Classifying a customer as a national account

https://doi.org/10.1016/0019-8501(80)90019-XGet rights and content

Abstract

A recent article [Stevenson and Page, Industrial Marketing Management 8, 94–100 (1979)] addressed the issue of how industrial marketers determine if their firms can use national account marketing. Once that decision is made, a next logical step is to determine which customers should be classified as national accounts. This article discusses appropriate classification criteria that industrial marketers can use to make such decisions. The information presented here is based on a study of national account marketing.

References (5)

  • Roger M. Pegram

    Selling and Servicing the National Account

    (1972)
  • J.W. Hartung

    The National Account

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (39)

  • An impact-oriented implementation approach in business marketing research. Introduction to the Special Issue on "Implementing Strategies and Theories of B2B Marketing and Sales Management".

    2015, Industrial Marketing Management
    Citation Excerpt :

    Key account management (KAM) has its origins in the 1970s when large US companies such as IBM and Xerox started to refer to their major national-level customers as key accounts, and to offer them dedicated sales persons and teams. Academics became interested in this marketing innovation in the late 1970s and early 1980s when Stevenson and Page (1979), Stevenson (1980), and Shapiro and Moriarty (1982) investigated issues related to the adoption and implementation of key account practices. Since then various aspects of KAM adoption and execution have been examined in numerous studies that also offer suggestions on its implementation (see e.g., Abratt & Kelly, 2002; Ivens & Pardo, 2008).

  • Attitudes and behaviours of key account managers: Are they really any different to senior sales professionals?

    2013, Industrial Marketing Management
    Citation Excerpt :

    Early literature in the field referred to relationship managers (Ford, 1980; Wotruba, 1996). At a similar time a body of literature on regional or national account managers emerged (Dishman & Nitze, 1998; Shapiro & Moriarty, 1980, 1982, 1984a, 1984b; Stevenson, 1980; Stevenson, 1981; Tutton, 1987; Weilbaker & Weeks, 1997; Wotruba, 1996). These national account managers may be either independent, or may answer to higher level global account managers acting as part of a global virtual team (Wilson & Millman, 2003; Yip & Bink, 2008).

  • Managing and developing key supplier relationships: An introduction to the special issue, discussion and implications

    2013, Industrial Marketing Management
    Citation Excerpt :

    Usually, in such cases of high dependence asymmetry (Gulati & Sytch, 2007), the supplier has the (power) advantage and it is likely that the supplier can realize higher profits by maintaining an asymmetric relationship. There are numerous ways on how supply sources can represent opportunities for a buying organization (e.g. Stevenson, 1980; Walter, Ritter, & Gemünden, 2001). More specifically, (key) supplier relationships could add value to the buying company as innovation partner, for benchmarking purposes, for reputation enhancement, and to identify internationalization opportunities.

  • "Vertical coopetition": The key account perspective

    2012, Industrial Marketing Management
    Citation Excerpt :

    Is it not the customer who creates a paradoxical tension between capturing value from relational benefits provided by key suppliers (Ulaga, 2003; Ulaga & Eggert, 2006) and takes advantage, at the same time, of price-competitive market transactions (Gummesson, 1997), and organising tenders? If we take a specific customer perspective – the key account perspective – we focus our analysis on those customers who “purchase a significant volume, buy centrally for a number of geographically dispersed organizational units and desire a long-term, cooperative working relationship as a means to innovation and financial success” (Colletti & Tubridy, 1987; Stevenson, 1980). Their key account status is defined by their expectation that they will represent for their suppliers “a natural development of customer focus and relationship marketing in business-to-business markets” (McDonald, Millman, & Rogers, 1997).

View all citing articles on Scopus

Thomas H. Stevenson is Associate Professor of Business Administration at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He received his academic training at Syracuse University (B.S. and M.B.A.) and Case Western Reserve University (PH.D.). Dr. Stevenson is the author of several articles and cases in the area of industrial marketing. His work experience, consulting and research interests are also in this field.

View full text