Episode #509 – Joel Schaafsma

Key account management is more than a sales tactic — it is an organization-wide growth strategy that prioritizes deeper, value-driven relationships with your most important customers. On this episode of the podcast, Joel Schaafsma joins me to dig into the nuances that differentiate key accounts from regular accounts, why organizations struggle with defining them, and the organizational investment and ROI linked to strategic account management. 

Joel is a strategic account management and customer experience expert known for driving organizational growth and building frameworks that translate customer insights into better business decisions. He shares his experience on evolving from vendor relationships to trusted advisor status, the common mistakes made when transitioning from sales to account management, and the critical importance of aligning your business strategy with your customers’ objectives. 

Outline of This Episode

• [00:00] Key account strategy overview
• [05:34] Building customer alignment
• [07:43] Stakeholder mapping for alignment
• [11:17] Key account management basics
• [13:37] Collaborating on customer-focused strategies
• [16:34] Key strategies and common pitfalls
• [21:31] Building a hospital partnership program

Building a Key Account Strategy That Aligns With Customer Goals

You build a winning key account strategy by aligning your business completely with your customers’, integrating at multiple organizational levels. By orchestrating input from all stakeholders, not just the primary point of contact, account managers can spot trends, proactively address issues, and introduce co-creation opportunities that serve both parties’ goals.

Leveraging Stakeholder Mapping and Executive Sponsorship

Deep alignment is only possible with clear stakeholder mapping. This goes beyond knowing names on an org chart, it’s about understanding influence, needs, and potential advocates across both organizations, which equips you to withstand changes such as leadership turnover and evolving expectations.

Joel emphasizes the role of an executive sponsor program: connecting your senior leaders with theirs builds credibility, opens doors for value-driven dialogue, and quickly removes barriers when action is needed.

Tools, Technology, and Methodologies for Success

The right foundation combines methodology, technology, and innovation. Joel recommends:

• A Distinct Strategic Account Management Methodology: This should include value co-creation and regular outcome validation, which differs from traditional sales playbooks.
• Enabling Technology: Use tools that collect and synthesize data from all touchpoints within both organizations, moving beyond spreadsheets to foster true alignment and prioritization.
• AI Integration: Those who ignore AI risk falling dangerously behind as it rapidly reshapes the landscape of business intelligence and process automation.

Making the Key Account Plan a Living Strategy

Joel details that effective plans are co-created with customers, regularly revisited, and focused on mutual priorities. Simple, actionable documentation, combined with technology for prioritization and measurement, transforms the plan from a once-a-year formality into a working blueprint for partnership.

When confronted with real-life challenges such as price competition, don’t just look for cost savings. Take a step back, engage a wider range of stakeholders, and solve bigger problems. That strategic lens is at the heart of lasting success in key accounts.

Resources Mentioned

• Strategic Account Management Association

Connect with Joel Schaafsma

• Joel Schaafsma on LinkedIn

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• LinkedIn
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Learn More About Joel Schaafsma

1. Expertise Sharing: What was a pivotal moment in your career that changed the way you approach managing strategic accounts? 

One of the biggest shifts for me came from noticing that while any account could become strategic, not every account is worth that level of investment—at least not right now.

Early on, I kept seeing the same pattern. Some customers were leaning in, open to deeper partnership, and ready to engage in a more strategic way. Others weren’t—and it wasn’t about effort or capability, they just weren’t there yet. And what really stood out was how easy it was to over-invest in the harder accounts, thinking more time and structure would eventually get them there… while the ones that were ready were often the easiest to accelerate and create value with.

That realization changed how I think about managing my time. It became less about trying to force every account into a strategic model, and more about recognizing where there’s real momentum and leaning into it—while still supporting other accounts in a way that fits where they are. It’s a simple shift, but it made a big difference in terms of results, focus, and the strength of the partnerships that were built.

2. Tactical Advice: Can you share a specific framework, account plan, or cadence that has consistently helped you expand a Key Account? Please include an example.

I’m often asked where to start when building value that actually matters to customers. I think about it as a spectrum—from simple to more complex opportunities—that can create meaningful impact across the organization. 

• Start with Sales / Procurement (Level 1 – Remove Cost)
• Focus: Pricing, contracts, efficiency
• Goal: Eliminate cost and improve transactional value
• Entry point: Sales teams ↔ Procurement

• Expand into Operations (Level 2 – Reduce Risk)
• Focus: Supply chain, service delivery, reliability
• Goal: Improve efficiency, reduce risk, stabilize performance
• Entry point: Operations teams on both sides

• Move into Product / Solution Development (Level 3 – Create New Value)
• Focus: Joint innovation, new products, tailored solutions
• Goal: Drive growth through co-development
• Entry point: Product, R&D, technical teams

• Engage the Broader Network (Level 4 – Multiply Impact)
• Focus: Customer’s customers + supplier ecosystem
• Goal: Expand influence and unlock new opportunities across the value chain
• Entry point: Partner networks, downstream/upstream stakeholders

• Transform the Ecosystem (Level 5 – Strategic Transformation)
• Focus: End-to-end business model or ecosystem change
• Goal: Create long-term, differentiated competitive advantage
• Entry point: Executive leadership + full ecosystem alignment

3. Overcoming Challenges: What is the most complex stakeholder situation you’ve faced within a  Key Account, and how did you navigate it? 

One of the most complex stakeholder situations I’ve faced was with a key account where the relationship had become financially unsustainable—for both sides. It had reached a true lose-lose point. If we continued as-is, it would have put us out of business. If we walked away, it would have created real risk for the customer’s operations.

What made it especially complex was the number of stakeholders involved and the tension on both sides. There were strong emotions, competing priorities, and a lot at stake.

The way we navigated it was by resetting the conversation. Instead of negotiating positions, we focused on the health of both businesses. We got the right people in the room, were transparent about the realities, and worked through the economics together. That led to a full renegotiation—new terms, new structure, and a shared understanding of what needed to be true for the partnership to continue.

It was easily one of the hardest situations I’ve worked through, but it reinforced something important for me: when you anchor on mutual sustainability and treat the relationship as a true partnership, even the toughest situations can be worked through in a way that preserves – and sometimes even strengthens – the relationship.

4. Value Creation: How can Key Account Managers shift from being perceived as vendors to trusted advisors within an organization? 

I think about this as a progression. In the podcast, I described it as a spectrum: starting as a vendor, moving to preferred supplier, then to solutions partner, and ultimately to trusted advisor.

Each step requires something different.

To move from vendor to preferred supplier, it really comes down to the strength of the relationship. Are you reliable? Easy to work with? Do people trust you to deliver consistently?

To move from preferred supplier to solutions partner, the shift is about execution. Are you actually solving meaningful problems? Are your solutions working and creating tangible value for the customer?

And then to move from solutions partner to trusted advisor, it becomes about innovation. Are you bringing new ideas? Are you helping the customer see around corners? Are you identifying and creating new areas of value they may not have considered?

The key is being intentional about where you are on that spectrum and what it takes to move forward. One practical way to do that is by identifying value opportunities across the organization—starting with simpler areas and expanding into more strategic ones—so you can continue to deepen the partnership over time.

5. Future Trends: With digital buying journeys, AI, and procurement sophistication increasing, how do you see Key Account Management evolving over the next 5–10 years? 

Here are a few things that  I predict will be the most widely adopted impact. World-class companies are doing this today, but I think that is still the minority. Given the speed of AI, I think this will be pretty common in 3-5 years. Thinking 10 years seems unreasonable considering how fast AI has changed the landscape in just the last 2 years. But if I had to go out further, I think that KAMs will get much more savvy on how effective they will be able to build and leverage larger ecosystems. AI will enable those connections just as it has enabled things like unstructured data analysis capabilities…. Think building solutions with dozens of companies bringing expertise to the table. The KAM that can orchestrate that will be unstoppable. 

1. The middle will disappear—KAM becomes more selective and high-impact

With digital buying journeys and procurement getting more sophisticated, a lot of the traditional “vendor” activity is going to be automated or expected as table stakes. That compresses the middle.

What’s left are two ends of the spectrum: highly transactional, low-touch relationships—and a much smaller set of deeply strategic partnerships. KAMs will spend less time managing many accounts and more time going deep with the few that truly matter.

2. The role shifts from relationship management to value orchestration

It won’t be enough to “own the relationship” anymore. The expectation will be to connect the dots across the customer’s organization—bringing together stakeholders, ideas, and opportunities to create value.

The best KAMs will act more like orchestrators—helping customers navigate complexity, align internally, and unlock opportunities across their broader ecosystem.

3. AI raises the bar—it doesn’t replace the role

AI will take over a lot of the prep work—research, insights, even some communication—but that just increases expectations.

Customers will expect you to show up with perspective, not just information. The KAMs who win will be the ones who use AI to be more proactive, more informed, and more precise—but still bring the human element of judgment, creativity, and trust.