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Show moreThe art of business underwent an upheaval in the last decade as new technologies met better-informed customers. One response to this new business environment can be seen in a recent repositioning from business models focused on products to ones based in customer centric actions. By the mid-1990s, this thinking led to the concept of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and to the explosive growth of CRM software and consulting services providers. After six to eight years of CRM implementations the results remain mixed with about 60-70% considered failures. What went wrong and how can it go right? Practitioners of CRM, whether they are software providers, consultants or other experts, led with technology and tactics. Little guidance concerning organizational change initiatives was found in the initial days of CRM implementations. In the industry literature few if any discussions focus on the enterprise-wide change needed to achieve effective CRM. I believe this constitutes the most important reason for the high failure rates. This paper centers on several Project Managers who managed to get it right. Based upon an analysis of observations and phenomenological interviews I will claim that those who are charged with managing their internal CRM projects retain strong links to their context. They appear to accurately assess their organizations tolerance for reengineering and let the most imperative business needs lead them to a studied selection of external supportive ideas. They effectively exclude extraneous material from those who intrude, including industry thought leaders. Because we are in the early phase of CRM little precedent exists, consequently, Project Managers are forced to rely on conceptual rather then actual experience. Early on they develop a facility to imagine a future state with the new processes and technology in place and they effectively incorporate an internal network for diffusion of the new state. As to practice recommendations, it is the authors thinking that organizations considering CRM need to approach it as change initiative and not technology advancement. In advance of tactics, they must first consider who they are and how CRM will transform their organization. They will achieve the best results through a shift from a focus on ends to the cultivation of the transforming process. In so doing, they will embed the new processes and leverage the diffusion of knowledge in their organizations leading to greater returns on all assets.
Doctorate of Management Programs
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Show moreAdaptive selling capabilities enable salespeople achieve success with their customers. Despite numerous studies, there is very little understanding on the mechanisms salespeople use to adapt to various selling situations. Current sales management practices overlook a salesperson’s capability to craft customer specific sales strategies, relying excessively on end-results and activities based controls. This paper aims to increase knowledge by conceptualizing relational behaviors as trust building and value creating efforts, and measuring adaptive selling as a salesperson’s capacity to vary these behaviors depending on customer relationships. Our empirical analysis establishes a positive link between trust building behaviors and sales effectiveness and performance levels. Keywords: Adaptive selling; relational selling behaviors; buyer-seller relationships
Doctorate of Management Programs
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