Account-based marketing Archives - Strategic Account Management Association

Account-based marketing, Customer Engagement, Uncategorized, Value co-creation

Account-Based Marketing: Customer-Led, Team-Enabled

The first step in next-gen, customer-centric sales

By Dominique Côté, CEO & Founder, Cosawi and Principal, The Summit Group, and Kate Burda, CEO & Founder, Kate Burda & Co.

Shedding light on the next generation of account-based marketing

We can all agree that customer centricity and customer focus are the cornerstone of effective strategic account management and key to being different and staying relevant. We understand that it is not how we sell, but rather, how customers buy. We know the value of understanding the customers, their organizations, their vision, and what they are trying to achieve to enable a co-created future.

Yet, if you were to look at account-based marketing (ABM) methodology that is widely used and accepted, you may see just the opposite. What you may find is an approach based upon products, campaigns, or offerings — an inside-out way of working, which conflicts with the outside-in mindset that is at the core of how we ask SAMs to engage and enable partnerships of a higher order.

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Account-based marketing, Case study, Customer Engagement, Industrial goods, SAMA training and certification, Strategic Account Management Organizational Design, Strategic account management process, Strategic account management program organization, Value co-creation

What’s In A Name? Turns Out — Everything!

SAMA Excellence Award winner for Outstanding Young Program of 2023 outlines its blueprint for SAM success.

When LP Building Solutions created a strategic account management (SAM) program in 2018, as a critical element of the company’s growth strategy, it transformed LP from a commodity-driven mindset to what they are now: a value-added building solutions company.

“LP changed our company name from LP Building Products to LP Building Solutions in 2018, which has taken us on a journey away from being simply a manufacturer of products to a specialty solutions provider, co-creating value for our customers,” said Lori McWain, Director of National Accounts.

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Account-based marketing, Strategic account management process

How Aramex’s Young SAM Program Provides Strategic Value and Impact

By Shahaboddin Wahdatehagh, Sr. Director Global Account Management, Aramex

Aramex is a leading global provider of comprehensive logistics and transportation solutions, headquartered in Dubai and listed on the Dubai Financial Market. Aramex services include international and domestic express delivery, freight forwarding, integrated logistics and supply chain management, and e-commerce solutions. The company has grown into a global brand and a market-leading express delivery and logistics services provider to the Middle East and other emerging economies.

Aramex was the recipient of the 2021 SAMA Excellence Award for “Outstanding Young SAM Program.”

Responding to Market Shifts

The logistics and transportation industry has been going through big changes in recent years, thanks in part to challenges wrought by new competitors who have disrupted the industry through technology. Additionally, customers have started to explore greater independence through forward integration (a push by carriers entering the freight-forwarding business) as well as through backward integration (insourcing, in some cases, the capabilities needed to manage express and domestic deliveries).

“In response to these market shifts, Aramex decided to move from a purely product-oriented approach to a market-shaper approach through deep integration with its customers.”

To succeed, we established four objectives that went beyond technological changes to include people and processes.

Form an organizational capability around co-creating products and solutions with our customers
Redesign our philosophy around our customers’ needs
Make a positive business impact on our customers’ operations
Ingrain a deeply customer-centric vision and mission for sales.

We needed a different sales strategy and go-to-market approach with regards to strategic and global key accounts, as our existing country-focused structure could not support, let alone scale, the required new concepts.

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