Press Release

New Tools for Strategic Salespeople!

IMPACT Without Authority

How to Leverage Internal Resources to Create Customer Value

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MINNEAPOLIS (May 2003) — In today's business environment, account managers can be charged with orchestrating customer solutions across geographies, markets, and functions. How do they successfully navigate the boundaries of their own organization? Finally, a book has been written that gives a "roadmap" and tools for strategic account managers (SAMs), as well as strategies for executives. SAMs will enhance their ability to influence areas of the organization that impact the customer—”regardless of level of authority over those areas. The book, titled IMPACT Without Authority, is published by the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA).

"It takes the efforts of an entire organization to enable a supplier to deliver customer value, and the task of aligning all its various components is huge," according to co-author Lisa Napolitano, also the CEO of SAMA. IMPACT Without Authority addresses many of the structural issues that prevent alignment.

"The SAM is responsible for working across the organization, regardless of how significant the barriers might be. This book also presents a pragmatic approach that reflects best-in-class practices that work," asserts co-author Jane Helsing, a vice president at Personnel Decisions International. PDI also offers workshops that guide SAMs through the IMPACT approach.

Barbara Geraghty, co-author of the book and president of Visionary Selling adds, "It was critical that we address this issue, because we know what a challenge it is for the strategic salesperson to 'sell internally."'

Whether you are a SAM, in sales management, or the CEO of your organization, IMPACT Without Authority can help you "leverage internal resources to create customer value."

IMPACT Without Authority
By Jane Helsing, Barbara Geraghty, and Lisa Napolitano

Published by Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA)
$19.95
218 pages
ISBN: 0-9728836-90-X
www.impactwithoutauthority.com

The authors

Jane Helsing is Vice President, Strategic Accounts at Personnel Decisions International (PDI). She works with a variety of companies to strengthen the salespeople's ability to create committed customers. As the lead for PDI's strategic account management practice area, she has both created new processes and helped to customize PDI's core offerings for the SAM program.

Barbara Geraghty is the author of Visionary Selling, published by Simon & Schuster in 1998. She speaks at national sales meetings, worldwide sales meetings and association conventions to 25,000 people or more annually. Her clients include Eli Lilly, SAP, Rockwell, PeopleSoft and Siemens.

Lisa Napolitano joined the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA) in 1991 as Executive Director charged with revitalizing the organization, which was founded in 1964. Napolitano serves as chief spokesperson for SAMA, an international, non-profit organization with 2,500 practitioner members and the leading information provider on the subject of strategic customer-supplier partnering. Her primary role is to enable SAMA to increase the body of knowledge on the complexities of enterprise relationship management, and to disseminate best practices and research data to business leaders around the world.

Their organizations

ABOUT PERSONNEL DECISIONS INTERNATIONAL (PDI)

PDI helps organizations worldwide improve their performance and achieve strategic results through people. They partner with their clients to:

• Understand the talent implications of their strategies;
• Design and implement solutions that improve individual leadership and organizational performance; and
• Accelerate change and drive lasting improvement throughout the organization.

Specific areas of expertise help clients:

• Improve talent decisions by accurately measuring performance readiness and potential;
• Develop strategy, utilizing information collected through "voice of the customer" feedback systems;
• Enhance sales effectiveness, including people development and implementation of strategic account management programs;
• Recognize and retain top talent, through the design or enhancing of talent management systems;
• Ensure they can execute their business strategies, by defining the performance and capabilities required; and
• Develop leadership capabilities.

For more information, contact PDI client relations at 920-997-6995 (in the U.S. 800-633-4410) or visit PDI's Web site at www.personneldecisions.com.

ABOUT VISIONARY SELLING

Visionary Selling develops in salespeople the business acumen and financial competency to articulate high-level value propositions to executives. It provides the following training and tools:

• Visionary Selling, published by Simon & Schuster;
• Keynote presentations by Barbara Geraghty, author of Visionary Selling;
• Sales Training;
• e-Learning products for web-based training using your intranet or computer-based training on CD-ROM; and
• Distance Learning options for follow-up, including teleconferencing and webinars.

Barbara Geraghty provides keynote presentations, sales training and e-Learning courses to companies interested in increasing their competency in selling to executives. Visit www.visionaryselling.com or call 800-590-4332.

ABOUT STRATEGIC ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT ASSOCATION (SAMA)

Founded in 1964 and with over 2,500 members worldwide, SAMA attracts the strategic customer management profession's most influential decision-makers. Over the past 39 years, the association has earned the reputation of being the SAM profession's knowledge leader, providing members with the high quality resources, training and networking opportunities needed to succeed.

SAMA's Mission Statement: The Strategic Account Management Association is a non-profit organization devoted to developing and promoting the concept of customer-supplier collaboration. SAMA is dedicated to the professional development of the individuals involved in the process of managing national, global and strategic customer relationships, and to enabling firms to create greater customer value and achieve competitive advantage accordingly.

For more information on SAMA, visit their website at www.strategicaccounts.org, or call 312-251-3131.