Introduction
In today's difficult competitive environment, it is crucial for organizations to develop long-term relationships with their key customers. Not only do such relationships help stabilize and improve an organization's financial performance, they also lead to learning partnerships where both supplier and buyer work together to lower costs and raise customer value, improving the competitive powers of both.

This program demonstrates how to develop and implement key account strategies that enable an organization to build a key account relationship and maintain it over time.

Learning Objectives
Participants will:

• Examine the need for key account programs in today's competitive environment.
• Consider how key account relationships evolve over time.
• Determine what is a key account.
• Understand how to identify potential key accounts and how to select key accounts on which to focus.
• Learn systematic approaches for understanding a key account's business strategy and their buying process.
• Understand how to develop a key account strategy.
• Consider how to negotiate with a key account.
• Understand how to value a key account over time.
• Learn how to partner with a key account.
• Learn how to build and manage an effective key account team.

Who can benefit

• Business managers.
• Product or service managers.
• Marketing managers.
• Sales managers.

Teaching Methodology
A variety of teaching techniques are employed, including lecture/discussions, workshop sessions, case discussions, and simulations.

The lecture/discussions are designed to provide the participants with a framework for developing key account strategies. During these highly interactive sessions, many current illustrations from a variety of industries are used to make the conceptual points vivid and memorable.

During workshop sessions, participants work in teams to examine specific key account issues such as understanding the strategy of a key account customer or developing approaches to a decision maker within the key account. Case discussions engage the participants in deeper examination of specific key account problems such as managing the relationship with the key account over time. Simulations provide the participants with the opportunity to apply ideas from the program such as developing internal support and coordinating the key account team.