The Context

Confining your SAM program to Sales and Marketing is not enough … in fact, it may set you up to fail. The company must commit to SAM at all levels.

Your C-suite must be the primary driver, and be willing to devote mind share and time to understanding the customer strategy and becoming personally involved with peer level counterparts at your customers’ organizations.

Management must facilitate alignment between your individual strategic account managers and the people in your company who contribute to build differentiated customer value and hence must make your most important customers a priority.

SAMs must be skilled in “influencing without authority” and have the same kind of presence and impact within your own walls as they do at the customer.

Your Sales Excellence / Training / HR departments must understand the role of the SAM and that the attributes and traits of a salesperson are very different from a SAM. The best way to develop SAMs is to carefully design the right career path which involves strategic and general management positions in addition to customer management experiences.

SAMA’s 2015 Conferences will arm you with the knowledge, techniques and a personal network that will help you
accomplish the task of transforming your enterprise.

The Key

You’ll create organic growth by adding a third axis
to your company’s offering

This year’s conferences will focus on how to create growth with your most important customers by reconsidering your company’s SAM strategy with a more three-dimensional offering.

This third axis—the Customer axis—is the differentiator that will transform your company into a best-in-class SAM success story.

You’ll learn how to make this transformation from:

• Case Studies: Companies that have already bought into this strategy
• Best Practice Sessions: Thought leaders who have can offer practical techniques around this strategy
• Each Other: in facilitated discussions and at networking events