2/03/2021

Objectives
Lecture 5: • The evolution of the quality concept
• Reverse marketing and the change in the
traditionally accepted roles of the field salesperson
Relationship Selling & • The notion of relationship selling as being the
Leveraging Technology in Selling tactical marketing
• Relationship-based perspective to selling and sales
and Sales Management management
• Impact of information technology (IT) developments
on selling and sales management functions
• Technology-enabled CRM and sales force
automation

Contrasting Traditional/ Transactional

From Quality management…
marketing and Relationship marketing
• W. Edwards Deming’s early thinking on quality
– not just in manufacturing but also in operations including
selling
• Critiques of Modern thinking Total Quality
Management
– still tend to trigger mental pictures more related to
manufacturing than to the business of selling
• The need to evolve
– from a production- and cost-dominant stance
– towards one of serving a diverse range of customers
through personal contact.
• The selling model is changing from a ‘transactions’
to a ‘relationships’ focus
Christopher M., Payne A.F.T. and Ballantyne D. (1991) Relationship Marketing: Bringing Qualiy, Customer
Service and Marketing Together. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann)

Contrasting Traditional/ Transactional

marketing and Relationship marketing
Marketing strategy continuum by Grönroos
…to Customer care
New ways of gaining competitive advantage:
• Engaging in building and maintaining long-
lasting relationships with their customers.
• Differentiating their products also more
holistically at the level of the augmented product
• Customer-focused quality: It involves a change
from an operations-centred to a customer-
targeted activity
• Modern value chain analysis uses customers as
its starting point”

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Luck’s optimal value chain

Customer care
proposition
• Philosophy which ensures that products or services
and the after-care associated with serving
customers’ needs meet and exceed expectations
• Keeping of existing customers more cost-effective
than recruiting new ones
• Information technology (IT) and communication tools
provide opportunities for creating long-term, close
relationships
Customer Customer • Market-driven TQM and the development of a total
product quality
– perceived quality being built into both the product and the
service component of the total product offering

Internal to external focus of total

Nissan’s total quality management
quality perspective
• Identifying customers and their requirements;
• Establishing and using objectives (targets) for all
areas of activity;
• Basing decisions on researched hard facts
rather than on hunches;
• Identifying and eliminating the root causes of
problems;
• Educating and training employees.

Reverse marketing Relationship selling

• Buyers take the initiative • Relationship selling
and they source suppliers – Tactical features of securing, building and maintaining
(i.e. sellers) whom they the relationships implicit in relationship marketing
retain for a long period
– Requires understanding of the value chain
• Main criteria: The quality • from raw material supply right through the extractions and
of goods, the reliability of production processes to delivery to the end-customer
their supplies and time of
delivery
• Information technology is having a major impact
• Take into account of SCI
on the conduct of relationship selling
to take account of the
practical difficulties of
supply chain integration

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Developing Trust and Respect in Field Salespeople in Relationship

Sales Relationships
Earning respect of your
customers and prospects
• Be able to express how well
your product or service
satisfies the wants and needs
of your customer
• Conduct yourself
professionally
• Be a great listener
• Follow up with prompt
responses to customers’ needs
and requests
selling
Developing trust is vital Skills Qualities
• Tell the truth and keep your • Adaptive selling: listen actively • Determination
word and respond appropriately • Self-motivation
• Not promise more than you • Presentation skills • Resilience
can deliver • Perseverance • Tenacity
• Active pursuit of new business • Acceptability
It takes time to build trust! opportunities
• Attention to detail
• Building relationships and • Ability to ‘get along’ with
creating personal rapport people on a long-term basis
• Handling objections
• Self-management

Mark W. Johnston & Greg W. Marshall (2016)

The creation of the virtuous circle Marketing information system

Source: Reichheld et al. (2000).

Leveraging technologies in selling

Servicing
and sales management
• First-line servicing • Technologies affect salesforce productivity and
management
• Technical advice, after-sales service, customer • The wireless and ‘mobility’ revolution allow
care programmes, and consultancy services greater freedom to spend time with customers
• Electronic commerce and electronic
• Increasing provision of solution selling procurement has become ubiquitous
– need for high levels of internal communication • Sale force automation
• Social media provide opportunities to help the
sales process

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Four levels of e-commerce
Internet and selling
• Building customer-centric selling arenas
• Creating quality in communications
• Understanding buyer behaviour patterns
• Changing approaches to brand management
• Pricing
• Creating interactive opportunities with
consumers
• Building customer relationships
• Performance measurement
Technology and sales
management
• Managing the sales pipeline
• Measuring salesforce effectiveness
• Optimising sales territories
• Recruitment and selection
• Training
• Sales forecasting
2/03/2021
Customer relationship
management (CRM) system
• Methodologies, technologies and e-commerce
capabilities used by firms to manage customer
relationships
• CRM software packages aid the interaction
between customer and company
• Have a ‘single customer view’ of each client
– Consolidation of databases held by individual
company departments into one centralised database
is crucial
Salesforce automation (SFA).
• Salesforce productivity issues cannot be solved
completely by technology
• Technology-enabled selling
– Lead management
– Opportunity management
– Account management
– Proposal management
– Win/loss reporting
In sum
• The movement towards relationship selling
– from its earliest roots based on quality issues through to the
more mature notion of total quality management (TQM)
• Relationship selling
– comprises the raft of sales tactics
• Information technology is
– helping companies sell efficiently and effectively to their
customers
– Improving the communications links between salespeople,
customers and head office
• Customer relationship management softwares are is
allowing companies to understand the quality of their
customer relationships better than they could historically