We are delighted to announce that our client, Compass Group PLC has won an award for its work in growing its international clients business. The award was announced by the highly respected Strategic Account Management Association and recognizes the excellent work that Compass has done in co-creating value with its clients.

In responding, Ed Bradford, Managing Director of Market2win said, “We have been working with Compass for many years on different aspects of their International Clients Programme and this is terrific recognition for the success that they have achieved. As part of the entry process for this award we interviewed many of their senior executives and I was blown away by the innovative ideas they were developing and implementing with these clients around the world.”

The award will be handed out at the SAMA European Conference in Berlin on the 11th March 2013

The full SAMA announcement is provided below

SAMA Announcement

February, 2013

Compass Group Recognized for Strategic Account Management Excellence and receives SAMA Excellence Award(TM) for Co-Creating Customer Value

The Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA) has selected Compass Group, a world-class provider of contract foodservice and support services, to receive a SAMA Excellence AwardTM for Co-Creating Customer Value. The award will be publicly given to Compass Group executives at the SAMA Pan European Conference, 11 March, 2013 in Berlin.

Through its International Client Programme begun in 1998 to develop strategic relationships with its top clients, Compass Group has demonstrated world-class practices in the critical area of customer-supplier value co-creation. Collaborative value creation is the key process in strategic customer management to bring about mutual growth, profit, trust, loyalty, innovation and risk management in B2B relationships.

“We are very impressed with Compass Group’s accomplishments and the documented evidence that their International Client Programme has integrated the key processes for co-creating customer value and through it has attained superior growth,” says Bernard Quancard, President & CEO of SAMA.

These elements are being documented in a SAMA case study examination, and presented in a conference session this March

Useful links:

SAMA Pan-European Conference (Berlin – 10-12 March) website

SAMA Pan-European Conference brochure

SAMA Academy in Berlin, 12-14 March website

The KAM2win Simulator recently scored some of the highest satisfaction scores amongst delegates at the SAMA Global Conference in Orlando.

Click here to see the conference highlights: SAMA Feedback Orlando 2011

Many people talk about their Strategic Account Manager as a single point of contact. But is this wise? It annoys the other customer points of contact in the supplier who thinks the SAM will steal their relationship. It also encourages the customer to ONLY deal with the SAM who then gets overloaded.

I have always encouraged people to talk about the SAM as a single point of coordination. I have found this one word makes a huge difference in how the SAM Programme is perceived both internally and externally. The SAM is like a conductor who coordinates the orchestra to a single piece of music, the account plan.

However, I now think that this is wrong! In this month’s Harvard Business Review, Professor Rosabeth Kanter of the Harvard Business School – talking about Peter Drucker’s legacy – said, “If the twentieth century gave rise to knowledge workers with deep expertise, the twenty-first century will require leaders who can foster integrative thinking and collaboration across fields and specialities. Collaboration, not coordination will be the task of management.”  This makes sense to me.  The SAM is actually more than a conductor interpreting a piece of music.  He/she is there helping to create the music in the first place.  Indeed, the SAM is more like a producer, involved in the whole production, touching every aspect and making sure a great commercial success is produced.

So, the 21st Century SAM: A Single Point of Collaboration? Or better, The Key Point of Collaboration.