Earning sales revenues is critical to firm survival, growth, and enhancing shareholder value. Personal communication via some form of sales effort is the major way for many firms to persuade customers to purchase their products/services, especially in B2B markets. This course is designed to provide students with key considerations in managing these efforts.

Sales Management, Key/Strategic, and Global Account Management commences by focusing on traditional sales management issues. Then we transition into key/strategic account management with a largely domestic focus, before morphing into managing global accounts.

Without doubt, what we consider as traditional sales management is under significant pressure from environmental change. Nonetheless, we place most attention on the role of the front-line sales manager. As we transition into key/strategic account management,[1] we commence by identifying the firm’s current and future critical customer assets, then putting in place strategy, organization, human resources, systems and processes, designed to increase revenues and profits through enhanced customer loyalty.

Key/strategic accounts are critically important for the firm’s future; hence, they are worthy of top management concern.

For many years, key/strategic account management was confined within national boundaries. Today, globalization is impacting many areas of management practice. In particular, as customer firms increasingly request global contracts and require global servicing, many suppliers are developing global account management programs, and appointing global account managers. In this course, we address strategic account programs at national, regional (multi-country), and global levels.

Noel Capon

R.C. Kopf Professor of International Marketing

Professor Capon teaches the electives Advanced Market Strategy: Development and Execution, and Sales, Managing the Sales Force, Key/Strategic/Global Account Management. His research interests are in Key/Strategic/Global Account management, and Market Planning and Strategy. Professor Capon has published more than 80 articles and book chapters, and in excess of 40 books. Recent books include —Managing...

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