KAMs are becoming accountants

At BP, Strategic Account Managers are the CEOs of their accounts. They have Gross Profit ownership, which motivates them not just to maximize it but also to strike the right balance between equity production and products sourced from the market—since the latter comes with lower margins.

This is similar to the organization where I started my career in Pakistan. At RBS, we were on a journey to turn Branch Managers into Branch CEOs. To encourage them to manage the mix of liabilities they sold, we wanted them to take ownership of their P&Ls so they could fully grasp the magnitude of the difference between CASA and TD spreads.

In both cases, fostering a culture of P&L ownership was the right move. It pushed what was primarily a sales function beyond the narrow lens of a salesperson and into the CEO mindset for their area of responsibility.

However, when I compare these examples to the FMCG KAM in developed markets, I realize that P&L ownership can be a double-edged sword when taken to the extreme.

Part of the reason is that FMCG Key Account Managers are expected to manage three P&Ls:

1. Internal P&L based on Sales In

2. External P&L based on Sales Out

3. Retailer P&L

And the account-level P&L is often an aggregation of a hundred or more products, all of which makes things very complex. Tracking them, forecasting them, keeping them in sync, and understanding their dynamics and interactions can take up nearly all your time. It’s easy to lose sight of what P&L ownership is really about: driving the P&L forward. That doesn’t happen in Excel—it happens through planning your interactions with the customer, reflecting on your activation plan, collaborating internally, leading, thinking, and being present in-store. KAMs are not accountants.

As humans, we tend to rationalize the past and convert it into narratives that fit our preconceived notions. Constantly staying on top of your P&L is in some ways a manifestation of that tendency.

As long as you know how important are each of the drivers of the P&L and how to influence them, shouldn’t your time be better spent planning and executing against those drivers? P&L familiarity is not commercial acumen. Knowing how to deploy investments, shape demand, and align retailer incentives is.

P&L is just a measurement tool—it’s not the work itself. Mastering the P&L isn’t what brings in the revenue.

There could be even the argument that P&L obsession is actually counterproductive. Consumer businesses are built on brands, and brands thrive on emotional appeal and the perceptions of consumers, retailers, and other stakeholders. The Marketing Guru Rory Sutherland often speaks about how P&L obsession leads to the mindset that “if you can’t measure it, it doesn’t exist.” But value is created in the minds of buyers and shoppers, and it doesn’t always immediately translate into money.

You often see CEOs from a financial background fall into this trap. They view the world purely through the lens of financial statements, ignoring the people element and long-term strategy.

Furthermore, if retailers are carrying stock for a few days or even weeks, by the time external demand translates into invoice sales for you, you’re already behind. P&L obsession not only makes you reactive—it makes you react to something that happened weeks ago, not today.

Key Account Managers are the CEOs of their accounts, yet the current P&L-driven approach locks them into a monogamous relationship with numbers rather than strategy. Its something to be always wary of.