You say your firm has a strategic account management program? That your strategic account managers are beautifully managing the targeted customer relationships?

Are you as sure that all the accounts you have targeted should be strategic accounts? When you started the program, did you divest yourself of some accounts that did not fit your strategic criteria? Did you drop less critical customers who have never paid for themselves?

If you answer no to any of these questions, and seem shocked at the suggestion to drop customers, I wonder how strategic your SAM program really is. As our friend, Das Narayandas, Ph.D., Harvard Business School, once said to us, “Strategic account management is as much about deselecting accounts you don’t want as it is about selecting accounts you do.” JSperry