Start with the Right Number of the Right Strategic Accounts

How Can You Ensure That Your Firm Is Selecting the Right Number of the Right Kind of Strategic Accounts?

1. Conduct a high-level portfolio analysis of a few targeted existing customers to determine which create and which bleed value. Have a cross-functional meeting to get answers to the six questions in this chapter.

2. Let this high-level portfolio analysis become the beginning of an ongoing process for determining lifetime account value.

3. Be clear about your firm's overall strategy and tie your strategic account selection criteria back to that strategy.

4. Start strategic account management with a pilot, focusing on two or three of your most critical accounts.

5. Slowly expand your program to include other customers. Be humble: promise nothing you cannot deliver.