In 2011, we started talking with top B2B executives about their engagement with their firm’s major customers in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The vast majority told us that they were very involved, to great effect. However, when we interviewed their sales account managers, we heard a different tale. Although a minority of executives did well, many seemed to need at least some guidance.

We realized that self-reports would be unlikely to give us the true picture. So, from 2012 to 2018, we conducted 30 executive education workshops with more than 500 strategic and global account managers in the United States, Netherlands, Switzerland, and Singapore. This allowed us to identify five distinct archetypes describing the roles executives play with key customers.

From most to least common, these archetypes are the hands-off, the loose cannon, the social visitor, the dealmaker, and the growth champion. Each comes with its own set of rewards and risks and has a different impact on business performance.

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