RETHINKING SALES MANAGEMENT

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.

Beth Rogers is one of the UK’s leading thinkers on the role of sales management. She is a Senior Lecturer at Portsmouth Business School(www.port.ac.uk/pbs), where she runs the MA in Sales Management – the world’s first course of its kind – and contributes to the MSc Business Development and Leadership and MA Marketing. She is also Research Director of the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management (www.issm.co.uk) and chairs the Sales Project Group of the UK Government’s Marketing and Sales Standards Setting Body (www.msssb.org). Previously she worked in IT marketing, and was a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield School of Management.
Beth has considerable consulting experience and was a business advisor to The Millennium Commission. She sits on the boards of the Sales Research Trust and Journal of Selling and Major Account Management. She has been a judge at the UK Sales Awards and the Customer Service Awards, has contributed expert commentary to The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph, and is co-author of several books including Key Customers: How to Manage them Profitably.

“…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)

Contents.

Foreword.
Acknowledgments
About the author.
Introduction.
Part I STRATEGY.

1 The big picture.
2 The purchaser's view.
3 The B2B relationship box.

Part II USING THE RELATIONSHIP DEVELOPMENT BOX.

4 Strategic relationships.
5 Prospective relationships.
6 Tactical relationships: the power of low touch.
7 Cooperative relationships.
8 The end of relationships.

Part III STRATEGIC FOCUS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY SALES MANAGEMENT.

9 Reputation management.
10 Working with marketing.
11 Leadership.
12 Process management.

Bibliography.
Index.