Handbook of Strategic Account Management: A Comprehensive Resource

Developing strategic key account relationships in business-to-business markets

by Kevin Wilson

Abstract

In a series of articles and conference papers that stretch back to 1993, the author, individually and with colleagues, has explored the nature of buyer–seller interaction in organizational markets. A number of models evolving from this work have provided the foundation for the work of others in the field, most notably researchers at Cranfield University.

The result has been the development of some powerful models that have been instructive in describing the nature of buyer–seller interaction and the form that relationships take at various stages of their development.

What had been lacking was empirical evidence to link those models in a comprehensive framework that provided clues as to how buyer–seller relationships could be managed. This paper reviews the literature concerning relational development in key strategic account management (KSAM) and reports on a research project that explored how the development of buyer–seller relationships is influenced by the nature of the problems that buyers and sellers focus upon resolving during the process of interaction. This paper thus integrates the Millman–Wilson model of relational development with the problem-centred product, process and facilitation (PPF) model of buyer–seller interaction in business-to-business markets, and provides valuable insights into why and how relationships develop over time. In its revised form the paper ...