Managing Strategic Accounts

In just one day, and “with glowing hearts,” Vancouver welcomes the world to the 2010 Olympic Games.  The venues are ready (ok, minus a little snow!), the city is prepared, and athletes, media and spectators are arriving.  The Olympics are inspirational in many ways, even offering lessons that cross over to business.

For example, as the host country, Canada has been preparing for these Olympics for years, putting plans in place to (we hope) make this our most successful winter games ever.  We developed a strategy, and we’ve been executing it with an end-goal in sight: Own the Podium.  We believe we will succeed.  As Strategic Account Managers, lessons we can take away from this include…

• Be strategic: resource the initiatives with the greatest chance of success
• Commit completely to the end-goal, and be specific about what it is
• Rally the team, including those in supporting roles
• Keep score so you know when you’ve won

We can also apply the techniques of elite athletes as they aim to be Faster / Higher / Stronger, pursuing our own ‘gold medal’ performances by igniting what Dr. Peter Jensen, currently in Vancouver with Canada’s Women’s hockey team, calls The Third Factor.  His book on this subject touches on practices such as:

• Embracing adversity as a challenge and an opportunity
• Building trust
• Focusing on your goal
• Uncovering hidden blocks and working through them

Sadly, I’m not an Olympian… but I am learning from them.  And, I believe.

Jennifer Batley
VP, Strategic Accounts