4 Ways to Build Durable Relationships with Your Most Important Customers

Companies that lean into strategic customers see results. Most CEOs recognize that strategic account management (SAM), which aligns strategy, teams, and resources around large, complex customer partnerships, is critical to their firm’s growth. Yet new evidence suggests that many organizations are losing SAM momentum. An internal study by the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA) finds that lack of executive support is now the leading reason SAM programs are cut or stall. Similarly, joint research by SAMA and ZS shows how steep the decline has been. The share of firms viewing SAM as a clear strategic priority fell from 65% in 2020 to 33% in 2025. Nearly two-thirds of respondents now report that SAM has lost importance, is at risk of being deprioritized, or was never a priority at all. Our own work with dozens of executives and strategic account teams echoes that pattern, revealing four shifts that distinguish genuine SAM stewardship from symbolic or superficial involvement: Belief in SAM as a strategy, not just a sales team. A time horizon of years, not quarters. Commitment to enabling performance, not just hiring stars. Executives who stay engaged with strategic accounts, not insulated at the top. In this article, we’ll outline how companies can do a better job engaging with strategic account customers. Belief in SAM as a Strategy, Not Just a Sales Team Companies too often view SAM as a sales function—a high-touch version of account coverage, a glorified sales team, or a nicer title for senior reps. When that happens, SAM’s true purpose gets lost. Treated as a sales function, SAM focuses on closing opportunities and managing through territories, pipelines, quotas, and short-term results-based incentives. When viewed as a strategy, the focus broadens to defining how the firm creates and sustains customer-based advantage and driving sustained enterprise growth. Reviews shift from “How many deals did we close this quarter?” to “How are we increasing partnership and mutual value with this customer over the next three years?” The most effective companies treat SAM not as a sales team but as a strategic growth platform. They define a clear rationale for SAM and why it matters now. They identify which accounts truly merit strategic engagement, using criteria such as revenue concentration, influence, coinnovation potential, willingness to partner, lifetime value, and risk. And they orchestrate cross-functional resources, data, and investments to align with those priorities. This shifts the focus from transactions to transformation, from chasing quarterly numbers to building long-term strategic value. One emerging biopharma company embraced SAM so completely that it reorganized its entire go-to-market model around its strategic accounts, which generated 80% of its sales. SAM was no longer viewed as one function’s “problem”; the entire organization was aligned and incentivized toward strategic account growth. A cross-functional account management governance council, bringing together leaders from brands, HR, finance, analytics, learning and development, strategy, and operations, established customer budgets (separate from brand budgets), common performance metrics, and standardized ways of working. Strategic account management became a standing item on the C-suite agenda and, ultimately, a core pillar of the company’s go-to-market strategy. The impact was dramatic: Strategic accounts grew 50% faster than non-SAM accounts over two years, and a new product achieved 60% growth in SAM accounts versus 30% elsewhere within 18 months of launch. Further, 50% of customers selected the company as their preferred manufacturer, ahead of the next competitor at 30%. A Time Horizon of Years, Not Quarters Perhaps the hardest shift is temporal. Markets reward quarterly performance, CEO tenures are shorter, and digital disruption accelerates business cycles. The result: organizational patience is declining. This pressure to deliver short-term results affects SAM programs directly. Too often, companies celebrate “customer-centricity” through high-visibility social media campaigns yet invest little in the infrastructure required to sustain it. Symbolism is favored over systems. When it comes to strategic accounts, the most disciplined companies resist that pull. They know SAM’s value compounds over time: Trust deepens, coinnovation grows, and shared risk turns into shared growth. One CEO even mandated not measuring sales impact for three years after launching a SAM program. He took a balanced approach to measurement, focusing on leading indicators such as customer experience metrics and the success of joint initiatives with customers. Three years later, when he finally reviewed revenue performance, SAM accounts were growing twice as fast as others and adopting new offerings 30% faster. Enduring SAM programs are built by leaders who design systems that outlast leadership transitions and yield exponential returns long after the spotlight moves on. They are running a marathon in a sprinting world. Commitment to Enabling Performance, Not Just Hiring Stars While outstanding talent is important for success with strategic accounts, it’s not enough. These customers don’t just want your product; they want your partnership. ZS research on U.S. healthcare provider organizations (e.g., hospitals and health systems)—a proprietary study shared only with participating companies—shows that manufacturers (such as pharma and medtech companies) that have partner-oriented relationships with providers receive higher customer advocacy scores. Another proprietary ZS study shows that customers value a seller’s “knowledge of their organization” twice as much as they value product expertise. To build such a partnership, strategic account teams need talent, but they also need organizational support and enablement, including executive sponsorship, a dedicated budget, and access to data and expertise from functions such as marketing, analytics, legal, and finance. Too often, account teams are forced to “borrow” these resources from product or brand teams, leaving them to navigate resource scarcity in systems designed around offerings rather than customers. Forward-thinking companies treat SAM support and enablement as core organizational capabilities, not shared services. They fund them explicitly, measure impact, and elevate executive participation in SAM as a leadership privilege rather than an administrative task. At Hilton, for example, being appointed an executive sponsor for a strategic account is considered a mark of prestige, and senior leaders actively seek these roles. That sense of cachet ensures top-tier customers receive coordinated attention across the enterprise, leading to stronger advocacy, deeper partnership, and faster growth. Executives Who Stay Engaged with Strategic Accounts, Not Insulated at the Top As organizations grow, C-suite leaders often drift away from customers, losing sight of how strategic accounts make decisions, where processes bog down, and how competing priorities create friction. Layers of communication filter hard truths into palatable updates. Retrospective metrics replace meaningful forward-looking dialogue. Executives ask the wrong questions, teams hesitate to correct them, and everyone manages optics instead of focusing on customers. As a result, SAM programs lose energy and direction. By contrast, CEOs who remain grounded in the purpose of SAM actively seek discomfort. They reward dissent, invite account teams to challenge assumptions, and welcome bad news early. One consumer products company offers a powerful example. During a SAM transformation, the program leader concluded that long-tenured sales executives lacked the capabilities needed for advanced strategic account management. The decision to reset roles triggered resistance and internal politics, yet the general manager stayed anchored in the purpose of SAM and the talent it demanded, backing the program leader’s decisions. Three years later, the company had overtaken its category leader, forcing that competitor to launch its own SAM overhaul. . . . For executive leaders, the difference between symbolically supporting SAM and practicing stewardship is profound. Symbolic support is fleeting and episodic; stewardship is enduring. The former signals interest; the latter builds and sustains the commitment necessary for success. Executives who embody stewardship see SAM not as a sales role but as a growth strategy. They invest in aligning functions and enabling execution to cultivate relationships with the firm’s most distinctive and disproportionately important customers, creating mutual value that compounds over time. The organization’s center of gravity shifts from chasing deals and celebrating transactions to building trust, forging enduring partnerships, and driving enterprise growth.

4 Ways to Build Durable Relationships with Your Most Important Customers

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