Rethinking Sales Management: A Strategic Guide for Practitioners - Hardcover

Rogers, Beth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470513055 ISBN 13: 9780470513057

Publisher: Wiley, 2007

Synopsis

Until recently, sales managers received no specific training for their jobs. However, selling has become more complex with the emergence of regulations and more sophisticated customers. Sales managers need to inspire and achieve sales results by managing teams of professionals and other resources. To do so, they need guidance on dealing with issues that arise in these broader aspects of their role.

This concise guide for sales managers is based on a well-known sales management technique called the ‘customer portfolio matrix’. Beth Rogers weaves her version of this throughout, enabling sales managers to see their strategy from the customer’s point of view. Doing so will allow them to set realistic objectives, design new strategies that add real customer value, avoid wasting time on price-oriented customers and deploy resources for maximum results.

About this title

About the Author

About the author

BETH ROGERS chairs the UK National Sales Board and was instrumental in the launch of National Occupation Standards for Sales. She is regarded as a leading thinker on the topic of sales management, and is also sought out for her ability to provoke the thinking of others. Her other roles include Research Director of the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management and Programme Manager for Sales Management at Portsmouth Business School.

Her extensive practical experience in both sales and marketing in the information technology sector has been supplemented by in-depth consultancy in a variety of organizations, together with research and teaching. She has worked with major corporations in Europe, the US, SE Asia and Australia, but also with small businesses in the South and South-east of England, both in manufacturing and services.

Beth’s previous books include co-authorship of Key Account Management: Learning from Supplier and Customer Perspectives. She has written many articles over the past eighteen years for academic journals and trade publications. She has also provided comment for the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times.

Beth works with employers, her alumni, professional institutions and fellow experts to raise the profile of the sales profession.

From the Back Cover

This book is unashamedly focused on sales management as a strategic topic. Where would businesses be without the top line of the profit and loss account – SALES? Many business people say that strategic sales management is “the next big thing” that companies needs to address. Chief Executives have recognized that the sales managers’ responsibility for handling the customer interface can be the most important thing in generating company success. With inspired leadership and the right application of skills and systems, strategic relationship development can deliver competitive advantage.

No one can assume in business-to-business commercial relationships that supplier strategy drives customers to buy. Customers drive their own destiny. The “top line” competency for suppliers is to identify pathways for mutual gain. The greatest advocates for strategic sales management companies who are designing those pathways are their customers. Whether they long for low-touch, remote and transactional relationships with particular suppliers for particular goods and services, or whether they want joint venture with others, customers appreciate the suppliers who understand their needs and develop the capabilities to meet them.

“Boundary-spanning” – understanding the customer’s point of view and reconciling it with the needs of the company for profitable growth – is a complex activity to manage. This book is here to facilitate the strategic thinking that sales managers have to apply in 21st century businesses to generate healthy “top line” growth.

From the Inside Flap

This book is unashamedly focused on sales management as a strategic topic. Where would businesses be without the top line of the profit and loss account – SALES? Many business people say that strategic sales management is “the next big thing” that companies needs to address. Chief Executives have recognized that the sales managers’ responsibility for handling the customer interface can be the most important thing in generating company success. With inspired leadership and the right application of skills and systems, strategic relationship development can deliver competitive advantage.

No one can assume in business-to-business commercial relationships that supplier strategy drives customers to buy. Customers drive their own destiny. The “top line” competency for suppliers is to identify pathways for mutual gain. The greatest advocates for strategic sales management companies who are designing those pathways are their customers. Whether they long for low-touch, remote and transactional relationships with particular suppliers for particular goods and services, or whether they want joint venture with others, customers appreciate the suppliers who understand their needs and develop the capabilities to meet them.

“Boundary-spanning” – understanding the customer’s point of view and reconciling it with the needs of the company for profitable growth – is a complex activity to manage. This book is here to facilitate the strategic thinking that sales managers have to apply in 21st century businesses to generate healthy “top line” growth.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0470513055
• ISBN 13: 9780470513057
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320