Extra-condensed knowledge

Top-management involvement in B2B customer relationships can pay enormous dividends for suppliers and their customers.

Becoming more customer-centric is not just another project for top executives to put on the to-do list; it is an essential part of growth and a fundamental driver of success.
Most executives see spending time with customers as a way to stay abreast of the market and as part of their job.
By engaging with strategic customers—those critical to their firms’ future—senior leaders at B2B suppliers can have a significant impact on their companies’ revenue, profits, growth, shareholder value, and very survival.
We have seen in our own research and consulting work with global sales organizations, the results of their involvement vary widely.

Genioux knowledge fact condensed as an image

Condensed knowledge

CONTEXT

We conducted 30 executive education workshops with 515 strategic and global account managers in New York, Rotterdam, St. Gallen (Switzerland), and Singapore from 2012 to 2018.

On the basis of that work, we identified five distinct roles that senior executives play in relation to strategic customers. In this article we discuss those roles, their rewards and risks, and the impact each has on business performance.

Hands-off, or “not my problem.” It’s not uncommon for senior executives to adopt a hands-off policy with sales: Fully 28% of those in our study did so.
Loose cannon. A leader in this role typically meets with major customers without soliciting information or background from their account managers, who may not even know the meeting is happening (or, in the most egregious cases, that it has happened).
Social visitor. Executives in this role—19% of those in our study—seek to build personal relationships with the customer rather than directly generate revenue.
Dealmaker. Executives in this role are highly focused on revenue and only marginally concerned with relationship building. In our study, 18% of executives fell into this group.
Growth champion. This role demonstrates the most productive customer-facing behavior. Leaders in this group have a keen focus on both relationships and revenue building, and as they unlock growth opportunities, they serve as role models for others in the organization. Unfortunately, the smallest share of executives in our study—just 14%—fit this profile.

Category 2: The Big Picture of the Digital Age

[genioux fact produced, deduced or extracted from HBR]

Type of essential knowledge of this “genioux fact”: Essential Deduced and Extracted Knowledge (EDEK).

Type of validity of the "genioux fact".

Inherited from sources + Supported by the knowledge of one or more experts + Supported by research.

Authors of the genioux fact

Fernando Machuca

References

When CEOs Make Sales Calls, Noel Capon and Christoph Senn, From the March–April 2021), Harvard Business Review, HBR.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Noel Capon is the R.C. Kopf Professor of International Marketing at Columbia Business School and a member of the board of directors of the Strategic Account Management Association.

Extracted from Columbia Business School Directory

Biography

Professor Capon teaches the electives Advanced Market Strategy: Development and Execution, and Sales, Managing the Sales Force, Key/Strategic/Global Account Management. His research interests are in Key/Strategic/Global Account management, and Market Planning and Strategy. Professor Capon has published more than 80 articles and book chapters, and in excess of 40 books. Recent books include —Managing Marketing in the 21st Century, Capon’s Marketing Framework, Capon’s Marketing Essentials, The Virgin Marketer, Sales Eats First, The Front-Line Sales Manager. Local versions of Professor Capon’s books have been published in Asia Pacific, Brazil (Portuguese), China (Mandarin), Russia, Spanish Latin America (Spanish), Western Europe, Middle East. Professor Capon’s most recent book is Customers Win, Suppliers Win: Lessons from One of IBM’s Most Successful Strategic Account Managers.

Christoph Senn is an adjunct professor of marketing and a codirector of the Marketing and Sales Excellence Initiative at INSEAD.

Extracted from INSEAD

Biography

Christoph Senn is an Adjunct Professor of Marketing at INSEAD and Co-Director of the INSEAD Marketing & Sales Excellence Initiative (MSEI). His passion is about helping organizations build high-value business relationships.

At INSEAD, Christoph teaches in open enrolment and custom Executive Education Programs. He frequently conducts research and transfer projects in cooperation with leading companies, such as ABB, BASF, Coca-Cola, DSM, Evonik, Geberit, General Electric, Hoffmann-La Roche, Konica-Minolta, Maersk, Microsoft, Pfizer, Rusal, Schindler, Sonos, Swiss Re, Tetra Pak, Vodafone, WMF, and Zebra.