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Internal Implementation of Business Relationship Management

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Business Relationship Management and Marketing

Part of the book series: Springer Texts in Business and Economics ((STBE))

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Abstract

In order to be able to create one face to the customer, a supplier company needs to organize internally accordingly. In this chapter we discuss several options of how to organize key account management, i.e. the interface to important customers with whom the supplier has business relationships. Choices range from part-time marketing by top level managers in smaller firms to dedicated key account management organizations at various level of a bigger corporation. These options are discussed before we take a look into the skills and characteristics of the people who ideally fill these boundary positions, i.e. the key account managers. Since many business relationships necessitate interaction between a variety of supplier firm and customer firm functions, key account management teams and their specificities are also discussed. Finally, the chapter takes a look at how business relationship management can be monitored and controlled.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business and Economics, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Ingmar Geiger & Michael Kleinaltenkamp

Authors
  1. Ingmar Geiger
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  2. Michael Kleinaltenkamp
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ingmar Geiger .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Michael Kleinaltenkamp

  2. European School of Management and Technology, Berlin, Germany

    Wulff Plinke

  3. Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Ingmar Geiger

Exercises

Exercises

  1. 1.

    State reasons in favor of introducing key account management in a company as an organizational form.

  2. 2.

    Explain the term “part-time relationship management.” Which criteria speak for and which against the fundamental organizational option key account management?

  3. 3.

    Weigh the pros and cons of introducing “part-time relationship management” and “full-time relationship management.” Which criteria would you examine in designing the constellation?

  4. 4.

    Which subdivisions of “full-time relationship management” are you familiar with?

  5. 5.

    What is the correlation between key account management and the formation of “strategic business units”? Explain potential conflicts.

  6. 6.

    When does it make sense to set up key account management as a staff unit?

  7. 7.

    When does it make sense to set up key account management as a management board division?

  8. 8.

    Which conditions support establishment of key account management as corporate divisions?

  9. 9.

    Explain how the complexity of the business relationship affects how business relationship management is designed.

  10. 10.

    Explain why, when business relationship management is successful, greater demands are placed on the key account manager than on a common sales employee.

  11. 11.

    Which determinants of successful employment of key account management teams at the organizational level are you familiar with?

  12. 12.

    Which team-specific success factors should be kept in mind when employing key account management teams?

  13. 13.

    Why should control of business relationship management not be based solely on economic variables? Which other control variables may make sense?

  14. 14.

    Which criteria should business relationship management control parameters fulfill? Explain them.

  15. 15.

    Which future-oriented ways to monitor business relationship management are you familiar with? Compare them to those based on the past.

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Geiger, I., Kleinaltenkamp, M. (2015). Internal Implementation of Business Relationship Management. In: Kleinaltenkamp, M., Plinke, W., Geiger, I. (eds) Business Relationship Management and Marketing. Springer Texts in Business and Economics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43856-5_8

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