Dr. Nguyen Vu Thuan – Founder of PureHigh Commercial Excellence Institute
Dr. Nguyen Thuy Ngoc – Co-Founder of NG Square AI and Data Science
We have seen in South East Asia and Vietnam, local and international large retailers are expanding and getting larger sales share, shaping the market dynamics. Therefore, suppliers of Foods, FMCG and Households brands and manufacturers must continuously evolve to stay relevant with these key accounts, Key Account Management (KAM) emerges not only as a sales function but also as a strategic capability essential for driving business performance and mutual growth. This is especially true in Vietnam’s Modern Trade channel, where international retail chains Central Group, Aeon, Lotte, MM Mega, E-mart, 7-Eleven and local chains Winmart, Saigon Coop, Bach Hoa Xanh, … are accelerating large expansions nation-wide with multi-formats exerting significant bargaining power and operational complexity.
Globally, researches emphasize the transformation of key account management from traditional transactional selling to strategic, relationship-centric models that drive long-term value for both suppliers and retailers. According to academic work grounded in relationship marketing theories literature review by Dr. Nguyen Vu Thuan and his 20 years experiences in leading Modern Trade Business Growth, KAM should move beyond one-off transactions, traditional transactional selling toward strategic, relationship-centric models with structured collaboration and joint value creation.
Why Modern Trade in South East Asia and Vietnam Demands Strategic Key Account Management
Modern Trade is intrinsically more complex than traditional retail: buyers expect suppliers to bring insights, joint business planning (JBP) frameworks, category management support, and execution excellence. Dr. Thuan experiences of 20 years and studies point out that retail diversification— single format, multi-formats, online channels, omnichannel formats and varied store portfolios— requires suppliers to support retailers with sophisticated data, planning, assortment, pricing and promotions intelligence, merchandising, communications and innovation beyond price negotiations alone.
Yet, with 20 years working experiences and studies, Thuan have seen many companies even large international and local ones still fall into classic KAM pitfalls, including failing to formally educate KAM teams, confusing KAM roles with traditional sales, and lacking a customer portfolio strategy that prioritizes accounts by strategic value rather than revenue alone. These issues are exacerbated in Vietnam’s Foods, FMCG & Households Modern Trade, where retailer expectations and shopper behavior are evolving rapidly.
Core Challenges in Modern Trade Key Account Management
1. Reactive versus Strategic Engagement
Many suppliers default to reactive selling—responding to trading term and price requests and promotions—rather than engaging in strategic dialogue rooted in retailer and shopper economics. Thuan’s experience and his academic research highlights how KAM requires fundamental organizational change, not just a reassignment of sales resources but more on structuring, strategic process and financing.
2. Insufficient Insight Integration
Thuan’s experience and his academic research show that Best-in-class retailers leverage deep performance data at SKU, basket and shopper levels, pressing suppliers to deliver actionable insights. Without this, suppliers lose influence and struggle to propose meaningful growth initiatives.
3. Limited Formal Capability Building
Dr. Thuan’s experience and his observations learn that although most firms provide general sales training, specialized KAM training and coaching tailored to complex account dynamics is rare— and without it, performance lags.
4. Misalignment Across Internal Functions
Thuan’s experience and his observations see that KAM must orchestrate cross-functional capabilities—marketing, supply chain, finance and analytics—to deliver on joint customer goals. Fragmentation within supplier organizations weakens execution and reduces the ability to deliver value consistently at store level.
Global, Regional and Local Best Practices and Frameworks for Modern Trade KAM
Drawing on Dr. Thuan’s experience working 20 years in Modern Trade Top 2 Top JBP and the literature review and his studies, training and coaching multinational companies, He has developed the professional PureHigh Key Account Management Frameworks (Copyright by Dr. Nguyen Vu Thuan – PureHigh Commercial Excellence Institute), high-performing KAM practices adhere to several core principles:
1. Strategic Account Selection and Value Prioritization
Not every retailer customer should automatically be a Strategic key account. Applying PureHigh’s frameworks on Mapping analysis and strategic fit criteria, the Foods, FMCG and Households companies can identify accounts whose long-term partnership yields mutual strategic advantage.
2. Structured Account Planning
PureHigh Account planning frameworks (e.g., Strategic Account Planning and Managing Process) provide a disciplined blueprint to map stakeholders, understand economic drivers, and align supplier strategies with retailer objectives.
3. Value-Focused Relationship Management
Dr. Thuan has conducted a literature review on Key Account Management, his experiences and his studies emphasize the best practices that Foods, FMCG and Households, Fashion and Textile manufacturers, brands and suppliers should transition from product-centric selling to value co- creation—helping key account retailers achieve their KPIs and shopper outcomes.
4. Integrated Execution Capability
With his studies, Thuan PureHigh has built a benchmark to evaluate your KAM excellence that involves not just strategy but execution rigor—joint business planning, executions and reviews, operational discipline at stores, and robust measurement systems that track both relational and financial outcomes over time.
5. Continuous Learning and Capability Development
From the studies, Thuan sees that Organizations with advanced KAM maturity invest in ongoing training and coaching, ensuring account teams evolve with changing market and retailer demands.
Modern Trade in Vietnam
We all have seen that Vietnam’s Modern Trade is among the fastest-growing retail channels in Southeast Asia. Retailers increasingly expect suppliers to operate as strategic partners, capable of jointly designing category growth plans, shopper marketing campaigns, and performance metrics that align with both parties’ long-term objectives.
However, many local and multinational suppliers struggle to build institutionalized KAM processes that translate global best practices into the Vietnam context. Execution gaps at store level often dilute even well-designed strategies.
Modern Trade Key Account Management Programs by Dr. Nguyen Vu Thuan – PureHigh Commercial Excellence Institute and Dr. Nguyen Thuy Ngoc – NG Square AI and Data Science
In response to these challenges, Dr. Nguyen Vu Thuan – PureHigh Commercial Excellence Institute and Dr. Nguyen Thuy Ngoc – NG Square AI and Data Science have built a Framework of Modern Trade Key Account Management and developed a series of Programs on Modern Trade Key Account Management that help both international and local suppliers manufacturers, brands and international and local retailers in Vietnam to grow better the Modern Trade which plan to be launched in these coming April, May, June 2026. These specialized, practice-oriented training programs that blends:
• Best practice frameworks rigor from Dr. Thuan’s studies, and his literature review of Havard, Insead,… and his 20 years best practices experiences working with hundred large global, multinational and local Foods, FMCG Suppliers Manufacturers, Brands, Suppliers.
• Real-world methodology and tools such as strategic account planning and structured negotiation processes, and
• Vietnam-specific retail insights from Dr. Thuan’s extensive experience across global and local Foods and FMCG with modern retailers including METRO Group and major chains.
Through immersive modules aligned with best practices, participants build strategic and practical competencies they can deploy immediately in their daily KAM activities and yearly strategic plans and actions to drive the Business Growth and Sustainable Competitive Advantages.
References
Dr. Nguyen Vu Thuan – Founder of PureHigh Commercial Excellence Institute
Dr. Nguyen Thuy Ngoc – Co-Founder of NG Square AI and Data Science
