The so-called Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) states that for many phenomena 80% of consequences stem from 20% of the causes.

And if you're like most manufacturing companies in North America, a vital few customers account for the lion's share of your sales activity ;many are called key accounts and many companies have set up key account teams to service these important customers. This is a critical step in ensuring that customer needs are met. But how will you know if you're making progress? How will you know how your company stacks up against your competitors with these key accounts? What about the rocks under the water in these relationships?

PMG's Key Account Monitor will measure your organization's relationship with the segment of the market where much of your effort and resources are spent. This unique product provides strategic attitudinal information from the key decision makers and helps answer the following types of questions;

• How satisfied are your key accounts with you on the measures that impact the purchase decision and relationship
• How are you positioned against the competition to a variety of product and service measures
• What are the key drivers to company and product selection
• What is our perceived value proposition
• Which competitors are making the most advances at your expense
• Rates your company and the competition to a variety of product and service measures (i.e. customer service, sales service, price, quality, innovation, leadership, availability, etc.)