Author Description

This breakthrough guide by two of the nation's leading authorities on improving sales force effectiveness shows how companies can better anticipate and executive to align with their customers' evolving procurement capabilities. This "outside-in" approach focuses on the all-important customer perspective, enabling companies to retool sales, marketing, service, delivery, and distribution functions with a more complete appreciation of their customer's procurement processes.Part 1 of the book examines why almost a century of mass distribution and product-focused thinking still dominates sales and marketing. In helping companies reengineer their approach to winning and keeping customers, the book analyzes the growing process capability of buyers who utilize fewer suppliers, multilayer contracts, chain management techniques, and single-sourcing. Finally, it describes a new model for understanding modern procurement capabilities.Part 2 reappraises the effectiveness of core sales and marketing assumptions. The authors describe how the new era of engagement, or bringing the company to the customer, is eclipsing traditional sales and marketing roles. They draw heavily from the strategies of leading firms that have successfully established enduring and profitable customer relationships. The authors show how companies can revamp sales, marketing, and service functions for breakthrough advances in serving customers, as well as how they can enhance returns on their engagement processes.Part 3 provides a host of new tools for implementing an outside-in approach. It shows how to measure return on the engagement process, individual contributions to the team, and customer satisfaction. It also examines how to introduce new performance measures without disrupting the entire process.