The effectiveness of Key Account Management practices

This paper investigates the extent to which Key Account Management (KAM) programs are achieving a range of financial and non-financial measures of effectiveness for implementing companies. It investigates a wide range of KAM practices as well as comparing the predictive power of these practices on nine desirable effectiveness measures. The paper therefore provides greater depth of insight than previous models in terms of both the practices included and the effectiveness measures used, giving a far richer insight than previous models. The results suggest that the extent to which KAM practices are embedded within the company is strongly related to all nine effectiveness measures. However it is outcomes which favor the customer which are most realizable such as increased customer satisfaction, relational improvement and joint investment, with a significant time lag and lower predictability for supplier benefits such as increased revenue, increased profit margins or cost efficiencies. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.