Kuratore
Key Account Management in Financial Services
Book

Key Account Management in Financial Services

Tools and Techniques for Building Strong Relationships with Major Clients

Peter Cheverton, Tim Hughes, Bryan Foss and Merlin Stone
Kogan Page, 2004
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Editorial Rating

5

Recommendation

Editor Peter Cheverton is a guru of KAM, and this book somewhat modifies and tailors his basic KAM approach to fit the needs of the financial services industry. The tailoring is slight, mainly a matter of streamlining the style, although that is welcome. One brief but very useful section discusses the importance of dealing with and through intermediaries. In fact, many financial services vendors work through intermediaries, distributing their products or services through banks, insurance companies, mutual fund companies or others. Cheverton and his co-editors, Tim Hughes, Bryan Foss and Merlin Stone, usefully point out that it is important not to consider the intermediary as the customer. Instead, the vendor should look through the intermediary to the final user and assist the intermediary in developing an offering that suits the needs and preferences of that end user. People who have read Cheverton’s Key Account Management will learn little new here, but getAbstract.com believes that those who have not - particularly those in the financial services sector - will benefit from this shorter, easier book.

Summary

Why Key Account Management Makes Sense in Financial Services

The financial services industry includes banks, investment companies, insurance companies, credit card companies and many other consumer or institutional providers of products and services. The industry is consolidating, even as new competitors enter the market. Moreover the industry is heavily regulated. The financial service industry’s size, the impact of new technologies, the progress of consolidation, the complexity of distribution and the inherent risk of the business all make financial services uniquely challenging. The combination of complex products and higher risk requires a close, trusting relationship between sales reps and customers. The need to distribute through various channels puts a premium on your ability to manage an overall umbrella relationship with your most important, or key, accounts. The maturing, downsizing, increasingly competitive and inexorably globalizing market makes key account management a necessity for financial service businesses.

Defining the Key Account

A key account is an account that requires careful management because it is crucially important to your organization...

About the Authors

Peter Cheverton is Director of Insight Marketing and People, Ltd., KAM trainers and consultants. Dr. Tim Hughes is a Bristol Business School Senior Lecturer. Bryan Foss is a Banking Solutions Executive at IBM Global Financial Services. Professor Merlin Stone is a Business Research Leader with IBM’s Business Consultancy Services.

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