Perhaps one additional aspect is that there are very different flavors of KAM that are fully appropriate depending on the customer situation. So it is not just the “KAM literacy” that may differ widely (the term literacy somehow implies that there should be a convergence to some sort of best practice), but there may always be significant, and well justified, differences.

If that is true, one important step is to define the right customer engagement model (i.e. the selling process that underlies KAM), depending on if the “account” is a group practice, community hospital, teaching hospital, insurance company, government agency etc. and also how the customer prefers to engage with us (we should not forget that it takes two to dance).

Key Account Management (KAM) relies on the development of strong relationships at a local level, how would a centralised pharmaceutical company culture adapt to such a methodology? You touch on the subject when discussing KAM literacy but I would be interested in exploring how such a model would be implemented at a regional and global level. I’d also like to hear from other people on this site about how ‘palatable’ the KAM approach would be to other European cultures……

Niren Thanky
Heidrick & Struggles

Good article. But – I had a couple of comments.

As Catherine points out, KAM is a frame of mind – executed in a a complex sales process (often called solution selling in the technology world).

More ink has been spilled on the art of the complex sale than on the development of certain molecules but one thing is certain – complex selling is a premeditated sport. Selling at no less than VP level, identifying the technical and business influencer and technical and business decision makers and understanding the different kinds of ROI that stakeholders have.

The skill sets for complex selling are varied – there are hunters, farmers and industry consultants, the skill sets in the team have to fit the sales situation at hand – you would not send in a farmer to sell a strategic licensing deal and your hi-tech hunters who have already moved on to the next opportunity are not a good fit to ensure renewal of the licensing agreement.

Knowledge and collaboration in a sales team is key – but many complex sales are executed by 1 or 2 man teams – a sales hunter and a science and technology support person, backed up when needed by the president of the company for the political clout. In cases like that – I suspect that the time invested over coffee before the sales call is more likely to be useful than updating a CRM or groupware system.

Danny Lieberman

A behavioural shift from “telling/selling” to asking/influencing is needed.

Different messages for various stakeholder roles around the decision mean that a one-size-fits-all approach must be abandoned. The benefits needed by a prescriber are different than those sought by a hospital administrator, for example.

Knowing informal relationships among influencers is more important than addressing formal responsibilities.

Catherine McQuaid
Big Game Hunting
http://www.HuntNewBiz.com

My question would be whether the KAM approach will even be here in 5 years time?