Sales, Marketing, and Continuous Improvement: Six Best Practices to Achieve Revenue Growth and Increase Customer Loyalty (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) [Hardcover]

Daniel M. Stowell (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0787908576 | ISBN-13: 978-0787908577 | Publication Date: February 5, 1997 | Edition: 1st

Make the most of sales and marketing

Those who have direct responsibility for sales and marketing organizations, as well as those who want more knowledge about the best practices in these critical areas, will gain new and important insights from Dan Stowell's book.
-- Bernard F. Sergesketter, vice president (retired), AT&T

Forget the old-school approach to Sales and Marketing. These six winning practices put those departments back on par with the rest of the modern business world, and opens the door to higher profits.

Based on studies in more than sixty companies -- many of them winners of the prestigious Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award -- this resource spotlights six reliable, results-generating improvement techniques, and shows how to deploy them successfully in the sales and marketing departments of any organization. The author describes each winning practice in detail, explains how each applies to sales and marketing, and provides illuminating examples of how Texas Instruments, Federal Express, Xerox and many other equally successful but less well known companies have applied the six practices in their organizations. Includes practical guidance for avoiding common pitfalls, along with an action plan for implementation.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"At last, a comprehensive look at quality in the marketing function that combines both a conceptual perspective and the experience of successful managers. Sales and marketing executives will find reading this book well worth their time." --Joseph L. Orsini, Ph.D., professor of marketing and quality management, California State University, Sacramento

"For companies that look to their sales force for a sustainable competitive advantage and have chosen 'customer intimacy' as their discipline for market leadership -- this book is a must!" --David L. Leffler, senior vice president of sales, Century Furniture Industries

"The actual successes and lessons of senior executives, particularly those in sales or marketing, are well chronicled here. Stowell effectively provides recipes for designing and implementing improvements in the sales and marketing functions which have bottom-line implications far beyond those immediate areas. Enlightenment in readable form. A book you can't put down." --Gail Hunt Reeke, principal, Mogan Stanley Asset Management

"The author covers a vital area in quality management that has been long ignored. Not only those with day-to-day sales and marketing responsibilities but senior corporate management will benefit from reading Stowell's book." --George O. Trabue, past president, World Wide Sales, Eastman Chemical

"Those who have direct responsibility for sales and marketing organizations, as well as those who want more knowledge about best practices in these critical areas, will gain new and important insights from Dan Stowell's book." --Bernard F. Sergesketter, past vice president, Central Region, AT&T, and author of Quality is Personal

From the Inside Flap

Although a variety of innovative quality and continuous improvement efforts have become standard in the manufacturing and operations sectors of competitive contemporary businesses, these practices and technologies often fail to take root in the sales and marketing departments.In this straightforward, example-filled guide, quality improvement expert Daniel M. Stowell reminds change agents that improvement processes cannot achieve their full potential if they do not encompass sales and marketing.Stowell studied the practices of companies whose organization-wide improvement efforts resulted in high customer loyalty and employee satisfaction, strong growth and profits, and increased shareholder wealth. He found that the most widely and successfully used approaches to continuous improvement encompass six basic practices.Sales, Marketing, and Continuous Improvement describes each winning practice in detail, explains how each applies to sales and marketing, and provides illuminating examples of how Texas Instruments, Federal Express, General Electric, Xerox, Motorola, and many other equally successful but less well known companies have applied the six practices to their organization. Also sharing real-world examples of failed or disappointing change efforts, author Stowell offers practical guidance for avoiding common pitfalls.Featuring an action plan for implementing the six practices, and for instilling a culture of continuous improvement, this is a one-of-a-kind, hand-on guide for executives, managers, and consultants who want to reap the benefits of quality and continuous improvement initiatives in their sales and marketing functions.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 286 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1st edition (February 5, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787908576
• ISBN-13: 978-0787908577
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,290,547 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars One Star is Too Generous!, April 29, 2006

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P Bentley "P. Bentley" (CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sales, Marketing, and Continuous Improvement: Six Best Practices to Achieve Revenue Growth and Increase Customer Loyalty (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) (Hardcover)

The author couldn't lead a fly to cr*p, and the book is poorly written. Don't waste your money.