266 Chapter 13 · CRM Issues in 

the Business-To-Business Context

Overview relationships can be classified as transac-

Business marketers serve the largest market of tional (distant) or collaborative (close).
all: The dollar transaction volume in the Transactional relationships involve the timely
business-to-­business (B2B) market is signifi- exchange of basic products for highly
cantly greater than that in business-to-con- competitive prices; collaborative relation-
sumer (B2C) markets. Moreover, a B2B ships describe strong ties built over time,
customer’s level of purchasing activity can be with the intent of achieving mutual benefit
extremely high (Hutt & Speh, 2013). For (Anderson & Narus, 1991). In a B2B context
example, the purchasing department at IBM and in reference to the customer relationship
spends more than $40 billion annually on B2B management (CRM) definition we introduced
products and services (Ferguson, 2006). Some of at the beginning of this book, B2B CRM is the
the most valuable and powerful brands in the strategic process of strengthening relation-
world operate mainly in B2B markets, including, ships with business customers, especially
for example, Cisco, DuPont, FedEx, Hewlett- important clients, beyond transactional
Packard, IBM, and Intel (Hutt & Speh, 2013). relationships to better manage the value of
Unlike the B2C context, a customer in a these buyer–seller relationships. A report by
B2B environment is an organization (com- Stanford University and Accenture highlights
pany or institution), which means that there that companies can increase their market
are fewer customers. For example, Intel sells capitalization by 8% or more and earn
its processors to a few large manufacturers, premiums of 17–26% for their valuation, just
such as, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, which by introducing collaborative relationships
then sell to millions of computer buyers into their supply chains (Spekman &
(Hutt & Speh, 2013). This implies that Carraway, 2006); to build such collaborative
business customers make much larger relationships, a seller needs a deep under-
purchases than households, and the organi- standing of the buyer’s internal business and
zational buying process is far more complex. environment, and the communication
Finally, compared with B2C relationships, between partners should be linked to all
relationships between buyers and sellers levels of management, to guarantee exten-
13 tend to be closer (Buttle, 2009). In general, sive information exchange.

ability to establish long-lasting and strong rela-

CRM at Work 13.1 tionships. Nearly half a company’s growth can be
I BM: Identifying Customer-Contact Roles ascribed to the competence, organization, and
A number of IBM employees have contact with the
customer organization when a particular customer is
quality of its sales force (Karlöf & Lövingsson,
served. For ensuring a consistent strategy execution, 2005). Thus, sales force management (SFM) con-
IBM identifies customer-contact roles for each stitutes one of the most important strategic issues
customer (e.g., relationship owner, project owner, in a B2B CRM context. Due to the decreasing
and problem resolution owner), specifies the desired marketing efficiency and effectiveness, as we
measureable actions for each role, and finally
monitors the account’s satisfaction with each role.
noted at the start of this book, the task of the sales
Source: Hutt and Speh (2013). force is to effectively and efficiently manage rela-
tionships with the organization’s buyers, to win
over and maintain satisfied customers while keep-
ing costs down. The most important question in
The IBM example in the preceding box shows that this context is thus how the sales force can manage
the sales force is an important and significant buyer–seller relationships, both effectively and
investment for most sellers, because it is entrusted efficiently.
with the seller’s most important asset: customers. To answer this question, we first discuss the
The sales force is in the unique position of being construct of sales force automation (SFA) as an
very close to the customer and thus having the important subtopic of SFM within the B2B CRM

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13.1 · CRM and Sales Force Automation
267 13

B2B CRM Premise:

• Build stronger buyer-seller relationships
• Better manage the value of buyer-seller relationships

SFM

SFA KAM Goods to services shift

(Chapter 13.1) (Chapter 13.2) (Chapter 13.3)

 Efficiently and  Allocate right  Build long-lerm

effectively manage activities to right buyer-seller
buyer-seller customers relationships via
relationships services propositions

Internal perspective

External perspective

..      Fig. 13.1  Conceptual organization of the chapter

domain. As a transactional tool, SFA describes in customers effectively. Hybrid offerings mainly
any information technology applied to a sales focus on buyers’ demands and needs, which
situation that is intended to facilitate a repeti- implies an external perspective. These three sub-
tive, administrative task and to make it more topics of SFM help companies build stronger
efficient, especially from the internal perspective buyer–seller relationships and b­ etter manage the
of the seller. By completing tasks more effi- value of their relationships, from both internal
ciently, salespeople can focus on more value- and external perspectives. . Figure 13.1 outlines
 

adding activities for customers and thus increase the conceptual organization of this chapter
customer satisfaction, leading to greater cus- accordingly.
tomer retention. The effectiveness dimension
describes SFA as a tool to build long-lasting rela-
tionships with customers. Because a company 13.1  RM and Sales Force
C
often needs to build this kind of relationship Automation
only with its most valuable, important clients, so
called key accounts, we also acknowledge the In the past two decades, SFA tools have been used
main elements of key account management increasingly to facilitate customer relationship
(KAM) in this chapter. With KAM, the firm allo- management processes. Due to advanced tele-
cates the proper activities (from the buyer’s, communication devices, SFA has become more
respectively external perspective) to the most and more important, and the trend seems likely to
promising customers (from the seller’s perspec- continue in the future. We therefore begin by
tive). Finally, we discuss the shift from goods to describing SFA and illustrating its benefits, as well
services, including the emergence of hybrid offer- as the most important conditions and prerequi-
ings, as potential tactics for organizations to lock sites facilitating them.

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 268 Chapter 13 · CRM Issues in the Business-To-Business Context

..      Fig. 13.2 Two
dimensions of SFA benefits
SFA Benefits

SFA Efficiency SFA Effectiveness

13.1.1 What Is SFA? 13.1.2 SFA Benefits

The term SFA refers to any information technol- Salespeople, sales managers, and senior manage-
ogy applied to a sales situation with the goal of ment can derive a lot of benefits from implement-
supporting the sales function. The variety of hard- ing SFA. With SFA tools, salespeople gain timely
and software capabilities in SFA technologies access to customer, product inventory, and market
mean they can vary in terms of their complexity intelligence information and thus can respond to
and the degree to which they should be integrated customer questions more quickly and with better
into the company’s organizational infrastructure information. The sales force appears more
(Speier & Venkatesh, 2002). Relevant technologies informed, knowledgeable, competent, and respon-
include, for example, electronic data interchange, sive than its competing forces; it also enjoys a bet-
databases, Internet, spreadsheets, sales forecasting ter customer understanding. Customers perceive
tools, inventory management systems, contact that their needs are better catered to and met,
management programs, e-mail programs, graphics leading to improved customer relations through
and presentation software, laptops, cellular phones, increasing customer satisfaction. Better process
and fax machines (Hunter & Perreault, 2007). accuracy achieved through shorter order cycles,
for example, might increase customer satisfaction
and sales productivity, which in turn raises the
CRM at Work 13.2 benefits attained by sales managers (Rogers, Stone,
I nvisibleSolutions: Bridging the Gap between & Foss, 2008). The same pattern holds for
Business Apps and Productivity Tools improved resource allocation. By using SFA tools,
«InvisibleSolutions is a technology provider of the sales force can perform administrative tasks
13 tools engineered to increase user adoption and ROI
of enterprise applications by seamlessly integrat-
more efficiently and thus spend more time with
ing them into the way business people work every the customer, engaging in value-adding activities
day. These tools enable users to work with their that increase customer satisfaction and improve
customer and corporate information, without customer relations. Finally, SFA efficiency and
leaving their favorite communication applica- effectiveness, including increased sales productiv-
tions – Office 365 and Gmail.»
Source: Businesswire (2015).
ity and improved customer relations, lead to
greater sales revenue for senior management and
the firm as a whole. . Figure  13.3 summarizes
 

how these different beneficial characteristics are

SFA tools are designed specifically to support the
linked and how they contribute to increased sales
seller’s organization in its efforts to meet its CRM
revenues.
objectives. A primary topic then is its impact on
At this point, we also should mention that SFA
sales productivity. For example, SFA software
can increase sales revenue only in certain condi-
capabilities can capture, store, analyze, and dis-
tions, as we discuss in the next section.
tribute customer-related data to salespeople to
make them more efficient. By efficiently complet-
ing sales routine tasks, salespeople reallocate their
time to more personal contacts with their cus- 13.1.3 Conditions for Realizing
tomers, which leads to more effective buyer–seller Benefits
relationships (Hunter & Perreault, 2007). It thus
becomes evident that the two main dimensions of To gain efficiency and effectiveness benefits from
SFA’s benefits are its efficiency and effectiveness employing SFA tools, sales managers and senior
(. Fig. 13.2).
  management must ensure that the entire sales

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13.1 · CRM and Sales Force Automation
269 13

Benefits for senior Increased sales revenue

management

Improved customer relations

Benefits for sales Better sales productivity
managers
Better customer satisfaction

Better process accuracy

&
Better resource allocation
Benefits for
salespeople Better customer understanding
Facilitation and improvement of
information processing

Benefit dimension SFA efficiency SFA effectiveness

..      Fig. 13.3  Beneficial characteristics of SFA

force actually adopts and uses the SFA technology. existing system are influenced by the salesperson’s
A failure in adopting or using these tools repre- own individual characteristics. Individual percep-
sents the biggest barrier to a firm’s pursuit of the tions of SFA technology tend to be more positive
full range of SFA benefits. Important drivers that among younger employees, male employees, and
enhance SFA adoption include the commitment employees who have strong computer self-­
of both top management and immediate supervi- efficacy, as well as those with more computer
sors to the technology. Both variables influence playfulness tendencies. Organizational character-
SFA adoption individually, whereas the salespeo- istics such as management support, perceived
ple’s perceptions of the alignment between the voluntariness of the use, and early involvement
two commitment variables (called management and participation of the user population also can
commitment alignment) influences SFA adoption have positive influences on individual perceptions
even more. Therefore, any resources expended to of SFA technology (Speier & Venkatesh, 2002).
reach such alignment condition are easily justifi- The adoption of SFA technology thus is
able (Cascio, Mariadoss, & Mouri, 2010). The strongly associated with its usage. The extent of
likelihood of adoption also is positively influ- SFA technology usage depends on personal inno-
enced by personal innovativeness (the extent to vativeness, attitude toward the new system, and
which a person is quick to adopt innovative ideas usage-facilitating conditions i.e. the extent to
compared with others in the system), the per- which a person believes she or he has been pro-
ceived usefulness of the new system (the extent to vided with sufficient resources and external sup-
which a person believes use of the system will port to use the system (Jones et  al., 2002).
enhance his or her job performance), overall atti- Furthermore, the extent of use of SFA technology
tude toward the new system, and compatibility relates positively to a salesperson’s degree of mar-
with the existing system (the extent to which the ket information processing (Park, Kim, Dubinsky,
new system fits with the adopter’s existing values, & Lee, 2010).
experiences, and needs) (Jones, Sundaram, & To guarantee the adoption and usage of SFA
Chin, 2002). Moreover, the perceived usefulness technology, the seller’s organization should ensure
of the new system and its compatibility with the and communicate the commitment and support

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 270 Chapter 13 · CRM Issues in the Business-To-Business Context

..      Table 13.1  Seller’s benefit conditions checklist

Benefit conditions Measures

Adoption Ensure and communicate commitment and support of

top management and supervisors
Commitment of top management and supervisors
Hire salespeople who demonstrate personal innovative-
Personal ­innovativeness ness during the interview process
Positive attitude toward new system Hire young salespeople with computer playfulness and
computer self-efficacy
Perceived usefulness and compatibility
Inform salespeople about the system’s features and benefits
Individual ­characteristics

Organizational characteristics Provide continuous support and training

Usage Involve salespeople before purchasing and implementing

SFA tools
Personal ­innovativeness
Provide the sales force with necessary market
Positive attitude toward new system ­information

Facilitating conditions

Market information

of top management and supervisors and hire customer power, procurement sophistication,
young salespeople who demonstrate, during the complex offerings, and the need to find innovative
interview process, personal innovativeness, a high ways to handle a company’s most important cus-
degree of computer playfulness, and computer tomers produced the concept of KAM, with its
self-efficacy. Furthermore, the firm should inform unique characteristics and steps for successful
salespeople about the system’s features and bene- implementation.
fits, provide continuous support and training,
involve salespeople before purchasing and imple-
13 menting the SFA tools, and provide the sales force 13.2.1 What Is KAM?
with all necessary market information.
. Table 13.1 summarizes these measures to ensure
 
A lot of different terms, such as key account sell-
that the seller receives the full benefits of SFA. One ing, national account management, national
important prerequisite for SFA adoption and account selling, strategic account management,
usage certainly is that new SFA tools are integrally and global account management, can be sub-
embedded into the legacy system or the legacy sumed under the term KAM. Today, key account
system can easily be replaced with new SFA tools. management is the most widely used term in
As it has been pointed out in this chapter, a seller research publications (Homburg, Workman, &
can improve customer relations by implementing Jensen, 2002). KAM refers to the performance of
SFA. But we also must recognize that increased cus- additional activities and/or dedication of special
tomer satisfaction and improved customer relations personnel to a company’s most important cus-
are most critical for the most valuable customers of tomers (Workman, Homburg, & Jensen, 2003).
the seller’s organization, which leads us to the topic Instead of being transaction-oriented, these addi-
of CRM and key account management. tional activities are relationship-oriented and aim
to create long-term customer relationships.
Additional activities and special personnel offer
13.2  RM and Key Account
C critical benefits and opportunities for profit
Management enhancement for the seller, along with the benefit
enhancements for the buyer (McDonald, Millman,
KAM is one of the most significant trends in B2B & Rogers, 1997). Thus, for CRM in a B2B context,
marketing practice in recent years. Pressures KAM is a highly relevant topic that cannot be
exerted on suppliers by increasing globalization, ignored.
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