of the customers who are most valuable for the short and long-term. These decisions need to involve the CEO and CFO and must be supported by accurate ground-level intelligence supplied by the field forces.

Dropping unprofitable customers in a down market is an important positioning move for growth beyond the downturn.