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

Selling – Managing: The Salesforce, Key/Strategic/Global Accounts commences by focusing on key ideas in making sales and the sales process, then moves to consider managerial issues in sales. We commence with managing the traditional salesforce, then transition to managing key/strategic accounts. We conclude the course by morphing into managing global accounts.

Without doubt, what we consider as traditional sales management is under significant pressure from environmental change. Indeed, many salesforces are undergoing major transformations. We place significant attention on salespeople and the front-line sales manager, then move to discuss the responsibilities of sales leaders and senior sales managers. As we transition into managing key/strategic accounts,[1] we commence by identifying the firm’s current-and-future critical customer assets. We then put 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, managing key/strategic accounts was confined within national boundaries or, at most, within a few geographically contiguous countries. Today, globalization is impacting many areas of management practice. In particular, as customer firms increasingly request global contracts and require consistent global service, many suppliers are developing global account management programs, and appointing global account managers (GAMs). In this course, we address key/strategic account programs at regional (within country), 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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