Malcolm McDonald on Key Account Management

This was a good book with some helpful tips for account management. I would suggest it for new or even experienced account managers.

Excellent book , great to any organization that want to optimize its sales processes and generate more revenue and sustainable growth

Very practical for those who need a methodology to begin to implement a KAM philosophy in their businesses.

Key account management is a phrase that many seem to either understand or fail to appreciate, so this book can help focus or educate the mind and hopefully lead to positive change.The reader will understand and appreciate the importance and power of a key account for their business, a customer who not only orders a lot of product or service, but they also contribute to the growth of their supplier’s suppliers and underpin the business-at-large. Of course, they may order a lot, but servicing their needs and requirements can also cost a lot too, so the relationship must be properly managed, understood and focussed. It is a lot more than just prioritising their needs and ‘kissing butt’.This is an excellent, considered book, distilling decades of real-world experience from the authors into something that can be beneficial for beginner or old-hand alike. The reader is taken through the whole process from winning key accounts through to retaining and developing the relationship. The authors say whilst key accounts are mostly companies, there is no reason why the same principles cannot be used to sell complex products and services to high-worth individuals.Many fictional but authentic case studies are used to help illustrate and reinforce the advice given and this is supplemented by many quotations from industry participants who comment on various topics and issues. In many ways, even those who do not have key account management responsibilities as part of their job could benefit from looking at this book if they get the chance, since some of the advice could still be beneficial to their sales and other managerial activities. More information can also be gathered from the various reference sources given at the end of each chapter, should be further or deeper reading be desired.The authors also try and consider the future to see what future challenges may occur in the field of key account management. This is not just space-filling, since they did a similar exercise 20 years ago and as they show, quite a few of their forecasts bore fruit.A very credible book that can be potentially very powerful indeed in the right hands.

MacDonald is a giant in the field of marketing  and is one of Rocket Builders goto authors when we need to really dig into a topic. This co-authored book is very readable, current and immediately useful to enterprise sales and marketing teams who wish to look at their markets strategically.  I liked the entire book as it did a very clear job on describing and using the three levels in ABM and then how to id where to use and apply KAM  I really appreciated the work in Chapter 3 on auditing how you were doing and mapping out where you could go. The author is diligent at asking you to use measures and metrics that can be used and are useful.  As well Chapter 5 is good at mapping value, how to apply measures and package it so it can be taken to your clients.   Well worth the modern sales and marketing executive and strategic practitioners time to read and use this book