Why do some KAMs develop healthy business relationships with their key accounts while others seem to be stuck chasing RFPs?
They visibly take different paths.
What have I seen with 25 years of hands-on experience in Key Account Management?
The top-performing KAMs don’t just sell. They literally manage the key account. They take the driver’s seat, thinking and operating like CEOs to drive real business impact.
Chasing RFPs and pushing the organization to respond once they’re received? Your contacts spread across the technical layers and procurement, and limited in number? The same contacts as five years ago? Your only touchpoints with your clients are designed to make sure your company receives the next RFP?
That’s what happens when you’re doing transactional business with a key account that considers your company a mere supplier.
The most effective KAMs operate differently:
They act as business partners, not just vendors
Your top clients don’t need another salesperson, they need someone who understands their business as well as they do. The best KAMs study their client’s industry, ambitions, and pain points and bring insights that their clients’ C-suite cares about.
🔸 Red flag: not capable of connecting the company’s challenges, their industry trends with your services? Have you established peer-to-peer relationship or procurement-based exchanges?
🔹 Take action: make sure your KAM have read their client’s annual report and can hold complex conversations you’re your client’s senior levels of decision-making.
They demonstrate value, not just pitch products
They don’t wait for an RFP to land in their inbox. Instead, they proactively align their solutions with their client’s strategic roadmap. They know that value creation is the only currency that matters at the executive level.
🔸 Red flag: it’s not about scoring individual deals based on how well your features match the RFP.
🔹 Take action: make sure you understand what your client is expecting beyond the features.
They build influence across the organization
If your KAMs are only talking to procurement, you’re already losing. Real partnerships happen at the C-suite, finance, and operations levels, where strategic decisions are made and influenced. Customer intimacy isn’t about one contact; it’s about knowing the organization inside out.
🔸 Red flag: have you set of contacts remained the same across the years? What happens if your few contacts leave your client?
🔹 Take action: build a power map, define a well-functioning governance and execute.
They stay top of mind
Business leaders don’t have time for transactional check-ins. The best KAMs create meaningful touchpoints, bringing market intelligence, competitive insights, and strategic recommendations that executives actually want to hear.
🔸 Red flag: showing up only when it’s about time to discuss contract renewals?
🔹 Take action: engage workshops, meet more people,
They have a strategy per account
The best organizations don’t run on gut feeling, neither should your account strategy. Top KAMs operate with a clear roadmap for each account, ensuring long-term growth, profitability, and executive alignment.
🔸 Red flag: don’t confuse an account strategy with a quantitative ambition (aka sales target).
🔹 Take action: it’s teamwork, with the KAM in the driver’s seat. Initiate internal business reviews, not just focused on the forecast, but on ways to increase the relationship with the client and the best ways to address the full potential by acting as a strong and effective account team.
If your Key Account Managers aren’t thinking like business leaders, neither are your clients.
👉 How do you ensure your team builds real strategic partnerships? Let’s discuss.
