Abstract
Many Strategic Account Programs are disconnected from the firm's strategic objectives and market place realities. If the Strategic Account Program is not central to your company's strategy formulation and implementation processes, it will have difficulty securing active senior management sponsorship and support. The Strategic Account Program then degenerates into a sales program and salespeople have difficulty getting alignment and commitment from other company functions. If your firm's strategy is both impacted by, and validated through, its relationship with core customers, the Strategic Account Program should be the fulcrum of strategy formulation and have the complete engagement of senior management. Our objective in this article is to discuss how company strategy shapes Strategic Account Programs—and vice versa. We aim to highlight the strategic in Strategic Account Programs.