In an Era of Strategic Customer Management, you need to Quickly Reshape the “front-end” of your Company to meet its Full Value-Delivering Potential
The salesforce has long been the unfashionable and unloved part of marketing. However, our research at Warwick Business School suggests the revolution taking place in the demands customers place on sellers, provides an outstanding opportunity for the sales function to add value to companies and customers in new ways. In fact, that potential is for the growth of the strategic sales organisation with a strategic customer management role.
Why Sales Has Become Strategic today?
Sales management strategy is increasingly linked directly to a company’s competitiveness, as well as its ability to implement corporate “turnaround” in turbulent markets. The changing role of the sales organisation increasingly makes sales teams strategic resources concerned with relationship management with strategic customers at home and abroad, which certainly demands active senior management attention.
Transformation in sales organisations is underlined by escalating levels of company expenditure on sales and account management, reflecting the growth of collaborative, relationship-based customer management. Many organisations have seen a significant shift in resources away from marketing towards sales, because sales strategies are increasingly critical to achieving many of the top priorities of marketing and business strategy.
Strategizing the Sales Organisation Managerial priorities change as the demands of the outside world evolve. Relevant topical questions are concerned with how the conventional sales organisation can change to fulfil a strategic role focused on customer management. Our research suggests that the strategic re-positioning of the sales organisation demands several imperatives to be addressed by the management. These are:
Involvement – means positioning the sales organisation back in the center of business and marketing strategy. Close involvement of sales executives in generating business strategy is mandated, rather than simply taking a role in implementation. A company’s customer portfolio is an investment matrix, where different levels and types of investment are indicated by customer characteristics – potential growth, but also risk. The dependence of a seller on a small number of customers, adding customer business risk to our own, radically different profitability in different parts of the customer portfolio, the need to match resources advantageously to opportunity, the development of sales capabilities as a critical resource that drives competitive advantage – these are all issues that belong to the boardroom rather than the sales office.
Intelligence – means building customer knowledge as a strategic resource critical both to strategy formulation and to building added-value strategies with major customers. Market sensing capabilities are a distinguishing characteristic of many successful companies and the sales organisation is a major source of these capabilities. The strategic role is both interpreting changes in the market environment for the company, but also demonstrating deep knowledge of customers’ end-use markets as a route to added-value and competitive advantage. In fact, major customers now regard traditional sellers as commodities, and the supplier leading the way to improved efficiency and enhanced competitive advantage in end-use markets is a partner.
The salesforce has long been the unfashionable and unloved part of marketing. However, our research at Warwick Business School suggests the revolution taking place in the demands customers place on sellers, provides an outstanding opportunity for the sales function to add value to companies and customers in new ways. In fact, that potential is for the growth of the strategic sales organisation with a strategic customer management role.
Why Sales Has Become Strategic today?
Sales management strategy is increasingly linked directly to a company’s competitiveness, as well as its ability to implement corporate “turnaround” in turbulent markets. The changing role of the sales organisation increasingly makes sales teams strategic resources concerned with relationship management with strategic customers at home and abroad, which certainly demands active senior management attention.
Transformation in sales organisations is underlined by escalating levels of company expenditure on sales and account management, reflecting the growth of collaborative, relationship-based customer management. Many organisations have seen a significant shift in resources away from marketing towards sales, because sales strategies are increasingly critical to achieving many of the top priorities of marketing and business strategy.
Strategizing the Sales Organisation Managerial priorities change as the demands of the outside world evolve. Relevant topical questions are concerned with how the conventional sales organisation can change to fulfil a strategic role focused on customer management. Our research suggests that the strategic re-positioning of the sales organisation demands several imperatives to be addressed by the management. These are:
Involvement – means positioning the sales organisation back in the center of business and marketing strategy. Close involvement of sales executives in generating business strategy is mandated, rather than simply taking a role in implementation. A company’s customer portfolio is an investment matrix, where different levels and types of investment are indicated by customer characteristics – potential growth, but also risk. The dependence of a seller on a small number of customers, adding customer business risk to our own, radically different profitability in different parts of the customer portfolio, the need to match resources advantageously to opportunity, the development of sales capabilities as a critical resource that drives competitive advantage – these are all issues that belong to the boardroom rather than the sales office.
Intelligence – means building customer knowledge as a strategic resource critical both to strategy formulation and to building added-value strategies with major customers. Market sensing capabilities are a distinguishing characteristic of many successful companies and the sales organisation is a major source of these capabilities. The strategic role is both interpreting changes in the market environment for the company, but also demonstrating deep knowledge of customers’ end-use markets as a route to added-value and competitive advantage. In fact, major customers now regard traditional sellers as commodities, and the supplier leading the way to improved efficiency and enhanced competitive advantage in end-use markets is a partner.
For more articles, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
IIPM in sync with the best of the business world.......
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS
