The Investment
The selection of strategic accounts can also depend on the presence that the organization wants to have in a specific segment of customers. You can also select strategic accounts based on criteria of the influence that some customers may have about the market in general. There is a golden rule to define the strategic accounts, this depends on the priorities and needs of each organization. What is important is having clear criteria and be consistent in its application. Additionally you should assess whether the process of attention that you give to your strategic customer will be somehow reciprocated by such customer, i.e.
If the investment to your company held to allocate special resources for attention to this customer strategic will result in the short, medium or long term results for your organization. An example to illustrate this point that exists today is the fact that an undertaking producing goods of mass consumption, such as food, consider one of these large chains of supermarkets, a strategic customer. SMEs often considered strategic to have a large chain of these as customer and devoted great effort and resources to enter as a provider and then to maintain as such, at the expense of all impositions and demands that these chains demand. Personally I think a high cost and may not necessarily represent an excellent Alliance. This undoubtedly depends on each company’s strategy, but in this example I want to illustrate that not necessarily big or important to say that it is a strategic customer.
Perhaps devote efforts to work with smaller chains with other distribution channels, etc., can be more strategic to an SME. The final message is to define very well which are the fundamental variables of According to its strategy, to select strategic customers or their accounts. Finally, one of the fundamental concepts so that the key account strategy can work, is that the entire organization must be aware and must be committed to exceptional service to strategic accounts.
