Presenter: Dr. Carmen Simon, Chief Science Officer, Corporate Visions and B2B DecisionLabs

Prominent researchers in neuroscience, economics and business administration agree on this premise: One of the most important factors for success is getting others’ attention. This is because attention paves the way to memory and decision making. But getting customers’ attention is becoming increasingly harder, and trying to do it virtually doesn’t make it any easier.

In this session, attendees will learn the results from Dr. Simon’s most recent neuroscience research, wherein she studied buyers’ brains to find practical answers to questions like:

• Does a picture always lead to more attention and memory?
• Are extra details in complex sales messages detrimental or desirable for sustaining attention?
• For virtual settings, what kind of Zoom background keeps an audience more focused?

Attendees will gain practical applications taken from studying the buyer’s brain with neuroscience tools, which have the advantage of finding customers’ implicit responses and are therefore more accurate than self-reports.

Presenters: Christopher Ferguson, Vice President, Business Development, The Summit Group; Chris Pratt, VP, Contact and Delivery, The Summit Group

What is the financial impact on your customer resulting from a shortage of a $2 part in a $1,000 piece of equipment if the shortage means they can’t ship any finished goods? How many more customers could you serve if you could automate processes to reduce the need for labor? What are the most profound challenges in your customer's business and industry? Many companies are reassessing what they value in partners in a post-COVID world, and suppliers need to have answers to questions like these.

In this session, we will think beyond the traditional tradeoffs of value creation to share tools to help understand the broader impacts of your solutions on your customer's financials and their ability to meet the needs of their customers. We will look at the financial benefits of risk reduction and innovation measured in terms of your customer's performance. You will learn how to reframe your price premium as an investment in their business that delivers an attractive return on investment – not simply a cost increase. The final step for strategic account managers is to learn to create a shareable value creation story for customers.

Presenters: Leslie Wooding, Global Strategic Account Manager, Waters

As a SAM you are expected to co-create value with your customer(s), but sometimes you don’t know which customers are ready to innovate – or how and where to start. SAMA Certified strategic account manager (CSAM) Leslie Wood will share “recipe for success” for value co-creation by sharing concrete examples attendees will be able to use with their own customer. Attendees will learn to:

• Discover which customers are ready for innovation and value co-creation
• Target the right executive sponsor
• Gain agreement, engagement and alignment internally
• Define KPIs for value co-creation
• Design an agenda for a co-creation meeting

Presenter: Ed Wallace, Managing Director, Human Capital Practice, AchieveNEXT

Everyone knows that, in the past two years, we've experienced a sales environment like none other. Many strategic account managers believe that they have somehow upped their game by increasing sales in this environment. What if, on the other hand, their competitors just haven’t been able to ship? Which is it? The answer, for most, is probably someplace in the middle. The challenge is how to transform these ad hoc, net new relationships into long-term, outstanding customers.

Based on Ed Wallace's critically acclaimed book, Business Relationships That Last, session attendees will learn how to:

• Create competitor-proof relationships
• Distinguish sales interactions with provocative discovery questions
• Qualify forecasts with the simple BANT approach
• Translate “sources of value” into the language of the customer
• Use a simple approach to create impactful value statements

All participants will receive a complimentary e-version of Ed's book.

Presenters: Adrian Davis, CSP, President, Whetstone Inc. and Principal Partner, The Summit Group; Ryan Jeffery, Director of Strategic Account Management, WBM Technologies

Do you encounter resistance from your customers? Do you struggle to develop C-level relationships? Imagine what would happen to your revenue and profits if you could consistently develop strategic relationships with the right customers at the right level. In this presentation, we will equip you with the frameworks necessary to make the development of strategic customer relationships an integral part of your company’s culture. Ryan Jeffery will share a real-life example of how he applied this framework and reaped significant benefits for his clients and his company.

During this engaging presentation, you will learn:

• A simple and compelling framework that will shape the thinking of your entire team
• How to ensure account managers deliver strategic value to their clients and their companies
• How to assess your company’s evolution and prepare for its next strategic move
• A new, more practical way to think about strategy

This presentation will challenge account managers to rethink their approaches and to re-evaluate their customer relationships. Adrian and Ryan will bring in-depth, refreshing and thought-provoking insights that can be put into action immediately.

Presenter: Jeff Cochran, Partner, Shapiro Negotiations Institute

While strategic account managers have the good fortune of building strong relationships with generally good people, everyone who’s worked in the role has unfortunately had to deal with difficult people and manage uncomfortable conversations. This engaging and interactive session will provide participants with a method for figuring out why a person is being difficult and then a process for overcoming this challenge. Participants will take part in a simulation that will leave them with:

• A framework for identifying the core reason why someone is being difficult
• A four-step process for dealing with a difficult person
• A tactic to level the playing field when the other side is being challenging

Presenters: Cheryl Comer, Strategic Account Manager, Duke Energy; Gordon Galzerano, SAM Consultant, Advisor, Coach, Former Cisco Leader, Timberwilde Consulting; Nick Pintaro, PSP, ESNT, Program Manager-Key Account Managers, Axis Communications Inc

The session will discuss how leaders used the new SAM program at Duke Energy to discover a unique way to bring value to not just one but four strategic account customers through mutual corporate sustainability and diverse spend goals. The presenters will share how they championed a coalition to create a customer advisory board, obtained external and internal buy-in, executed the initiative and forged tangible outcomes. They will also address how the initiative strengthened relationships with these four strategic accounts – Kroger, T-Mobile, General Motors, and Microsoft – all while working collaboratively to make the world a better place by reducing carbon emission through innovation.

Presenters: Ron Davis, EVP, Global Head of Customer Management, Zurich; John Gardner, Retired – President, Global Strategic Accounts, Emerson Automation Solutions; Alessio Arcando, Adjunct Professor presso Bologna Business School - Università di Bologna

Whether within your own company or at a customer, executive management impact decisions. Therefore it's in the interests of SAM leadership and SAMs to figure out how best to engage with executives. This session will include three elements:

1. Engaging with execs within your company
2. Engaging at execs at our strategic customers
3. Using your business acumen to ensure your SAM program continually evolves to remain relevant to the top executives at your company

Presenter: Noel Capon, R.C. Kopf Professor of International Marketing, Columbia Business School, New York

For corporations operating in the global arena, success with global accounts is critical for corporate success. Yet addressing global accounts is a complex, difficult challenge. In this session, we present a tested approach to managing global accounts that enhances your chances of success.

Presenter: Chris Wells, Director, Strategic Accounts, bioMérieux

Creating a SAM program and having it function like a well-oiled machine is a challenge for companies large and small. Successful SAM implementation requires the right combination of people, knowledge and tools. In this session, Chris will draw on his experiences over the last decade in building a SAM program from the ground up within bioMerieux and the initiatives that have evolved from it. Chris will also share examples of the types of tools that have evolved over time to support and serve the company’s work with strategic customers.

Presenter: Mounir Chaouki, Director of Marketing & Account Management, PROMAMEC

Following its annual sales conference in January 2020 in Casablanca, Morocco, Promamec realized that it needed to become more customer oriented if it wanted to increase sales and create better relationships with its customers. In this case study, published in Harvard Business Review, attendees will learn how Promamec overcame its legacy organization and culture to become a true customer-centric organization by creating a new SAM organization within the company.

Presenter: Shakeel Bharmal, SVP, The Summit Group

The pandemic has dramatically shifted consumer behavior, your customers’ operating models and their outlook on the future. As your customers reset and re-invent, they need partners that will bring their best to co-create and align strategy across the value chain from their own company, through to their customers company, all the way to the end customer.

This session will enable you to leverage the power of individual ideation, group creativity and customer-centricity to co-create a future value narrative for your customer with strategic alignment to the shifting needs of their end customer. We will share some simple, yet transformative approaches to change the way you look at your customer, their customer, and to unleash your personal genius to create value. You will leave this session feeling more confident in your skillset, mindset, and experience set – and eager to apply what you learn the following day. We will explore the topics of creating an end-user persona, defining your customer’s business compass, structuring simple individual and group ideation for creative breakthroughs, and translating this creativity into how you can impact your customer’s business.

Presenters: Chris Reiman, Sales Training and Effectiveness, United Airlines; Nashir Hirjee, United Airlines

Air travel is an important way to connect people and unite the world. But how do we do this more sustainably? As the 2021 Eco-Airline of the Year, United will become the first U.S. airline to achieve 100% Green by 2050 without the use of offsets. Please join us in this session to find out how our sales teams became the stewards of change, working in partnership with customers to help power the future of flying in a more sustainable way.

Presenter: Brian Lindholm, Executive Trainer and Leadership Coach, DHL

In today’s world it is more important than ever for strategic account managers to make themselves indispensable when it comes to serving their customers, but just how do we do this? In this session on Positive Intelligence, you will take your personal Saboteur Assessment to identify for you those traits that define who you are for your customers. We will review the 10 Saboteur traits and why they could be a roadblock to really connecting with your clients. You will learn which of these traits your customers might be defining you with and how to better manage them to your advantage. We will introduce the 5 Sage Powers along with tools you can use to incorporate them into your sales process whether you are dealing with your customers directly or internal team members in support of your customers. Finally, you will learn how you can operate with a more positive mindset for your personal well-being and sales success.

Should you choose to join our workshop please come to it having completed your Personal Assessment https://assessment.positiveintelligence.com/saboteur/instructions (best to bring a printed copy if possible).

Presenters: Bill Moore, VP Business Development, ERIKS North America; Jesse Shoff, Industry Director, ERIKS North America

There is an emerging trend where companies are moving from outsourcing the RFQ/bid process and expanding the use of consultants to include taking over Procurement entirely. Dealing with consultants who are working on a contract basis for your customer is very different from co-creating value with your customer and their in-house Procurement organization.

Are you ready for this current and future reality? ERIKS North America is dealing with several customers who have gone this route, and they are developing strategies for this growing procurement trend. Join us to hear our thoughts and experiences and to share any insights, challenges and questions YOU have in this arena.

Presenters: Denise Juliano, Group Vice President, PINC AI Applied Sciences; Myla Maloney, Chief Commercial Officer, PINC AI Applied Sciences

Trying to build, expand or grow your strategic account management program requires intentional focus and energy. This session will provide an interactive forum to share and glean key insights and examples to ensure you are cultivating a strategic customer-centric organization. During this session, attendees will engage in dynamic best-practice sharing with peers across the SAM community. We will present and discuss case studies to extract information that will highlight what it takes to build a truly best-in-class SAM organization.

Topics will include:

• Customer segmentation and account selection. It is not one size fits all!
• Account breadth and depth
• Social channels. It's for more than sharing pictures of your family.
• Driving SAM program awareness for internal and external buy-in

Presenter: Michael Thomas, President, Magnetic Consulting

Strategic accounts organizations are increasingly challenged by having to communicate value across sophisticated, complex solutions. SAMs are selling more complex solutions, have less time to do so, and are fighting for attention with every virtual conversation. SAMs today are asked to sell solutions based on expertise and delivery experience, rather than products and features. To capture the high-growth potential of selling new, complex solutions, SAMs have to “be in the room” for these new, and very different, types of conversations.

Organizations need effective approaches and innovative tools to enable SAMs to lead these novel, boundary-pushing conversations. SAMs themselves must evolve new abilities by learning to think “beyond the presentation” to capture customer attention and interest toward increasingly complex solutions. Success with these high-growth business areas depends not just on simplifying the complexities of a solution, but also on the ability of SAMs to leverage the inherent scarcity of the resources (i.e., the people and their experiences) behind the delivery of these solutions

This session will explore approaches SAMs can use to radically improve their mastery of sophisticated messaging for expertise-led solutions and to do so within the realities of today’s virtual selling environment. Throughout the workshop, we will go beyond methodology by also discussing new technologies that unlock customer engagement and attention during remote conversations.

These innovative digital assets, coupled with the methodology, will strongly differentiate you and your solutions in a world of endless virtual meetings.

Presenters: Phil Styrlund, CEO, The Summit Group; Kelly Garramone, CEO, KRW International

This session will reveal trailblazing research that is anticipated to profoundly shift how we think about SAM/selling and account management. Participants will have the opportunity to be the first to learn about and activate salespeople's keystone character habits.

This research will be based on the groundbreaking work of Dr. Fred Kiel, who has demonstrated that leaders who frequently exhibit core four traits significantly outperform their peers who do not always demonstrate these traits.

Our hypothesis, to be validated in the current research project, is that salespeople, SAMs and sales leaders who exhibiting these keystone traits will significantly outperform their peers in terms of:

• Financial results demonstrated by profitable growth rates and market share
• Customer and company commitment
• Sales team member engagement and performance

Additionally, we will be revealing the four distinguishing mindsets for the future of strategic selling/SAM created and researched by Dr. Philip Squire. The intersection of character habits and the sales mindsets is the foundation for this session and research. Learning how to activate and grow these attributes can be transformative for your life and career.

Finally, this session will unveil the opportunity for SAMA members to participate in this exciting new body of research. This will be the first cohort to bring this body of science to the profession of SAM and sales.

Presenters: Oliver Halloway, Associate Director, Training & Capabilities, International Business Excellence, Allergan; Ivan Gruenthal, Director, Institutional Corporate Account Training, Ecolab; Nicholas Coletti, Global Development Manager | Corporate & Strategic Accounts, IDEXX; Kate Burda, CEO and Founder, Kate Burda & Co

This roundtable is an opportunity for talent management professionals, SAM program executives and SAM managers to exchange best practices and discuss issues as well as challenges related to establishing the strategic account manager position as a recognized career path. Panelists from IDEXX, AbbVie and Ecolab will share based on their experience best practices and insights on SAM development topics including SAM certification, critical SAM competencies and skills, career pathing and the importance of SAM specific training.

 This session is on demand only.

Presenter: Lori Preston, Organization Performance Consultant, Revenue Storm

The strategic account environment is not only requiring more of you; it is requiring something different. We have compared our research data for pre- and post-pandemic account management success. Learn the top three trending traits and how you can leverage them more, whether you are hiring a client-facing SAM or developing one. This will include a lively discussion on practical ways to identify these traits in prospective SAMs, as well as how to bring them into the daily practices of SAMs. The account needs to experience the SAM differently now. This conversation will trigger a new filter in how you look at what to prioritize with accounts and what to deprioritize as we reshape who we are in a world that has reshaped around us.

Presenters: Renae Leary, Chief Commercial Officer Americas, Ansell; Dominique Côté, CEO & Founder, Cosawi and Principal, The Summit Group; Tania Lennon, Global Space Lead, Talent Assessment and Leadership, ZS; Jennifer Stanley, North America Lead, Sales & Channel Practice, McKinsey & Company; Denise Juliano, Group Vice President of Life Sciences, Premier Inc.

In today’s environment characterized by complexity and change, the strengths that drive success are evolving. This session will explore key factors for successful leadership in a dynamic commercial context and the advantages of capitalizing on a range of strengths by harnessing diverse talent to drive higher performance and create competitive advantage. Tap into the collective wisdom of seasoned, corporate leaders with experience across industries and geographies to discover how they have navigated and overcome key challenges.

Attendees will leave with:

• Reflection: Uncover the internal barriers to strong leadership that may hold you back – and how to increase your personal impact and receive a personalized feedback report
• Community: Participate in discussion with like-minded leaders to harness your personal strengths and achieve your leadership potential
• Skills: Learn simple methods to enhance your visibility and presence as leaders
• Research: Dig into research about the talent profile that drives success in B2B sales and how to provide the right conditions to enable this talent to thrive, with a particular focus on women as SAMs and SAM leaders

This high-impact, multifaceted session will provide an exceptional development opportunity for SAM leaders and for anyone responsible for building high-performing teams to address today's myriad challenges and opportunities – with some unique points of view that offer valuable insights for creating a strong pipeline of SAM talent and SAM leaders.

Presenter: Namita Powers, Principal, ZS; Alex Simon, Associate Principal, ZS; Michael Hauser, Head, Health Systems Engagement, Novartis; Tim Holmes, Senior Director Key Accounts & Sales Transformation, Bayer Pharmaceuticals/Oncology Division

KAM metrics are complicated due to the longer time horizons involved in B2B selling, the inherent complexity of multiple stakeholders and organization-wide engagement, and the hurdles associated with data integration for large and complex customers.

Strong KAM metrics programs take a Balanced Scorecard approach, with an appropriate mix of leading, lagging, Voice of Customer and shared indicators of success. They begin with cross-functional KAM program objectives, then overall KAM program metrics, individual KAM metrics and finally – the smallest subset, what you pay on - incentive compensation. There are also easy ways to operationalize the ongoing measurement and tracking of this Balanced Scorecard approach through self-serve dashboards for leadership and KAMs themselves.

Join ZS as we host a panel of practitioners to share perspectives, tell stories and react and respond to a comprehensive POV on measuring performance in a B2B world.