1. Dr Diana Woodburn, AKAM Chairman
AKAM Development
Dr Diana Woodburn, AKAM Chairman
Professionalising Key Account Management

2. Building the community
Encouraging individual members as well as corporates
Simplifying membership for individuals: now €150pa for all
Complicating membership for corporates! Gold, silver and bronze packages (€ pa)
Relaunching the website with more intuitive access
Want active members to participate in AKAM’s direction and development

3. Developing the website
More welcoming and easier to find information
Facility to accept membership and meeting payment
Focus on building the Member Resource Centre

4. Holding meetings across Europe
So far, meetings held in Bordeaux, London, Paris, Oslo, Dublin
Opportunity to learn, challenge, share knowledge and experience, and network
Next workshop at USI in Lugano, 6th June, ‘What big and small businesses can teach each other about KAM’
Annual conference at DIT in Dublin, 2nd November, range of KAM topics

5. Launching the AKAM Diploma in KAM
Competencies and process for Diploma specified
Diploma by experience and Diploma by study both available
First Diploma ‘students’ currently documenting their competencies
Advanced Diploma to be detailed by end June (experience required)

6. Diploma level Headline competency area Competency
Business and customer understanding
Knowledge of own company
Customer organisation
Customer plan
Sales and business development
Product/service and application knowledge
Selling
Business development
General management and business acumen
IT and systems literacy
Costing and pricing
Organisational effectiveness
Personal organisation
Communication
Customer plan implementation
Relationships and interaction
Customer relationships
Internal relationships

7. Advanced Diploma level
Headline competency area
Competency
Business and customer understanding
Industry knowledge
Global business environment
Sales and business development
Consultative selling
Customer strategy development
Value creation
General management and business acumen
Negotiation
Decision making
Finance
Organisational effectiveness
Leadership
Political awareness
Project management
Relationships and interaction
Trust
Networks
Cultural competency

8. Certifying KAM programmes
AKAM will not offer training
Want to be able to refer people to appropriate institutions for KAM education
IESEG (Institut d'Economie Scientifique et de Gestion), University of Lille, becomes AKAM’s first corporate education member
Working with IESEG to certify their Master in Business Negotiation in alignment with the AKAM Diploma
Looking for more companies and colleges to support good KAM training available across Europe

9. Facilitating research projects
Mission to add to the knowledge and understanding of KAM
Aiming to bring new knowledge to practitioners
Helping researchers to find respondents to conduct surveys
Example: identifying which services key customers value and which they don’t

10. Business Ecosystems Research Group
BERG is a research group at Queen Mary University of London focusing on issues around B2B marketing, supply chain management, especially business relationships, and inter-organisational networks.
BERG is a platform for research on business ecosystems, particularly systemic and interactive phenomena of business life. KAM is part of our area of interest.
BERG is a unique hub that brings together pioneer academics and practitioners across the world interested in business ecosystems.

11. Service infusion
Service Infusion is about Equipment and Machine Tool Manufacturers competing through value propositions that integrate services with their product offerings
e.g., customization services, warranty, consulting services, and finance services
Rolls-Royce, Xerox, Caterpillar, and Hitachi report that the share of services sales has reached over 50% of total revenue
Capturing the value of industrial services is critical for equipment/machine tool manufacturers as specific industrial services influence profitability and firm’s market value differently
There is little guidance in terms of how Equipment and Machine Tool Manufacturers should pursue service infusion and how customers will evaluate new service offerings from them

12. Invitation to participate in research
Prof Stephan Henneberg and Dr Nima Heirati invite Key Account Managers in Equipment and Machine Tool Manufactures to participate in our research about the success factors and outcomes of different service infusion strategies
You can participate in this study through a 20 minute interview at your company’s premises or over the phone/skype
We do not ask confidential information and there are no costs to your organization
The results of study will be disseminated to participants through a documented report and the AKAM workshop in Lugano on 6th June
For further information, please contact Dr Nima Heirati: