How do you turn Key Account Management into a true growth engine? At two significant industry events – the Leadership Forum II and the SAMA Pan-European Conference – Carlos Martin Boix, Commercial Excellence and KAM Lead at Saint-Gobain, joined Morten Junge, VP of Customer Success at ARPEDIO, to share how Saint-Gobain is taking KAM to the next level. Together, they explored how KAM is becoming a cornerstone of the company’s bold “Lead and Grow” Strategy 2030.
Challenge: Fragmentation and misalignment
Until recently, Saint-Gobain’s account management practices were spread across a variety of tools: Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint decks, shared files, and notes in Salesforce. Each national account director had their own way of working, which made it difficult to create a single, consistent view of accounts or to run strategy discussions on common ground.
Turning ideas into action
The evening before SAMA’s Pan-European Conference, ARPEDIO hosted an intimate “pre-burner” dinner, a follow-up to our Leadership Forum in March, where senior leaders and practitioners shared a common ambition to elevate Strategic Account Management (SAM) into a true driver of sustainable growth.
Those conversations naturally flowed into the conference the next day. On stage, Morten Junge and Carlos Martin Boix showcased how Saint-Gobain is transforming its business strategy through orchestration, data, and an enabling tech stack.
The through-line from dinner to stage was refreshingly simple: purpose creates direction, empowerment creates motion, and performance follows.
The power of “Glocal” at Saint-Gobain
When you operate across 80 countries with 161,000 employees, “one account, one playbook” isn’t realistic. Different business units, languages, and market cycles require a new kind of leadership.
That’s why Saint-Gobain has shifted from a “heroic seller” model to KAMs as network coordinators – leaders who convene sales, service, logistics, legal, R&D, and executive sponsors around a shared customer outcome.
Globally, the company sets intent and frames value; locally, teams are accountable for execution and relationship depth. Saint-Gobain calls this approach “Glocal.” The result is a governance model where strategy, intelligence, and resources flow both ways between global and local leaders. If your accounts are complex ecosystems, your organization must mirror that complexity with clarity.
Technology as an enabler of trust
Saint-Gobain’s technology philosophy is very simple: resist hype, reward discipline. The company’s unified tech stack (Salesforce plus ARPEDIO’s Account-Based Selling layer) creates one source of truth across business units. When everyone can see the same account plan, relationship map, and opportunity progression, teams stop negotiating internally and start creating value externally.
This foundation makes AI and automation genuinely useful. Data hygiene improves, forecasting becomes more accurate, and collaboration feels natural because it’s rooted in shared visibility and trust.
Making relationship Intelligence work in the real world
Culture doesn’t change because software is installed – it changes through rhythm and repetition.
Saint-Gobain’s teams build relationship intelligence into their daily work:
- Assess relationships to establish a baseline.
- Map stakeholders by influence, attitude, and access.
- Engage systematically, pairing the right people on both sides.
- Plan and review regularly inside the CRM/ABS environment.
The power lies not in any single step, but in running the loop continuously, where the work lives.
Measuring what matters
To focus investment, ARPEDIO’s ABS Maturity Model helps leaders assess six enablers: Leadership, Process, Value, Orchestration, Data, and Tech Stack. Saint-Gobain’s diagnostic showed strong leadership and orchestration, with room to grow in process and tech integration. A clear direction for where to double down next. More importantly, the differences across countries revealed where conversations, not tools, would unlock progress.
Curious how your own KAM setup compares?
ARPEDIO works with global enterprises to assess maturity across leadership, orchestration, process, data, and tech stack.
Book a short diagnostic conversation with our team here.
What we took home from Paris
So, what resonated most with leaders?
- Leadership signals matter. When top management anchors growth in account focus and customer value, energy follows.
- KAM is no longer a sales role. It’s a business strategy measured by value created with – not just for – customers.
- One source of truth is essential. Shared systems drive alignment and coordinated value creation.
- Maturity must be managed. Simple, repeatable assessments turn debates into data-driven decisions.
- Relationship intelligence is a process. When assessment, mapping, and engagement become a loop, culture starts to shift – because progress is visible and measurable.
From purpose to performance
At ARPEDIO, this is the arc we help leadership teams travel: from purpose to empowerment to performance. If every key customer truly deserves a tailored approach, success won’t come from who pushes hardest, but from who orchestrates best.
Paris reminded us that when leaders share openly, the playbook becomes clear: Align on purpose. Enable empowerment. Measure performance. Then keep the loop turning.
Want to understand where your KAM organization stands today?
Book a session with our team for a quick Maturity Assessment Review here.
The Preferred
Account-Based Selling Platform
Our platform provides visual org charts, stakeholder relationship heat maps, up-to-date account plans, recommended next-best actions, accurate weighted pipelines, and white space analysis.
