The increasingly important yet difficult role that key account managers play makes it imperative that individuals of the highest caliber staff this position. The supplier must be very clear about the particular set of knowledge, skills, and abilities it requires in its key account managers. Then, the supplier must put in place appropriate procedures for recruiting, selecting, and training to generate key account managers who can effectively carry out their several roles and responsibilities.
大客户经理的角色日益重要，而对其工作能力的要求也越来越严苛。这使得这一职位必须由能者居之。供应商必须对其对大客户经理的知识、技能和能力要求有清晰的认识，也必须制定出一套切实可行的招募、甄选和培训流程，培养出能够胜任大客户经理这一角色、并能担当相关责任的精英。

Because effective key account managers are an extremely valuable organizational resource, the firm should treat them as an asset rather than as an expense. The supplier must develop ways of retaining effective key account managers. In particular, the firm must carefully think through reward systems. Clearly, financial compensation is an important issue but the firm must also consider several other types of reward mechanisms.
能力较强的大客户经理是一项极为有价值的组织资源，公司应该将其视为资产，而非成本。供应商应建立起自己的一套留住优秀大客户经理的机制，尤其应认真思考关于奖励机制的问题。物质奖励的重要性毋庸置疑，但公司也要考虑其他形式的奖励机制。

In this chapter, we address all of these issues. We commence with a discussion of skill sets, then turn our attention to recruiting, selecting, training, and retaining key account managers. We conclude with a section on rewarding the key account manager.
本章将对所有相关问题进行讨论。首先从职业技能问题切入，随后关注大客户经理的招募、甄选、培养和挽留机制，最后谈谈大客户经理的奖励机制。

SKILL SETS
职业技能

The key account manager job is one of the more difficult and demanding in organizational life. As noted previously, similar to many sales jobs, the key account manager occupies a boundary role. The key account manger must make difficult trade-off decisions between the requirements of the key account and those of the supplier. But the main feature that distinguishes key account managers from traditional salespeople is the level of responsibility.
大客户经理是企业对外交往中岗位要求较高、较严苛的职位之一。如之前所述，与很多销售工作的性质相同，大客户经理扮演着边界性的角色，他必须在关键客户和供应商的要求之间做出两难的权衡。将大客户经理与传统销售人员区别开来的主要特征是责任的轻重。

As we discussed earlier, the supplier should exercise great care in deciding which customers are worthy of key account status. Customers selected to be key accounts are critically important to the supplier’s future. Typically, these customers represent a substantial fraction of the supplier’s current and/or potential revenues. Clearly, individuals the firm select as key account mangers must be able to handle that level of responsibility. Firms considering key account management programs should complete a thorough assessment of skill requirements for their key account managers. This assessment should relate directly to the roles and responsibilities of the key account manager -- Chapter 3.
如我们在之前的讨论中所说，供应商在确定哪些客户可以进入其关键客户名单时应保持高度的谨慎。被列入关键客户名单的企业应是对供应商的未来发展极为重要的企业。一般地，此类客户应能给供应商带来显著的现期和/或预期收益。所以，公司挑选担任大客户经理职位的个人应有能力驾驭这一层次的责任。考虑实行关键客户管理计划的公司应对大客户经理职业技能要求做出详细评估。这一评估应与第三章所述的大客户经理的角色和责任直接相关。

In assessing skill requirements for key account managers, the supplier should be very clear about the results it expects from these managers. The skills necessary to ensure the firm maintains and increases current sales levels for a set of mature products may be quite different from those required to identify opportunities for the firm’s emerging technologies. Furthermore, the skills necessary to coordinate a complex supplier/key account relationship in a matrix organization may be quite different from those in a relatively simple relationship handled within a special key account unit.
在对大客户经理职业技能要求进行评估时，供应商应清楚其对这些经理人员的期望。保持和增加公司一系列成熟产品的现有销售额所要求的技能，与发现公司新研发技术面临的市场机会所要求的技能可能是大不相同的。此外，在一个矩阵式组织中协调复杂的供应商与关键客户关系所要求的技能，与在一个专门的关键客户部内部处理相对简单的关系所要求的技能也可能是迥然相异的。

In this section, we discuss a series of general requirements for effective key account management under several headings. We conclude by reporting the results of studies of key account managers.
在本节中，我们将分若干标题讨论针对优秀关键客户经理的一系列一般性要求。最后我们将得出大客户经理这一命题的研究结果。

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SKILLS

企业管理技能

To a very large extent, the job of the key account manager is to run a business; that business is the key account. Depending on the sizes of key account and supplier, and the nature of the products involved, this business may represent annual revenues of hundreds of millions of dollars. Furthermore, in well-run key account programs, the key account manager not only has top-line (sales revenue) responsibility, but also bottom-line profit (or, at least, profit contribution).

在很大程度上，大客户经理的工作就是经营一门生意，而这门生意就是关键客户。根据关键客户和供应商的规模，以及所涉及项目的性质，这笔生意的年营业额可达上亿美元。此外，在运行较好的关键客户项目中，大客户经理不仅有确保销售收入的责任，还有确保利润的责任（至少要有利润贡献）。

 The key account manager must possess significant skill to run a multi-million dollar business. The key account manager plays the central role in articulating the strategy and action programs for the key account in the context of developing the key account plan. Not only must key account managers conduct substantial data gathering, they must also possess strong market and customer focus. Key account managers also require significant conceptual, analytic, and planning skills, based on such abilities as mental agility, critical thinking, quantitative reasoning and divergent (out-of-the-box) thinking. The must be able to diagnose the key account’s procurement systems to understand the various actors and decision processes involved. S/he must be able to make difficult trade-off decisions, often involving complex economic factors. The key account manager requires a level of sophistication in marketing and financial analysis not normally found in the sales force. In part because of the Internet’s growth, key account managers must become increasingly computer literate.

大客户经理须具备经营数百万美元生意的重要技能。在制定关键客户计划、表述针对关键客户所实行的策略和行动方案中，大客户经理扮演着核心角色。大客户经理不仅要大量收集数据，而且还要对市场和客户有较强的关注力。大客户经理还要具备较强的概念、分析和计划技能，这些技能是建立在思维敏捷度、批判性思维、定量推理和发散性思维（跳出固定思维框架）的基础上的。他必须能对关键客户的采购体系进行判断，清楚了解其中不同角色的人员以及采购决策过程。他必须能够做出艰难的权衡决定，这通常会涉及到复杂的经济利益。大客户经理要具备精明的市场和财务分析能力，这在普通的销售团队中是不常见的。此外，网络应用的不断普及对大客户经理的电脑操作技能也提出了越来越高的要求。

But, planning and strategy development skills alone are insufficient; the key account manager must implement action programs that flow from the planning process, both within the key account and the supplier. Managing the key account requires skills in running and facilitating meetings, consultative selling, and in negotiating, presenting, and communicating -- often with executives at high organizational levels. The key account manager must also be an entrepreneur, always on the lookout for opportunities to add value to the supplier/key account relationship. The successful key account manager creatively identifies, and solves of key account problems, regardless of whether key account personnel recognize them as problems.

然而，单有制定计划和策略的技能是不够的，大客户经理还要负责执行总体计划下的各个具体行动方案，不论这些行动方案是针对关键客户的还是针对供应商的。关键客户管理需要主持和推动会议、顾问式销售的技能，也需要有谈判、演示和沟通的技能——这些工作的对象通常是与组织较高层面的经理人员之间进行。 大客户经理还应是一位企业家，时刻留意能为供应商与关键客户关系增加价值的机会。成功的大客户经理能够创造性地帮助关键客户发现和解决问题，不论关键客户方的人员是否意识到这些问题。

BOUNDARY SPANNING AND RELATIONSHIP BUILDING SKILLS
 
跨越界限和建立关系的技能

To fulfill his/her many roles and responsibilities, the key account manager must work across multiple organizational boundaries. These include functional barriers and hierarchical levels within the key account, but also within the supplier. At the key account, the key account manager must promote the supplier’s position and secure business. In the supplier, the key account manager must secure the required types and amounts of resources for satisfying key account needs Access to critical networks of individuals and good working relationships with personnel in both the supplier and key account are invaluable assets.

出于履行诸多角色和责任的需要，大客户经理必须能够跨越诸多组织界限开展工作。这些界限包括关键客户内部、还有供应商内部的职能界限和层级界限。在关键客户那里，大客户经理必须抬高供应商的位置，以取得订单。在供应商那里， 大客户经理必须申请安排关键客户所要求类型和数量的资源，以满足关键客户的需求。具备重要的人际关系网以及与供应商和关键客户方人员保持融洽工作关系的能力将是极为宝贵的。

In conducting these boundary-spanning activities, the key account manager must manage many complex sets of relationships. When supplier and key account are substantial organizations, the key account manager must manage literally hundreds of individual relationships among, and between, key account and supplier personnel. To accomplish this task successfully, the key account manager must have extensive information system knowledge to ensure appropriate levels of communication among key players S/he must also be sensitive to organizational structures, processes, procedures, and cultures of both organizations. The key account manager must have a deep understanding of organizational behavior and sensitivity to the political realities of organizational life so as to navigate both organizations effectively. These skills maybe sorely tested in merger and acquisition situations when the key account manager assumes responsibility for relationships between the firm’s new units and the key account, especially if some were previously troubled.

在开展这些跨越界限的活动时，大客户经理必须处理好诸多方面的复杂关系。当供应商和关键客户都是规模较大的组织时，大客户经理理论上应能够处理好关键客户方人员内部、供应商人员内部及其中间的上百条人际关系。为成功完成这一任务，大客户经理必须具有较广的知识面，确保与关键人员的适度沟通。他还应对双方企业的组织结构、流程、程序和文化较为敏感。大客户经理必须对组织行为有着深刻理解，并对组织政治情况有着较高的敏感性，这样才能有效驾驭双方组织。这些技能可能在兼并和收购的情形中经受最为严峻的考验，此时大客户经理承担着处理公司新业务部门（尤其是之前有过不愉快事情发生的）与关键客户关系的责任。

In general, the key account manager’s focus is on business relationships per se and on social activities that support them. But from time-to-time, the key account manager may have to deal with difficult personal relationships between supplier and key account personnel.

总的来说，大客户经理的工作重心是在商业关系本身以及支撑商业关系的社交活动上。但时不时地，大客户经理还需要处理好供应商和关键客户方人员之间较难处理的个人关系。

Example: One key account manager was responsible for a team of sixty 28-35 year olds that interfaced with similar age personnel from the supplier’s largest account. He observed that inter-organizational business relationships often developed into personal relationships. He lamented that termination of such personal relationships tended to negatively effect inter-organizational business relationships.