Learn why customer advisory boards are so successful--and how to create one for any business
From a leading authority in business management comes a book to give your company the winning edge. Customer Advisory Boards: A Strategic Tool for Customer Relationship Building examines the customer advisory board (CAB)--one of the most effective competitive tools for building and maintaining customer satisfaction. This business guide shows how to create and make use of an effective CAB, and how doing so can give your company a marketing advantage and improve vital aspects of business, including customer responsiveness, trust-building, and customer satisfaction.
Customer Advisory Boards focuses on bringing companies and customers closer together utilizing input and advice from a CAB. This book shows how to use three types of customer bases--existing customers, potential customers, or former buyers--to form three different types of advisory boards: corporate strategy boards to plan future investments, product planning boards to create new product, and launch success boards to improve existing product. Using the information in this book, your company can transform from being customer focused to customer driven.
Customary advisory boards benefit your company by: improving sales contact and dialogue dynamics of the company enabling the company to see itself through the customers' eyes sharing ideas and suggestions to improve a company's programs and services to its customers showing that the company values its customers' opinions and wants to improve for them providing access to expertise and experience from a wide range of necessary disciplines without legal liability Customer advisory boards also benefit the board members by: giving them opportunities to offer practical advice that can affect a company allowing them to establish personal and professional contacts from each other rewarding them with company perks and products giving them a sense of belonging and empowerment With case studies, appendices, notes, references, and surveys, Dr. Tony Carter has created an illuminating, educational research tool for company owners and managers. Whether applied to a corporation, a medical or religious institution, or a not-for-profit organization, Customer Advisory Boards will help increase customer loyalty and satisfaction.

By analyzing and monitoring current trends in the marketplace, Contemporary Sales Force Management helps sales managers align resources and strategic efforts to gain an edge over competitors. You will develop an understanding of where current and prospective sales opportunities exist in order to fully utilize automation, how to update crisis management policies to reflect changing industry dynamics, and how to raise your level of sales efficiency through the use of customer advisory groups and sales technological tools, such as video conferencing, database management, and up-to-date industry software. Through the book's important discussions on lowering mutual costs, building long-term customer relationships, improving sales skills, and developing core process skills, you will also learn to think and act with a strategic perspective that successfully steers the sales process.Grounded in practical applications, Contemporary Sales Force Management unites theoretical principles with applied examples and case studies gathered from research with major firms in dynamic markets such as Beijing and Shanghai in China, the European Union, and the United States. From these case studies demonstrating how top players achieve success, you gain critical information on: the role of the sales force manager in organizations strategic issues for an international sales effort gaining functional expertise in sales and marketing along with industry knowledge globalization and its impact on sales management strategies for applying Total Quality Management to sales electronic commerce and cultivating customers on the Web the consequences of having a poorly motivated sales force with low morale developing an environment that fosters and rewards the management of crisis understanding your biases and stereotypical assumptions about others and how these affect decisionmaking dealing with the legal and regulatory environment and ethical issues that arise in the course of managing the sales forceContemporary Sales Force Management is the book managers, entrepreneurs, business people, and faculty and students of executive business education programs have long awaited. Its sample sales plan, specific strategies, and hands-on advice will prove indispensable as you maneuver away from the coattails of your competitors into a leading position in the marketplace.

Explore the multifaceted steps needed for a successful reengineering process!With The Aftermath of Reengineering: Downsizing and Corporate Performance, you will explore the effectiveness of business organizations after they have significantly changed how they do business. Reengineering is based on the concept of significantly altering existing business models and thinking by reinventing the way in which work is done. You will discover innovative reengineering strategies and solutions that have been utilized by many Fortune 500 firms in their efforts to become more focused with reinvigorated business activity. Volatile business conditions have driven the use of reengineering and have led to drastic corporate downsizing where organizations are expected to do more with less. The Aftermath of Reengineering examines the positive and negative aspects of the demanding process of reengineering. Based on original research and existing literature on organizations that have used reengineering, The Aftermath of Reengineering will assist you with he following reengineering issues: organizing layoffs that do not hinder the productivity or company loyalty of the employees who remain creating internal changes to businesses in the form of structural realignments and downsizing placing greater emphasis on quality levels in product and service output creating faster communication channels hiring a more educated, skilled employee base placing higher expectations on management defining your company's necessary expenses establishing critical business processes determining your company's core competencies, and competitive advantage setting profit growth targets The Aftermath of Reengineering covers many recent reengineering efforts made by large corporations in the United States such as Chase Manhattan Corp. Eastman Kodak, and IBM that have sought to pare down a large bureaucracy and steep overhead expenses. You will explore the effective and ineffective results of these efforts and discover the skills needed for successful reengineering to take place. The Aftermath of Reengineering will assist you in achieving a successful vision for your company's future which includes new workplace values, improved leadership, teamwork, and customer-driven success.

Discover what happened to the economy after 9/11from an insider outlook Many Thin Companies: The Change in Customer Dealings and Managers Since September 11, 2001 is an up-to-date examination of the aftereffects of the World Trade Center bombings upon businesses nationwide. In this important text, you will learn about the efforts of several companies that were hit hard by 9/11, including Aon Corporation and PricewaterhouseCoopers. This resource will help university professors and studentsas well as consultants and managers already at workunderstand more clearly the current business trends and prepare them for future consequences. Many Thin Companies looks at how the tragedy has forever altered the economy, advertising practices, and consumer behavior. The book supplies statistics and case studies for New York City commerce, the airlines industry, and several well-known companies from both before and after 9/11revealing the patterns of growth, decline, and return. It also contains valuable information on how companies can reorganize their internal structure and distribution of funds with more effort on safety and crisis management planning. With Many Thin Companies, you'll gain a better understanding of: New York City's proposed budget gap-closing plan increasing security needs despite financial difficulties The Verizon Promisehow Verizon was able to restore service in Manhattan in one week, thanks to preparedness and sales organization communication starting overplanning new outcomes for businesses after unexpected hardships performance issueshow to take care of the employees after a crisis international marketing concerns post-September 11 Many Thin Companies: The Change in Customer Dealings and Managers Since September 11, 2001 provides a wealth of data that can be used to help prepare companies and industries for the short- and long-term consequences of 9/11. This book can help you prevent oversights and ensure that the businesses you work with are dependable to shareholders and consumers when that security is most needed.