Enterprise Customer Management

Author: Michael McDonald/Author [USA]/Country: United States
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-08-01
Features: Most readers of this book likely have some experience in managing large customers, with some even being very experienced—not only in managing large customers but also in managing employees responsible for them. Therefore, completing the following questionnaire will be extremely easy and require little time. Before reading this book, please complete the questionnaire below in its entirety and remember the scores for each question and the total score ( indicates the total score, with each question worth 10 points). After reading the book, please fill out the same questionnaire again and compare the scores with the previous ones to see how the effectiveness of large customer management in your company has improved.
Do you know the composition of your company's customer payments? □ Do you know their financial status (ratios, etc.)? □ Do you understand their strategic plans? □ Do you know their business processes (logistics, procurement, manufacturing)? □ Do you know their large customers/segments/products? □ Do you know whether they do business with your competitors? Why? How do they evaluate your company? □ Do you know how they evaluate their suppliers? □ Do you know how costs are allocated based on customer segments? □ Do you know the actual profitability of the top 10 and bottom 10 customer segments? □ Do you know how long it takes to become profitable with a new large customer?
Preface
"Large customers are those that sellers consider to have strategic significance."
"Large customer management is a method that sellers adopt to cultivate loyal large customers by continuously tailoring products/services to meet specific customer needs." To maintain daily contact with customers, sellers often establish multiple teams, each led by a large customer manager, to provide specialized services to a particular large customer. This special treatment of large customers will significantly impact the company's organizational structure, value chain, and management effectiveness." – Tony Millman (1995)
There are countless books on customer-centricity and getting closer to customers, but none reflect the idea of "each customer is a segment" more than this one. The industrial market is transitioning from a value chain to an integrated value chain, which is a significant change. Coupled with globalization and the increasing complexity of consumer behavior, you'll understand why we distinguish between large customer management (key account management) and its predecessor, large customer selling (key account selling).
Traditional transaction-oriented thinking holds that sellers are single-selling-oriented and product-feature-centered. Companies that adhere to this belief engage in short-term behavior, make limited customer service commitments, maintain contact with customers intermittently, and believe that quality is the responsibility of production personnel. Companies that adopt large customer management methods are customer-retention-oriented, continuously communicate with customers, and focus on providing long-term value to customers. These companies commit to fully meeting customer expectations and believe that quality is the responsibility of everyone.
Of course, the large customer strategy must align with the company's overall marketing strategy. Large customers are typically major customers in segments and are highly attractive to sellers. Through the relative attractiveness of large customers to sellers, as well as the company's ability to meet customer...