Table Of ContentManagement for Professionals
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Christian Homburg (cid:129) Heiko Scha¨fer (cid:129)
Janna Schneider
Sales Excellence
Systematic Sales Management
Prof.Dr.mult.ChristianHomburg Dr.HeikoSch€afer
Lehrstuhlf€urABWLundMarketingI M€unchen
Universit€atMannheim Germany
Mannheim
Germany
Dr.JannaSchneider
Ganderkesee
Germany
ISSN2192-8096 ISSN2192-810X(electronic)
ISBN978-3-642-29168-5 ISBN978-3-642-29169-2(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-642-29169-2
SpringerHeidelbergNewYorkDordrechtLondon
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2012945912
#Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg2012
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Foreword
This book is intended for sales managers. There is no doubt that in most sectors,
salesisfacingmajorchangesandthatmanycompanieshaveanenormousneedto
professionalize in this area. While systematic productivity management has been
amainstayintheinternaldivisionsofcompaniesforyears,westillfindthatthere
is a “go-getter” culture in the sales divisions of many companies: Improvisation
andintuitionareemphasized,whilesystematicanalysisanddecision-makingare,at
best,acceptedasirksomeduties.Toavoidanymisunderstandingatthispoint,letus
stressthatsalessuccessundoubtedlyrequiresahighlevelofintuition.However,it
is becoming more and more apparent that intuition alone can no longer yield the
desiredresults.Itmustbeenhancedbysystematicmanagement.
The need to professionalize market development is also encouraged and
accelerated by the concept of shareholder value, to which many companies have
committedthemselves.Thisconceptputstheinterestsofacompany’sshareholders
attheforefront.Companydivisionsarescrutinizedmuchmorecloselythanbefore
withrespecttohowmuchtheycontributetoincreasingshareholdervalue.Inmany
companies,thiswillleadtoashiftintheevaluationcriteriaforsales:Inthefuture,
many companies will focus less on achieving short-term sales revenue targets.
What becomes crucial are questions related to the establishment of market
positions, customer structures and customer relationships that increase value in
the long term. The issue concerning the productivity of resource deployment
insaleswillbeamuchmorecentraltopicthaninthepast.
This book provides a guide for systematic sales management. The Sales
Excellence (Sales Ex) approach presented in this book is designed to help sales
managers to correctly adjust the major levers for long-term sales success. It has
alreadybeenappliedinmanycompaniesacrossvarioussectors.Theverypositive
feedback we have received on the German edition of this book shows its high
practicalrelevanceandencouragedustomaketheSalesExapproachaccessible
toalargerreadership.
TheSalesExapproachisintegrative:Weareconvincedthatpreoccupationwith
isolatedsolutionsinsalescannotultimatelysucceed.Itisforthisreasonthatweare
introducing an approach that covers all essential facets ofprofessional sales man-
agement: First, it comprises elements related to the sales strategy, such as the
choice of sales channels, the management of a multi-channel system, cooperation
withsalesintermediaries,fundamentaldecisionswithregardtopricepolicyaswell
v
vi Foreword
astheformulationofane-commercestrategy.Secondly,itexaminesmanagement
aspects,suchasthedesignandstructureofthesalesorganization,systematicsales
planning, design of the sales culture as well as personnel management in sales.
A third key aspect is information management in sales, where tools for analyzing
thecustomerstructure,customerprofitabilityandcustomerretentionarepresented.
Afourthareaoftheapproachexaminesthedifferentfacetsofcustomerrelationship
management, which range from personal success factors concerning customer
contact and the design of an Internet presence up to complaint management and
keyaccountmanagement.
An important point: The Sales Ex approach is not a sales training book. The
reader will search in vain here for sales techniques, presentation techniques or
negotiationtechniquesfortheindividualsalesperson.Ourfocusinthisapproachis
onsalesmanagement–notonselling.
The Sales Ex approach comprises tools that can be used in sales management.
Italsoconveysconceptstothereader,andbythatwearereferringtoapproachesto
handlingproblems,suggestionsandnewperspectives.Checklistsrepresentanother
essentialcomponentoftheSalesExapproach.Companiescanusethesechecklists
to assess themselves or have themselves assessed with regard to the different
dimensionsofsalesprofessionalism.
TheSalesExapproachrestsontwopillars:First,wehaveconductedscientific
research in the area ofsalesovera numberof years. The approach therefore has
a sound scientific and academic foundation. Second, over the past few years,
we have enjoyed intensive cooperation with numerous companies from a wide
variety of sectors and have used either parts or the entire scope of the Sales Ex
approach during this collaboration, which has enabled us to fine-tune it exten-
sively. On this basis, it can be described as being both field-tested and practice-
oriented.TheimportantpointhereisthattheSalesExapproachhasprovenitself
in a wide range of sectors: It has been applied, for example, in the mechanical
engineering,financialservices,chemicals/pharmaceuticalsandbuildingmaterials
sectors.
Thereremainsthepleasantdutyofthankingthosewhohavemadeasignificant
contribution to the creation of this book. First, we would like to express our
gratitude to the countless company managers with whom we have collaborated
over the past few years. To thank them all personally here would go beyond the
scopeofaforewordandalsoviolatetheconfidentialityweassuredthem.Neverthe-
less, at this point we would like to emphasize that the cooperations were always
characterized by a constructive spirit, mutual respect and a willingness to learn
fromeachother.Haditnotbeenforthispracticalwork,whichspannedmanyyears,
theSalesExapproachwouldnothaveariseninitspresentform.
Inaddition,wewouldliketothankallthecolleaguesfromtheacademicsphere
who constructively supported us in elaborating and refining many concepts in
this book. Furthermore, we would like to extend our thanks to the colleagues
fromHomburg&Partner,whoseprojectexperiencesintheapplicationandimple-
mentationoftheSalesExapproachwereincorporatedatnumerousplaces.Lastly,
Foreword vii
our thanks go to doctoral student Josef Vollmayr and B.A. candidate Norma
Buehlingfortheirvaluableandactivesupportintherevisionofthisbook.
Mannheim,August2011 ChristianHomburg
HeikoSchaefer
JanaSchneider
.
Contents
PartI Introduction
1 TheDriveforSystematicSalesManagement:TheSalesExcellence
ApproachasaRoadmap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1 Sales:“FightingonTwoFronts” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 AreYouFamiliarwithTheseProblems? . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . 7
1.3 AnOverviewoftheSalesExcellenceApproach . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.4 TheSalesExcellenceApproachinUse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.5 IsSalesExcellenceWorthwhile? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
PartII SalesStrategy:SettingtheFundamentalCourse
2 Customers:TheFocusoftheSalesStrategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.1 CustomerDefinitionandCustomerBenefits:TheBasis
ofMarketDevelopment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.2 CustomerPrioritizationandSegmentation:Farewell
tothe“StandardCustomer” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.3 CustomerRetention:KeytoEnduringSuccess . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3 CompetitiveAdvantages:Quicker,Higher,Farther... . . . . . . . . . 41
4 SalesChannelsandSalesPartners:DesigningtheRoute
totheCustomer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
5 PricePolicy:ThePriceIsRight... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5.1 PricePositioning:TheFundamentalLineofAttack . . . . . . . . . . 62
5.2 Costs,Competition,CustomerBenefit:TheBasesofPricing . . . 63
5.3 PriceDiscrimination:EachtoHisOwn? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.4 DiscountandTermsandConditionsPolicy:TheCurse
ofthePriceWaterfall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5.5 PricePromotions:Caution,TrapAhead! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.6 PriceComplexity:OverwhelmingtheCustomer . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5.7 CompetitiveBiddingandInternetAuctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.8 PriceHarmonization:TheBattleAgainstReimports . . . . . . . . . 77
5.9 Excursus:WhatPricingProsDoBetter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
ix
x Contents
6 AFrameworkofFiguresfortheSalesStrategy:Targets
andResources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
6.1 ChecklistforPartII:SalesStrategy:Setting
theFundamentalCourse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
PartIII SalesManagement:DesigningStructuresandProcesses,
ManagingPeopleandLivingtheCulture
7 SalesOrganization:SuccessfullyDesigningStructures
andProcesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
7.1 TheFundamentalSalesOrientation:Products,Regions,Sales
ChannelsorCustomers? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
7.2 TheInterfaceCurse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
7.3 TheBrakingFunctionofBureaucracy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
7.4 ContactPointsforCustomers:Uncomplicated,Reliable
andQuick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
8 PlanningandControlling:TheMiddleGroundBetween
“FlyingBlind”and“GraveyardsofNumbers” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
9 PersonnelManagement:ThePoorCousinofSales . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
9.1 UnderstandingWhatPerformanceDependsOn . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
9.2 PersonnelRecruitment:ProfessionalismfromtheStart . . . . . . . 119
9.3 PersonnelDevelopment:StandingStillMeansGoingBackwards 120
9.4 LeadershipStyles:Patriarchs,Despotsand“Correct”Managers . 125
9.5 TargetAgreements:TheBalancedScorecardinSales . . . . . . . . 127
9.6 IncentiveSystems:WhatGetsRewarded,GetsDone! . . . . . . . . 134
10 CultureinSales:ThePowerofUnwrittenLaws . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
10.1 MakingSalesCultureTangible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
10.2 ManagingandChangingCulture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
10.3 ChecklistforPartIII:SalesManagement:Designing
StructuresandProcesses,ManagingPeopleandLiving
theCulture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
PartIV InformationManagementastheKeytoProfessionalism
inSales
11 BasisforUnderstandingInformationSystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
11.1 RequirementsonanInformationSystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
11.2 SixStepsontheWaytoaUser-OrientedInformationSystem . 156
11.3 OvercomingAcceptanceBarriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
12 TheCustomer:TheUnknownFactor? . . . .. . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . 161
12.1 CustomerInformationthatYouCannotDoWithout . . . . . . . . 161
12.2 TheCustomerStructure:GuidepostfortheDeploymentof
Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
