5HOW TO AGREE ONPARTNERABLE STRATEGIES

A consultant’s job can be defined in three ways: Bring back sales, bring back customer information that can lead to sales, and leave behind alliances with top-tier decision makers.

Sometimes a sale will build an alliance. More often, alliances help to build sales.

There are four levels on which alliances must be structured in a key customer account. Three of them are in the upper management tier: top managers, financial managers, and operating managers. The fourth is at the purchasing level, where the traditional adversary relationship must be converted into a more partnerable affiliation.

The objectives of all key account alliances are similar, regardless of the level at which they are to be achieved. Their ...

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