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Science, Strategic account manager skills and competencies

The Neuroscience of Decision Making

By Carmen Simon, PhD, Chief Science Officer, Corporate Visions

Why do human beings have brains?

To communicate, create, express emotions? To help us solve complex problems? Both answers are correct, but they’re tied to one fundamental reason: We have a brain so we can move—to physically move from point A to point B.

A brain that doesn’t move is a brain that can’t create. It won’t communicate with or coordinate all other functions of the body. Although the human brain hasn’t changed much over the past 40,000 years, what has changed is our almost unlimited options for movement. People can go anywhere they want—even, with enough money, into space.

Movement can happen toward a stimulus or away from it. The same goes for your customers. They can move toward you or away from you. They have options—lots of them. And in this article, I’ll share a neuroscience perspective on how you can convince your customers’ brains to move in your direction.

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People & Problems: The core of strategic account planning

By Richard Scheig, Chief Revenue Officer, Upland Software

The view from where I sit as Upland Software’s Chief Revenue Officer is a profoundly interesting one. Our revenue teams are physically distributed through time zones and countries, as well spread across 25-plus product lines that serve industries from healthcare to tech. These complex operations alone would be enough to keep anyone’s head buzzing. But as a provider of a robust set of sales management and methodology capabilities, our teams work with some of the biggest sales organizations in the world. This gives me insight into the state of enterprise sales organizations outside my own, lending me a bird’s eye view into the ways that revenue teams are embracing the current state and accelerating the digital transformations that have become all the more urgent for every one of us over the last two years.

What I see from these dual worldviews is twofold: First, that the global pressures stemming from COVID and supply chain squeezes are throwing roadblocks in the path of us all. And second, while no one is immune to these challenges, the strategic account planning approaches that drive success today aren’t unique to any particular industry or business size. The foundational principles that move the needle are ones familiar to any sales leader: relationships and insights. It’s how faithfully (and effectively) we execute on these principles that makes the difference.

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Strategic account manager skills and competencies, Technology

The Future of SAM – Revisited

This blog post is based on a keynote presentation from the 2021 SAMA Annual Conference. The session was moderated by Jim Ford, Chief Commercial Officer, Solecta and SAMA Chairman of the Board. Panelists’ remarks have been paraphrased for this blog post.

The future is now.

After 14 months of chaos, now is the time for SAMs to learn from the past and prepare for the future. Regardless of the organization we work at, we could be outspent, out resourced or out marketed but we do have the opportunity to outthink our competition. The challenge is to visualize what that future will look like.

Over the past 12 months, SAMA has established a knowledgeable point of view based on hundreds of webinars, the SAMA Experts Council and countless interviews with members. From all this, we stress tested long-held views about strategic account management. We acquired real-time, relevant insight from the world’s best practitioners and thought leaders in the SAMA community.

Panelists: the three experts of SAM

Karen Passmore is Partner at the management consulting firm McKinsey and Company where she works on organizational design and go-to-market strategies with a focus on breaking down organizational silos. She also works on sales effectiveness and has recently done some innovative work around omni-channel excellence.
Frédérick Kahn is Global Vice President of Sales at Wavelength Pharmaceuticals. He is a savant in bringing SAM programs to life, revitalizing SAM programs and helping get the most out of a SAM program from a structure and talent perspective. On a global scale, he’s worked for Hovione, Lonza and other private equity and venture capital organizations.
Kaj Storbacka is a professor at Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki and Founder of Market Shaping Lab. He has served on the board of directors at SAMA. He’s a global thought leader around business-model innovation, market design and disruption. He’s authored more than a dozen books and is a frequent guest speaker around the globe for corporations, executive education and various industry communities.

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