Customer orientation Archives - Strategic Account Management Association

By Phil Styrlund and James Robertson

In the first post in this series, we examined how market disruption, changing buyer behaviors and other factors are rendering traditional sources of growth – like internal research and development of products and services, pricing, and branding – inadequate. To grow profitably in today’s business market, companies have no choice but to engage with their customers and partners to co-create new sources of value by deepening insights, aligning goals, developing joint solutions, leveraging mutual capabilities and executing together.

That was the what. Now let’s move on to the how.

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By Phil Styrlund and James Robertson, The Summit Group

This is part one of a three-part series. Parts two and three are available here and here.

Persistent, disruptive forces impacting profitable growth are intensifying and, as a result, companies in many industries face slower growth and accelerating commoditization of product and service margins.

Given marketplace complexity and dynamic shifts in how customers buy, traditional business models are threatened, and new strategies and capabilities for driving growth must be more intentionally developed. In this series of posts, we will outline a pragmatic yet powerful framework for co-creating solutions with strategic customers.

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