Rethinking Sales Management: A Strategic Guide for Practitioners by Beth Rogers

Publisher Description

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.

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.

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.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

Foreword vii Acknowledgments xiii About the author xvii Introduction xix Part I Strategy 1  1 The big picture 3  2 The purchaser's view 27  3 The B2B relationship box 51 Part II Using the Relationship Development Box 71  4 Strategic relationships 73  5 Prospective relationships 97  6 Tactical relationships: the power of low touch 117  7 Cooperative relationships 137  8 The end of relationships 153 Part III Strategic Focus for 21st-Century Sales Management 173  9 Reputation management 175 10 Working with marketing 197 11 Leadership 217 12 Process management 239 Bibliography 267 Index 281

Review

"…a serious, grown-up book on sales, full of relevant theory and practical examples of how sales can be more strategic and effective." (The Marketer, September 2007) "an excellent, concise and well-written guide, full of examples and references, based on the author's deep and sustained experience". (B2B Marketing Online, Friday 7th September 2007) "…helps sales teams become more successful by seeing the deal from the customer's view." (The Daily Telegraph, Tuesday 25th September 2007) "Rogers uses copious box-outs and diagrams, and sources virtually all the latest evidence on business selling from around the world."  (Salesforce, January 2008) "...Rogers uses copious box-outs and diagrams and, as befits an academic, sources virtually all the latest evidence" (Winning Edge, December 2008)

Long Description

Extracted from Introduction and Foreword: There s only a handful of strategic books to help sales managers cope with the complexity of today s sales challenges. This is one of them. You ll find your eye skimming over facts and figures; you ll see charts and diagrams; you ll find strategic models. That s the kind of book we need. Thank you, Beth Rogers, for writing it. Neil Rackham From his foreword to Rethinking sales management . It is hard to imagine anything more fundamental to the economy than selling. It is about time that salespeople and sales managers had equal esteem with other professionals. Despite many years of marketers trying to sideline the sales function as operational, tactical and in decline, in fact the sales profession is thriving in terms of quantity and quality. Nevertheless, sales has been the Cinderella of the management world for a long time. Yet what could be a more worthy topic of discussion than the way in which a company makes its revenue? Many businesspeople say to me that the strategic management of supplier/customer relationships is the next big thing that companies needs to address. In studies going back many years, 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. Companies are starting to realize that they cannot manage customers or even key accounts because the power of customers gives them the means to manage back. So where do they go? They go back to the drawing board and take a good hard look at the art of the possible . Supplier strategy cannot drive customers, but there are 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. This book is a summary of state-of-the-art strategic sales management thinking, designed for practitioners who recognize that a bit of knowing can accelerate the success of a lot of doing. It is based on extensive consultation with sales management professionals, employers, sales management experts and professional institutions. It is short and succinct because sales managers are busy people with limited time to read. But sales managers travel a lot too, so consider this knowledge a travelling companion you can dip into when your plane is delayed or the freeway is gridlocked. Beth Rogers Author Publisher s comments This book is a new and innovative addition to our sales collection. As with any innovation, we thought hard about taking it on, and subjected it to rigorous independent review. We decided that it was an exciting opportunity. Few authors in the world have the breadth of experience of the sales management function as Beth Rogers, who has been immersed in it as a practitioner, a consultant, a trainer, teacher, researcher and writer; and held high office in both a professional institution for sales and a public governing body for sales. Not only is she respected in the sales profession, but purchasing professionals also consult her. Her approach is unique. The content is informative, interesting, thought-provoking and useful. It is enhanced with examples from the research of many of the world s experts on sales, best practice companies and organizations from around the world. Author comments You can miss out on a lot when you write a book in your spare time. You miss out on social events, football matches and TV. The house and garden become untidy. And it takes a long time. I took a very long time to work out what I could do that would be different from the other worthy books on sales management. I am very grateful to the reviewers and colleagues who facilitated that process. What do I think is different about it? I unashamedly focus on sales management as a STRATEGIC FUNCTION, in defiance of the received wisdom of some marketing academics who assert that it is operational. I ve done marketing too, and without sales involvement in strategy formulation, it won t go very far. I also take on the topics that many sales books avoid dealing with customers who don t have the same view of the business relationship as you do, ending business relationships, and tackling ethics, leadership, processes and working with marketing. Risky perhaps, but now that it is done I look forward to feedback from readers .and the odd night out, of course.

Review Text

??a serious, grown-up book on sales, full of relevant theory and practical examples of how sales can be more strategic and effective.? (The Marketer, September 2007) "an excellent, concise and well-written guide, full of examples and references, based on the author?s deep and sustained experience". (B2B Marketing Online, Friday 7th September 2007) "?helps sales teams become more successful by seeing the deal from the customer?s view." (The Daily Telegraph, Tuesday 25th September 2007) "Rogers uses copious box-outs and diagrams, and sources virtually all the latest evidence on business selling from around the world."  (Salesforce, January 2008) "...Rogers uses copious box-outs and diagrams and, as befits an academic, sources virtually all the latest evidence" (Winning Edge, December 2008)

Review Quote

"...full of relevant theory and practical examples of how sales can be more strategic and effective." ( The Marketer , September 2007) "an excellent, concise and well-written guide, full of examples and references, based on the author's deep and sustained experience". ( B2B Marketing Online,

Promotional "Headline"

"...a serious, grown-up book on sales, full of relevant theory and practical examples of how sales can be more strategic and effective." (The Marketer, September 2007) "an excellent, concise and well-written guide, full of examples and references, based on the author's deep and sustained experience". (B2B Marketing Online, Friday 7th September 2007) "...helps sales teams become more successful by seeing the deal from the customer's view." (The Daily Telegraph, Tuesday 25th September 2007)

Feature

This indispensable guide:

• Sheds light on the people side of sales management, with guidance on how to motivate account managers according to their customer type in a variety of geographical markets including Europe, Southeast Asia and the U.S.
• Is structured so that time-pressured managers can 'dip into' each chapter for instant guidance on any real-life situations they face
• Discusses topics usually avoided in sales literature, such as difficult relationships, exit relationships, and making things right after sales people have done something badly.

Details