Strategic Account Management Association

SAMA enables world-class companies to gain competitive advantage and secure market position by helping them build world-class capabilities around strategic account management. We do this through our unique position as the convener of the largest, most diverse community of strategic accounts practitioners in the world. We tap them for insights, benchmarking and best practices, which we then share with the entire community.

strategicaccounts.org

200 W Madison, Suite 1040, Chicago, IL, United States, 60606Denise Freier, President and CEOfreier@strategicaccounts.org312-251-3131

Learn more about SAMA and how we help you become essential to your customers. We empower you with knowledge, training and tools to grow your most important customer relationships. Browse our products and services, sign up for the Expert Exchange, schedule a meeting and ask us anything via email or by talking to one of our SAMA Concierges available live via chat and Zoom during the conference!

SAMA Certification

SAMA's Certified Strategic Account Manager (CSAM) program represents the highest mark of professional development achievement for strategic and key account managers. The customer will be the ultimate judge of a SAM’s professional capabilities, but SAMA’s CSAM program provides its graduates with the skill set, mindset and behaviors to build lasting, mutual growth with strategic customer...[more]

SAMA Corporate Membership

Companies join SAMA to accelerate the development of their strategic and key account management programs, to successfully attract and develop world-class talent to execute against their program's goals, and to institutionalize best practices for elevating relationships and growing wallet share with their most important customers. Contact Christopher Jensen, Director, Customer Solutions, at j...[more]

SAMA Individual Membership

SAMA Individual Members join SAMA for access to our esteemed community, discounted prices on conferences and training, and unlimited access to our library of research, white papers, case studies and more. If your company is new to strategic account management, if you are an internal champion looking to seed SAM best practices in your organization, or if you are a consultant or academic, Indiv...[more]

SAMA Research & Resource Library

SAMA partners with practitioners, SAM consultants and cutting-edge academics to conduct original B2B research. Discover actionable insights to provoke critical thinking and lead SAM professionals through a constantly shifting business landscape with SAMA Research. SAMA also houses an exhaustive reference library of webinars, magazine stories, case studies, white papers and original research cover...[more]

SAMA Training

SAM Training at SAMA helps you understand your present-day strengths and weaknesses through SAMA's Individual Competency Assessment and then chart an individualized training regimen based on the results. Attend in-person or online live training through SAMA Academy, get customized training & consulting (live or virtual) and earn the world's only ce...[more]

"Customer Value Co-Creation" by Bernard Quancard and the SAMA Community

Buy our most recent book: "Customer Value Co-Creation: Powering the Future through Strategic Relationship Management," by Bernard Quancard and the SAMA Community, here! Paperback price: $25 (shipping rates apply) This book takes an in-depth look at the 10 most critical enablers of an effective strategic customer management initiative, offering an organizational blueprint for a successful S...[more]

"Impact Without Authority" by Jane Helsing, Barbara Geraghty and Lisa Napolitano

Get your copy of "Impact Without Authority: How to Leverage Internal Resources to Create Customer Value," by Jane Helsing, Barbara Geraghty and Lisa Napolitano, here! Paperback price $15 (shipping rates apply) A classic of its genre, "Impact Without Authority" was originally published by SAMA in 2003 to explain how strategic account managers can approach the challenge of influencing internally w...[more]

"The Co-Creation Edge" by Bernard Quancard and Francis Gouillart

Buy "The Co-Creation Edge: Harnessing Big Data to Transform Sales and Procurement for Business Innovation," by Bernard Quancard and Francis Gouillart, here! Hardcover price: $40 (shipping rates apply) Rapid changes in business along with better informed customers threaten the traditional sales and procurement process. Thousands of sales and procurement people are threatened with ...[more]

SAM Individual Competency Assessment

Outstanding SAMs have been shown to outperform average ones by a factor of three. SAMA’s 360-degree Individual Competency Assessment delivers a snapshot of the account manager’s current strengths and weaknesses and provides a roadmap for professional development. SAMs and their managers use the Individual Competency Assessment to: Facilitate meaningful coaching Learn how individua...[more]

SAM Program Assessment

SAMA’s Program Assessment will quantitatively rate the maturity and strength of your SAM program across 11 key “enablers” – from program metrics and KPIs to account selection/deselection. You will wind up with a roadmap to guide resource allocation to where it's needed most urgently to drive business results. Pricing Corporate and Enterprise Members: F...[more]

The Facilitator™: SAMA’s Strategic Account Selector

The Facilitator: SAMA’s Strategic Accounts Selector is a facilitated process enabled by a tool that: Brings your internal stakeholders to the table and forces them to align around a common process for selecting strategic accounts Facilitates the acquisition and input of data you need to make informed decisions Crunches the numbers and feeds you customized recommendations Builds consens...[more]

Financial Acumen for SAMs

Strategic Account Managers must have a diverse set of skills, including strong financial acumen. The ability to translate, communicate and position financial value throughout the customer buying journey is a key success factor. This webinar will highlight how to improve SAMs financial acumen and start the journey to better confidence in dealing with financial levers. Key topics include: • How to analyze & identify points of mutual financial value using internal and external financial levers • What is driving the customer’s success • Ways to improve your confidence to have financially focused conversations as a SAM • Tailoring, communicating and positioning financial value throughout the customer buying journey. Author(s):Robert Box, Global Account Director, Mercuri International Publication Date: April 23, 2020

SAMA Excellence Awards - Why Enter?

EXCELLENCE IN PRACTICE Showcase your achievements alongside the most advanced and prestigious strategic account management programs in the world. ✯ Benchmark against the best of the best. ✯ Take stock of where your company is on its SAM journey. ✯ Convey to the rest of your organization the benefit of investing in strategic relationships. Demonstrate to your customers they’re getting world-class customer experience. Here’s what Solecta, Inc. Chief Commercial Officer Jim Ford, a two-time Excellence Award winner, has to say about the benefit of entering.

SAMA nEXtchange 2019

SAMA’s nEXtchange is a series of TED talk-style presentations on future-forward subjects that will alter your mindset and leave you energized and inspired. This nEXtchange features: Adrian Davis, President, Whetstone Inc. in CHANGE AHEAD! and Phil Styrlund, CEO, The Summit Group in RELEVANCE: MATTER MORE. Adrian uses his personal journey as a window into buyer psychology. He helps suppliers go beyond showing up and selling solutions to becoming a trusted and vital resource to buyers on their personal journey. He demonstrates the power of storytelling firsthand and shows suppliers how to harness the power of story. His approach to getting suppliers to arrive at the understanding needed to elevate engagement has been described as electrifying, provocative and transformational. Phil combines his wide-ranging global experience in sales and marketing with his hard-won wisdom to provide a framework for influencing customers, colleagues and loved ones. He shares his insights, hindsights and foresights about how to become truly relevant to others. Across the globe, the forces of commoditization are at play. Everything is, or soon becomes, a commodity. Not just products, but people as well! How, then, do you distinguish yourself in this commoditized culture so that you can matter more not only to others but, more importantly, for others? Relevance trumps intelligence. Intelligence is readily available, yet relevance is what matters. How does what you know and do have an impact on what others care about? That is the question. The great news is that you have never mattered more. How you show up in life and work is now as important, or more important, as what you sell or do. “How” is the new “What.”

Why SAMA?

SAMA is uniquely positioned to help our member companies become indispensable to their customers. Learn more about the benefits of joining the SAMA community. Ready to join? Contact Chris Jensen, Director, Customer Solutions at jensen@strategicaccounts.org..

2020 SAMA Corporate Membership Benefits

See our full listing of Corporate Membership benefits and the three tiers to find the best fit for your organization and program! Contact Chris Jensen, Director, Customer Solutions, at jensen@strategicaccounts.org to get started today!

2020 SAMA Individual Membership Benefits

Whether you're just getting started or are an experienced SAM, we have an Individual Membership for you! Find your best fit by reviewing our Individual Membership benefits or contact membership@strategicaccounts.org to learn more.

Why SAMA Training?

Learn more on how to transform your average SAMs into outstanding ones through our variety of SAMA Training services and products.

SAMA's Certified Strategic Account Manager (CSAM) Brochure

Become a Certified Strategic Account Manager and propel your career forward by enrolling in SAMA's Certified Strategic Account Manager program - the most recognized certification for strategic account management professionals and program heads.

Velocity® Magazine, Fall 2020

Read our latest issue featuring “Emphasizing Excellence in a Time of Crisis" and the winners of SAMA’s 2020 Excellence Awards! Velocity® is the only magazine in the world dedicated exclusively to topics of direct, applicable relevance to people working at all levels in strategic account management. Published three times a year, Velocity is included in SAMA membership in both physical and digital forms. Subscriptions are $65 per year and free for members!

Boston Consulting Group & SAMA COVID-19 response survey

This survey was conducted jointly by BCG and SAMA to assess the "new normal" brought on by COVID-19 and how it has changed everything about how we serve our customers.