Business Exchange
A compendium of sales-related literature in customer relationship management: processes and technologies with...
Publication: Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management
Date: Wednesday, June 22 2005
Subject: Customer relationship management (Methods), Business enterprises (Customer relations)
Product: Venture Analysis
Location: United States
Customer relationship management (CRM) encompasses a myriad of activities across the organization aimed at ensuring customer profitability. As boundary spanners, salespeople naturally play an important role in that process. CRM likewise seeks to integrate customer management activities across the firm--such as customer billing, distribution and shipping, customer service provision, and Web site utilization. Traditionally, the sales force is the firm's main means of customer contact, and thus the integration of selling with other CRM activities is critical. Salespeople not only serve as customer relationship managers to bolster company profits through selling, but they also act as customer feedback conduits to enrich other important activities of the firm--such as product design, customer service, production, and research and development (Crosby, Evans, and Cowles 1990; Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh 1987). Such relationship management activities have been touted as central to a firm's success (Berry 1995; Day 2000; Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh 1987). Indeed, they have spawned a number of related technologies that have changed the way salespeople build and maintain customer relationships (Anderson 1996).
In fact, the concept of CRM and its accompanying technologies have become exceedingly intertwined. Consider the following explanations of the CRM concept found in popular texts:
CRM is a term for methodologies, technologies and e-commerce capabilities used by companies to manage customer relationships. (Stone and Woodcock 2001, p. 3) CRM may be regarded as a set of technological and organizational mechanisms intended to buffer market instability through better knowledge of environmental variables, particularly market variables, in order to anticipate customers' needs, rendering production activities more stable and programmable. (Rajola 2003, p. 17) CRM today is about using information technology systems to capture and track your customers' needs. (Anderson and Kerr 2002, p. 2)
Fundamental to most discussions of CRM is that it is an organizationwide strategy involving a customer focus wherein automated processes and technologies are key. Despite the frequent lack of conceptual distinction between CRM as a strategy versus CRM as a set of technologies, it is clear that sophisticated CRM is at the verge of allowing true one-to-one marketing--so much so that information technology has become a vital organizational strategy (Leigh and Marshall 2001).
For sales, CRM is an especially important research domain. As a strategy, organizations pursue CRM for a variety of reasons, including information sharing between departments to improve customer service or simply to stay abreast of the competition (Erffmeyer and Johnson 2001). Hence, the sales force benefits from an increased speed of response, greater internal synergy in serving the customer, better value-adding service, and cost savings (Campbell 2003; Erffmeyer and Johnson 2001). Indeed, the greatest benefit of a CRM strategy may be the information available for increasing the coordination of various customer service functions (Pullig, Maxham, and Hair 2002). A secondary benefit of an organizationwide CRM strategy is the opportunity for salespeople to sell more efficiently by increasing quality selling time, and more effectively, through having better and more timely customer information (Campbell 2003; Morgan and Inks 2001).
Viewed as a set of technologies, CRM has additional benefits. Electronic data interchange (EDI), for example, can reduce human errors in ordering and decrease a salesperson's time spent with straight reorders, allowing him or her to maintain more customer relationships than possible under a paper-based system (Hill and Swenson 1994; Jones, Sundaram, and Chin 2002). From better information-sharing technologies, activities such as postsale follow-up can be made easier as well (Jones, Sundaram, and Chin 2002). These CRM-related technologies help to free salespeople from costly administrative activities in favor of CRM tasks, which better suit the skills and abilities of the sales force (Ingram, LaForge, and Leigh 2002). The implementation of technologies to manage customer relationships, however, does not guarantee sales effectiveness (Campbell 2003). Some have argued that issues such as establishing trust with customers, responding to subtle cues, anticipating customer needs, providing personalized service, nurturing ongoing relationships, and creating new and profitable customer business strategies will remain inextricably tied to the personal selling role (Anderson 1996). Considering these conjectures, and given the rapid advancement of sales-related CRM technologies, it is ironic that
academic research is only now stressing CRM as a fundamental business process with a significant impact on organizational results. Rather, past academic research has been more narrowly focused on sales force automation [SFA], in particular the factors driving acceptance and use of IT by the sales force. Clearly, a "bigger picture" perspective of IT is indicated, especially a focus on CRM ... as (a) business process. (Leigh and Marshall 2001, p. 88)
Clearly, there are a number of sales-related research opportunities that arise from CRM--topics focused on salespeople, sales management, and the selling function of the firm. CRM is thus as deserving of a comprehensive and systematic literature review as is afforded other important sales-related concepts and research domains (e.g., customer orientation; Schwepker 2003). The purpose of this review is twofold:
1. to review and synthesize the academic literature (both conceptual and empirical) on CRM (strategies and technologies) relating to personal selling and sales management (see the Appendix for a summarization, and
2. to discuss the implications of the review for sales management and research.
BACKGROUND
CRM Strategy and CRM Technology
Despite ambiguities about the conceptual demarcation between CRM strategy and its accompanying technology, CRM technologies are best viewed as enablers of the people and processes needed to effectively and efficiently manage customers (Anton and Petouhoff 2002). As Muther (2002) contends, CRM involves the use of information technology in managing the supplier-customer relationship--thus, CRM technologies should be referred to as CRM tools rather than as CRM itself. In support of this distinction, Newell notes that the utilization of CRM-related technologies does not necessarily translate to engaging in CRM by stating, "The building of customer relationships ... will call for a broad shift from database marketing to true Customer Relationship Management--a process of modifying customer behavior over time and learning from every interaction, customizing customer treatment, and strengthening the bond between the customer and company" (2000, p. 2). Thus, CRM can be conceptualized, at its broadest, in terms of an organizational mandate to direct structures within the organization in ways that optimize customer relationships in which technology plays an important part. If not concise, Greenberg is perhaps most complete by explaining CRM as
a comprehensive set of processes and technologies for managing the relationships with potential and current customers and business partners across marketing, sales, and service regardless of the communication channel. The goal of CRM is to optimize customer and partner satisfaction, revenue, and business efficiency by building the strongest possible relationships at an organizational level. Successful CRM requires a holistic approach to every relationship with the entire organization sharing and contributing to that view. (2002, p. 17)
Greenberg's (2002) discussion of CRM reveals the breadth to which CRM can be conceptualized. Furthermore, many related topics are often discussed simultaneously with CRM, including e-commerce, supply-chain management, customer orientation, one-to-one marketing, customer profiling, electronic customer care, relationship marketing, SFA, relationship personalization systems, relationship technology, partner relationship management (PRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), knowledge management, lifetime customer value, customer assets, and self-service technologies (SSTs) (e.g., Muther 2002). The conceptual overlapping of important sales and marketing concepts with CRM demonstrates the applicability and importance of the topic.
CRM and Related Concepts
Although it is beyond the scope of this paper to integrate each of the aforementioned terms into a nomological network for CRM (see Table 1), contrasting CRM with a few popular concepts from the sales literature seems warranted. First, an interesting parallel can be made to the concepts of relationship marketing and customer orientation, which are often conceptualized at varying levels from tactics to strategy, and even to aspects of organizational culture. Moreover, other commonalities between these concepts and CRM are that they each stress that customer relationship efforts must span beyond the marketing and sales functions. Ironically, CRM's unique focus on information technology reveals that some processes appear to be at odds with the traditional sales function. For example, SSTs such as automated order placement through the Internet, a selling function, or electronic customer care systems, a service function, potentially impinge upon roles traditionally played by an organization's sales force. In brief, there are at least three key distinctions that allow for CRM conceptualizations to be complementary to extant sales thought: (1) prescriptions for serving the customer, (2) suggested level of customer analysis, and (3) suggested level of organizational change required for successful implementation of the concept.
Prescriptions for Customer Service and Relationships
Fundamental to successful CRM is the notion that simply maintaining a customer orientation, in the strict sense of looking out for customers' best interests (cf. Narver and Slater 1990), is not enough to ensure firm profitability (Stone and Woodcock 2001). Thus, CRM readily acknowledges the idea that some customers are simply less profitable and should be dealt with differently or dropped altogether (cf. Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh 1987). That is, CRM stresses that relationships should not always be sought. While looking out for a customer's needs may serve to maximize customer satisfaction, consideration should be given to whether the customer relationship will be profitable over time--that is, the lifetime customer value notion is central to effective CRM (Greenberg 2002; cf. Berger et al. 2002).
Certainly, technologies that help to automate customer interactions serve to reduce costs and allow for the servicing of less profitable customers. In fact, the creation of new means of serving customers, often through technology, is a major focus of CRM (Anderson and Kerr 2002; Rajola 2003). However, the long-term "relational" customer focus that, at least by name, helps to demarcate the relationship marketing concept is clearly not prescribed for all customers under a CRM philosophy. Further, while the Dwyer, Schurr, and Oh (1987) conceptualization of relationship stages acknowledges dissolution as the final stage within a relationship, a CRM philosophy appears proactive in acknowledging that suppliers should establish processes and technologies to aid in dissolving unprofitable customer relationships. Indeed, CRM stresses that, given the appropriate information, a supplier could better decide whether to engage in relationship formation with particular customers in the first place. (1)
Level of Customer Analysis
Whereas concepts such as relationship marketing and customer orientation often appear to serve as normative prescriptions for dealing with individual customer relationships, CRM is more a philosophy for managing relationships across the customer base. The "management" of customer accounts emphasizes the importance of determining the lifetime value of a customer and then maximizing firm resources across all customers. This determines which relationships should be sought (Greenberg 2002). Thus, for CRM, more emphasis is placed on the firm's constraints in serving customers, which may help explain why many CRM technologies may be even more disconcerting to salespeople than are SFA technologies. Whereas many SFA technologies are geared more at improving salesperson-customer relationships or toward being customer oriented (impinging only on how salespeople perform their roles), other CRM technologies are more readily viewed as threatening the sales role itself (Shoemaker 2001; Speier and Venkatesh 2002). Consider the impact on the salesperson's psyche when faced with the firm's implementation of the following CRM technologies: sales route planning (a nonthreatening SFA technology) versus direct ordering via e-commerce (a more threatening CRM technology).
Level of Organizational Change Required for Implementation Success
A CRM strategy directs managers to take advantage of the breadth of available customer relationship technologies in managing customer relations. For example, Widmier, Jackson, and McCabe (2002) discuss various technologies that help to automate:
* organizing--scheduling, forecasting, sales route planning software;
* presenting--multimedia;
* reporting (to management)--automated reporting;
* informing (collecting information for sales use)-e-catalogs, Internet;
* supporting and processing transactions--information databases; and
* communicating--cell phones, e-mail, and so on.
Whereas much of the extant literature on SFA technology has focused narrowly on personal selling, CRM clearly speaks to the management of organizational processes (Leigh and Marshall 2001). For example, Rivers and Dart argue, "Regardless of the nature of any particular SFA system, its primary purpose is to reduce the time spent on support activities and thereby free up the sales force to sell" (1999, p. 60). Typical foci of SFA studies thus include the use of e-mail to communicate with customers, contact management software to guide salesperson/customer relationship development, and sales presentation technologies (Ingram, LaForge, and Leigh 2002). Hence, writings on SFA have centered largely on automating the salesperson rather than on automating the selling function of the firm (Leigh and Marshall 2001).
Integrating CRM technologies to enhance the entire customer management function entails a switch from tactical thinking (e.g., "How can I use technologies to better equip my salespeople for closing sales?") to the strategic (e.g., "How should I redesign the personal selling process to better integrate it with other sales and support activities of the firm?"). To best manage customer relationships with multiple touch points, strategic thinking would encompass the redesign of compensation plans, cross-functional as well as technical training, and incentive program redesign--each with firmwide CRM implementation in mind (Shoemaker 2001). As the sales manager focuses more on maximizing resources by serving specific customers with CRM (e.g., those with the highest projected lifetime value), the firm has progressed beyond the idea of simply reducing transaction costs (as with EDI) to maximizing revenues--by choosing which customers to serve and how they should be served (cf. Hill and Swenson 1994).
Serving only a limited set of customers and redesigning how less-profitable accounts will be served, however, may be disconcerting to salespeople. In their eyes, salespeople may be forced to contribute to their own demise. Salespeople could be charged with accumulating and relaying the customer data needed for the firm to properly analyze and manage overall customer profitability (Abbott, Stone, and Buttle 2001; Anderson and Kerr 2002; Leigh and Marshall 2001). This situation could be perceived by salespeople as a potential loss of control over their own customer accounts--by shifting power from themselves to management--and easily could be viewed as aiding in the elimination of their role. A technology is competency enhancing when it preserves and enriches the value of existing skills, knowledge, and relationships; it is competency destroying when it renders existing skills, knowledge, and relationships obsolete (Speier and Venkatesh 2002). Of particular challenge to sales managers is this shift from CRM technologies that are competency enhancing, such as SFA tools like route planning and order tracking, to those that are competency destroying, such as direct Internet sales.
THE STUDY
Method
Again, the goal of this review is to identify articles published over the past ten years related to CRM with relevance to sales management. The ten-year time frame was chosen because it encapsulates the rise to prominence of CRM and much of the technology that aids in implementation of CRM concepts. The review includes both empirical studies and conceptual articles.
The first step to identifying relevant articles was to determine which journals were to be searched extensively--beyond simple computerized searches that might overlook articles not containing designated key words. In keeping with prior sales review articles (cf. Bush and Grant 1994; Moncrief, Marshall, and Watkins 2000; Swan, Powers, and Sobczak 1991), it was decided that major marketing and industrial sales journals should be searched systematically. Twelve journals were selected, including Business Horizons (BH), Harvard Business Review (HBR), Industrial Marketing Management (IMM), Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS), Journal of Business Research (JBR), Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing (JBIM), Journal of Marketing (JM), Journal of Marketing Research (JMR), Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice (JMTP), Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management (JPSSM), Journal of Service Research (JSR), and Journal of Retailing (JR).
This search for journals was supplemented by using computerized searches on "customer relationship management," and on closely related concepts (e.g., SFA) to find other potentially relevant sources. Thus, in addition to the marketing and sales journals, two managerially oriented information systems journals were also systematically reviewed, Management Information Systems Quarterly (MISQ) and Journal of Database Marketing (JDM), because of their apparent technological relevance to the CRM concept based on the computerized search. It was hoped that the inclusion of these journals would help identify and compare research vectors for CRM from the more managerially focused marketing journals with the more technologically focused information systems publications. Again, the relevant content of the MISQ and JDM was catalogued specifically because the two journals had numerous "hits" when searched electronically via key words. Clearly, however, the study included a limited sampling of information systems articles, as only two technologically focused journals were subsequently systematically evaluated.
Once the focal journals had been selected, a systematic review of those journals was conducted--that is, every article written in those journals during the ten-year time period was searched to find those most related to CRM and selling. From this initial grouping of over 3,000 articles, a total of 253 were chosen for further consideration. These articles were then read and reviewed by two independent judges for subsequent inclusion based on three criteria. The article had to be related in some way to CRM strategy even if it did not use the term (customer relationship management) explicitly. The rationale for this criterion is that the furtherance of CRM as a normative prescription for business is better achieved when the concept is regarded as a business strategy. It is clear, however, that, historically, the technology component of CRM has delineated the concept's conceptual domain and research agendas (e.g., Stone and Woodcock 2001; cf. Leigh and Marshall 2001). Therefore, the article also needed to possess a technological dimension--either in the adoption, use, or strategic impact of processes involving CRM technology. Finally, all of the articles needed to be relevant to sales managers by either being tactically useful in managing sales processes (e.g., SFA) or strategically useful in aiding the understanding of the impact of CRM on the sales force (e.g., disintermediation).
The interjudge reliability with regard to the articles ultimately included in the study was high at 93.7 percent (cf. Bush and Grant 1994). From a total of 253 articles, 38 were ultimately selected for inclusion in this report. Thirty of the articles received initial unanimous support from the judges. Eight achieved unanimous support after a second reading revealed oversights on the part of one judge. (These were not included in calculating the interjudge reliability statistic.) Six others were not selected for inclusion because of disagreement between the judges as to the appropriateness of content even after a second reading. Both judges acknowledged the remaining articles as failing to meet at least one of the selection criteria--most often, the direct managerial relevance to sales. The selected articles are catalogued in the Appendix, wherein a brief summary details each article's purpose, method, and key findings.
The table is organized first by topic, then by article recentness, and finally, alphabetically by author. The categorization of articles (i.e., determining the topic of each article) was derived through an iterative process of three judges grouping similar articles together and then deriving the theme for those related articles once the article groupings had been finalized. The categorization scheme was created from the extant literature. It helps provide a framework for article discussion but should not be interpreted as a definitive description of all potential research domains.
IMPLICATIONS
Changing Nature of Channel Functions and Interfirm Relationships
Several articles were identified that dealt with the evolution of interfirm relationships given the rise of the Internet and related technologies--each with direct relevance to sales. These topics parallel popular conceptualizations of CRM, whereby new information technologies, specifically Internet-enabled tools, allow for new forms of collaboration between suppliers and customers--normatively, to better achieve competitive advantages (Day 2000; Muther 2002).
An underlying motif for these articles is the proposition that although the Internet may change firms' roles within the value chain, the Internet does not allow for easy disintermediation of its channel members. The interactive technologies that allow for information search by downstream channel members, including the customer, are not automatically of value to those channel members (Berthon et al. 2003; Stewart and Pavlou 2002). For example, distributors are proposed as vital to customer relationships even when customers have the ability to bypass their suppliers in their search for product-related information (Mudambi and Aggarwal 2003). Distributors apparently still add value by maintaining a customer focus through passing valuable information up and down the channel and create channel efficiencies by allowing channel partners to focus on optimizing their core businesses (e.g., manufacturing, selling; Mudambi and Aggarwal 2003).
Interestingly, only two empirical articles were found. In one, despite the use of Internet technologies to gather information about suppliers, buyers were found to be less computer literate than their supplier counterparts (Leek, Turnbull, and Naude 2003). In the other, Stump and Sriram (1997) found that relationship-specific investments in information technologies enhance those relationships even when the investments benefit more than the exchange partners. Additional research questions that naturally follow this line of inquiry can be found in Table 2.
Several managerial implications may be derived as well. First, downstream channel partners engaging in product aggregation and sales are not easily removed from a customer value chain. Although this finding may come as a relief to sales personnel, sales managers should be sensitive to salespeople's concerns over the disintermediation issue. Not only might salespeople have concern over CRM's impact on their jobs within an organization, as will be outlined later, but salespeople could need reassurance that their profession will remain viable within the industry. As CRM affects the roles of firms within an industry, will nontransferable product knowledge and sales skills become threatened? Such a scenario could be very disconcerting to salespeople.
Openness on the part of sales managers in addressing the disintermediation issue would seem to help stem employee concerns about their jobs. Moreover, by being proactive and discussing the issue openly with salespeople, it may help the organization better recognize how it adds (or does not add) value within the channel. To illustrate, understanding how downstream channel members are willing to use Internet ordering technology, information that may be best garnered by salespeople, helps managers to redirect salespeople to other value-adding roles--for instance, order follow-up, consultative problem solving, and new account generation. Hence, the organization is better equipped to derive strategy to stave off its own disintermediation. In the same way that salespeople are consulted in writing job descriptions and aiding in job redesign, they should be sought out for input on organizational redesign, because their boundary-spanning roles may provide critical information about the firm's true value-adding capabilities.
Second, although most of these studies explicitly caution firms about the problems associated with disintermediating their channel partners, some also foreshadow the folly of disintermediating the sales function within an organization (Leek, Turnbull, and Naude 2003). Hence, firms must focus on determining the value-adding roles of the salesperson. Organizations should conduct in-depth customer inquiries about how a disintermediation of the firm's sales force might affect customer relationships, positively or negatively, before employing automated selling as a cost-savings strategy (i.e., focusing too narrowly on a specific aspect of strategy, such as cost saving, without appreciating organizationwide implications). As the tangible representation of the firm, salespeople likely play critical roles in maintaining customer relationships and enhancing the firm's customer orientation; technology may be best viewed as augmenting rather than replacing the sales role (cf. Stump and Sriram 1997). Indicative of this, the literature review revealed the importance of considering the changing role of the sales force given the rise of CRM.
Changing Nature of the Sales Role
Several articles dealt, at least in part, with the changing role of the salesperson given the rise to prominence of CRM-related technologies. These articles, as opposed to the ones discussed in the following section, specifically address the effects on the sales role rather than deal with more strategic issues. Again, these articles may not overtly flame their inquiries in terms of CRM, but each acknowledges that technologies related to CRM are changing the way the organization interacts with its customers (the Internet: Anderson 1996; Samli, Wills, and Herbig 1997; EDI: Hill and Swenson 1994; and other SFA tools: Anderson 1996; Widmier, Jackson, and McCabe 2002).
Automated customer purchasing and order replenishment technologies were mentioned as changing the sales role by shifting salesperson responsibilities from order taking to account maintenance. To what extent interpersonal relationships will matter in an increasingly automated purchasing environment, especially given the ease of online purchasing and EDI, appears to be an important research domain. One extant proposition is that purchasing automation for customers may free salespeople from order processing, allowing them to provide increased customer service (Hill and Swenson 1994). That salespeople will no longer be information providers, but will need to increasingly focus on interpersonal relationships and persuasion, appears to suggest that some relationship management responsibilities are passing from the salesperson to the firm (cf. Samli, Wills, and Herbig 1997). The notion that salespeople will become simply users of information rather than vital contributors of information, however, is at odds with much of the popular thought on CRM. In fact, some authors indicate that salespeople will likely play an increasing role in data collection (Leigh and Marshall 2001), but that proposition should be balanced by the recognition that as customer processes become more automated, the proportional amount of data collected through the sales force is likely to decline.
Moreover, managers should recognize that the nature of specific salesperson-customer relationships will affect a salesperson's acceptance of CRM-driven changes (e.g., EDI, direct ordering via the Internet). Salespeople are more likely to view CRM as threatening when the technology removes, rather than augments, extant customer relationships (Widmier, Jackson, and McCabe 2002). This may be especially true for cases of large, profitable customers by which salespeople derive a large portion of their variable compensation (Anderson and Kerr 2002).
While it was mentioned in the introduction that many CRM processes and technologies impinge upon the sales job itself, at least one aspect of CRM, knowledge management, appears to offer salespeople new opportunities to be value-adding within their role. Knowledge management deals with the process of converting customer data into useful information. Shoemaker (2001) acknowledges that the "gathering" function in knowledge management involves more than compiling data from outside sources; knowledge requires direct customer contact to truly aid in managing customer relations. Little has been explored, however, about salespeople's role in the creation of knowledge in CRM systems (Jones, Chonko, and Roberts 2003).
As Leigh and Marshall (2001) note, insights into information acquisition and management will be important to understanding CRM as a business process. Beyond simply gathering important customer data, salespeople and sales management should be involved in CRM analytics--that is, the design, creation, and maintenance of CRM systems. They should help initiate new CRM processes and technologies, because they are experts in the types of information needed to enhance the performance of their sales role (Ingram, LaForge, and Leigh 2002). Moreover, as Widmier, Jackson, and McCabe (2002) suggest, some of the most useful technology is likely to be initiated by salespeople, and managers should examine those instances to aid in the redesign of the sales force. In sum, salespeople are useful (1) for gathering important data, because of their boundary-spanning role; (2) in identifying the types of data that should be collected and how that data translates into useful customer information based on their sales experience; and (3) for suggesting how that information should be utilized in CRM by aiding in the design of supportive CRM systems. Hence, the sales role may become increasingly intertwined with the information system manager and data analyst roles. Thus, as customer experts, salespeople could become valuable to the firm by providing insights for planning activities such as new product development, product forecasting and supply-chain management, and financial planning and resource allocation (Jones, Chonko, and Roberts 2003; Yu 2001).
The academic literature on personal selling, however, typically conceptualizes only the utilization value of customer relationship technologies (cf. Widmier, Jackson, and McCabe 2002). Perhaps because salespeople lack participation in the initiation of SFA or similar CRM projects (Widmier, Jackson, and McCabe 2002), technologies are, in effect, viewed by salespeople simply as resources created for their use in serving customers. The notion that CRM could benefit from the information creation potential of salespeople is rarely emphasized in the mainstream CRM literature.
The role of the sales force, as users of SFA technologies and as contributors of information to CRM, is illustrated in Figure 1. Also shown is the idea that there may be value in conceptualizing SFA technologies in terms of technologies that allow for sales force use of information, whereas other CRM technologies are concerned with the sales force creation of knowledge as well. Similar delineations between SFA and CRM have been proposed by Ingram, LaForge, and Leigh:
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
[T]he focus of SFA is primarily on the salesperson. The focal point of CRM technology is more on the customer and relationship ... the basic purpose of SFA is to automate the selling and administrative tasks so that salespeople and sales managers can perform current activities more efficiently. CRM includes this efficiency capability, but also addresses effectiveness issues such as salespeople doing different things. (2002, p. 564)
CRM processes and technologies are also illustrated that are outside of the traditional sales function but are touted as critical to effective CRM (cf. Hill and Swenson 1994; Widmier, Jackson, and McCabe 2002). Future research topics derived from the changing nature of the sales role are listed in Table 2.
Strategic Processes for CRM
Much of the literature on the information technologies used to enhance customer relationships focuses upon the acceptance and use of SFA--that is, the issue of managing salespeople (Leigh and Marshall 2001). For sales management, however, such a narrow view of management seems incomplete since CRM involves all cross-functional business processes aimed at serving the customer--that is, the larger issue of managing the customer base. The review did reveal several articles that begin to address the strategic and cross-functional nature of managing customer relationships. Day (2000), utilizing a case analysis, espouses that by properly implementing information technology throughout an organization, effective relationship management can become an organizational capability. Three conceptual pieces on the future of sales support this notion (cf. Anderson 1996; Ingram, LaForge, and Leigh 2002; Leigh and Marshall 2001). Further, each stresses the effect that CRM-related strategies and technologies will have on the sales organization. Anderson (1996) recognizes that SFA and electronic sales channels dramatically reshape not only the role of the salesperson but the role of personal selling within the firm. While not couching such trends in terms of CRM, Anderson's (1996) "blending of sales and marketing" notion closely parallels the relationship management activities prevalent in CRM. Sales force roles that are touted as irreplaceable by advanced technology include anticipating new customer needs and developing long-term strategies in partnership with customers. This parallels an idea proposed by Leigh and Marshall (2001) that the sales function will increasingly be viewed as the firm's means of "partnering" with customers. This redefines the sales function whereby strategic account management will be the objective, which will require CRM-related processes and technologies such as lifetime customer value analysis. Ingram, LaForge, and Leigh (2001) specifically call for research on this aspect of CRM.
Several articles outline processes by which successful CRM could be achieved and how customer contact employees will participate. Berger and colleagues (2002) proposed that four actions need to be taken by firms to achieve successful customer relationships: (1) create a customer database, (2) segment customers, (3) forecast customer lifetime value, and (4) allocate resources to maximize the value of customers. The inclusion of the lifetime customer value analysis typifies the CRM philosophy. Moreover, several articles keyed on important technologies that affect the strategic use of the sales organization (PRM software: Mirani, Moore, and Weber 2001; database management: Abbott, Stone, and Buttle 2001; the Internet: Avlonitis and Karayanni 2000; marketing information systems: Wilson 2003). Shoemaker (2001) notes that many types of sales technologies are required to be competitive and, along with Day (2000), proposes that customer technologies can become key strategic resources. It may not be the implementation of CRM technologies, however, but the coordination of technologies that allows for successful CRM (Shoemaker 2001).
Thus, not only will the adoption of SFA technologies be important to manage customer relationships, but also sales management's role in coordinating the correct mix of technologies to utilize critical information will be vital. Having accessible and transferable data across systems will be important to CRM success. Hence, standardizing SFA tools across the sales force, proactively attending to database upkeep, and ensuring that the right information is being warehoused will become an increasingly important role for sales managers. Interestingly, at least one study finds that managers are already doing some of this--but with more attention to generating customer knowledge than to disseminating it (Campbell 2003). Hence, research should be focused on the appropriate roles of sales managers in the knowledge management activities needed for CRM, because adequate customer information processes, marketing IT interfaces, and management involvement are conditions needed for building a customer knowledge competency (Campbell 2003).
One hazard, however, of the sales group initiating CRM is not involving the firm's information systems group in the formulation of CRM processes. As is often the case, the implementation of CRM technologies is constrained by the resources, both capital and human, needed to enact and support those systems (Erffmeyer and Johnson 2001). This translates into another major obstacle for applied academic research in CRM: identifying the metrics for success. How should the costs and benefits of CRM be quantified? Currently, "successful" CRM is ill-defined (Ingram, LaForge, and Leigh 2002).
In support of the idea that CRM success is hard to define, Rivers and Dart (1999) found it was hard to specify, much less predict, returns on SFA. One important finding, however, is that firms that are willing to alter the processes used to serve the customer are more likely to find success implementing technology. Identifying the factors contributing to CRM process adoption thus appears to be a fruitful avenue for research. From the supplier's perspective, Frambach et al. (1998) find that the probability of successful adoption increases if the supplier of the technology adequately demonstrates the benefits of the new innovation and reduces the perceived risk by offering incentives for adoption. Both studies, however, demonstrate the hesitancy of firms to adopt CRM technology. This may be due, in part, to hesitancy in the users of the technology, including both the sales force and its customers. Related research objectives are listed in Table 2.
Salesperson Adoption of CRM Technology
This systematic review of the literature revealed that much of the work on SFA deals with adoption, which to date appears to be the most widely applied success metric for CRM. With regard to sales force adoption of CRM processes, Jones, Sundaram, and Chin (2002) found that salesperson's intention to adopt, however, did not correlate well with the actual adoption of automation technologies--even when those technologies were designed to aid the salesperson directly in customer management (i.e., competency enhancing). Moreover, Engle and Barnes (2000) found no direct relationship between SFA adoption and performance. Several have proposed the idea that competency-destroying technologies would have a more negative effect (e.g., Anderson and Kerr 2002; Ingram, LaForge, and Leigh 2002). In support, Speier and Venkatesh (2002) acknowledge that certain SFA technologies seen as competency destroying are likely to result in negative perceptions by the sales force and may actually promote thoughts of poor organizational fit. Especially when dealing with personal or highly profitable relationships, salespeople may have serious reservations about sharing too much customer information, as it might result in the firm's "sabotaging" the salesperson's personal customer relationship efforts (Anderson and Kerr 2002).
Sales force involvement in the creation of SFA processes, for example, has been proposed to create a sense of ownership in the technologies and a willingness for salespeople to accept the change (Morgan and Inks 2001). On the other hand, failed SFA projects have been reported as having negatively affected sales performance or disrupted the selling process (Speier and Venkatesh 2002). Retrospective inquiry into failed CRM projects, however, should consider that actual reasons for failure could be tainted by salespeople making external attributions for those failures. It appears that salespeople cannot fully anticipate how technology will affect their future long term and are wary of new automation technologies (Speier and Venkatesh 2002). Again, this suggests that sales managers should be proactive in outlining the changes to the sales role and emphasize how the sales force will continue to be valued within the firm.
Sales managers also should seek to create an environment conducive to innovation. Widely available training and an organizationally shared value of customer orientation seem to best promote CRM-related technologies used for prospecting, account development and servicing, and the creation of buyer profiles (Pullig, Maxham, and Hair 2002). Likewise, Erffmeyer and Johnson (2001) found that even very satisfied users of SFA indicated that better planning and training were needed. Further, successful implementation requires that the sales force perceives that the time spent training is more beneficial than the sales time lost (Morgan and Inks 2001).
One serious problem of CRM technologies is that the customer database often does not contain the right types of information, and evidence suggests that engaging employees in information creation and maintenance often requires significant changes in culture--changes that may be difficult when salespeople feel threatened by the technology (Abbott, Stone, and Buttle 2001). Figure 1 conceptualizes the difference between SFA and CRM technologies--paralleling Ingram, LaForge, and Leigh's (2002) contention that the concepts are different. While the review only found examples of "adoption" articles for SFA technologies, understanding CRM technology adoption when the sales role becomes threatened appears to be a promising research area. It seems reasonable that adoption motivations would differ for salespeople depending on whether the technology simply changes the way they will work (i.e., SFA) versus threatens the elimination of the sales role (i.e., Internet marketing).
Theories often utilized in the organizational change literature may prove fruitful in further conceptualizing the adoption of CRM technologies. One promising framework for such inquiry is Anton and Petouhoff's (2002) typology of the interpretation of change: changes and tasks, roles, and responsibilities; changes in skills needed; changes in who will need to perform their job, or changes in processes; changes in the way decisions are made; changes in responsibilities in entering and analyzing data; changes in the way departments and teams communicate. Each of these change barriers could be explored to determine the appropriate change management tactics necessary for successful CRM implementation--for instance, hiring, training, and organizational and job restructuring.
Customer Adoption of CRM Technology
Leigh and Marshall (2001) suggest that a focus on SFA adoption in the sales literature is a natural outcome from recognizing the productivity gains from SFA tools. For CRM technologies, however, these gains are only attainable when customers also buy into their benefits (Min and Galle 2003). Most of the technology adoption literature was found in the business-to-consumer realm. Consumer articles were included when the behavior studied or the principles espoused had relevance to organizational purchasing as well. For example, Meuter et al. (2003) acknowledge what is commonly found in the e-commerce literature--that consumer anxiety, also known in terms of technology acceptance, is the only clear correlate of Internet usage. Demographics matter much less, or not at all. Implications for selling include that it may be difficult to predict customer's adoption of e-commerce and other Internet tools. This may help explain why e-commerce works better in some industries than in others (cf. Min and Galle 2003). Some industries may be more technology accepting than others because of their preexisting reliance upon technologies. In sum, research focusing on individuals' acceptance of technology should certainly account for individual differences in technology acceptance. Similarly, for studies across industries, researchers should consider whether the industries themselves likely influence CRM adoption.
There is evidence that commitment, satisfaction, and trust in e-commerce depend on the constant availability of information, efficient information transfer, interactivity, and individualization (Bauer, Grether, and Leach 2002). Interestingly, industrial buyers view the Internet more as an information-gathering tool than as a purchasing tool (Kennedy and Deeter-Schmelz 2001). This may suggest that the fear of using the Internet may not be as heightened as is the attempt to conduct business through it (Deeter-Schmelz and Kennedy 2004). Whatever the case, salespeople still appear essential in completing the purchase process (Kennedy and Deeter-Schmelz 2001). Perhaps, when there is a lack of personal contact, there is an increased concern by buyers about whether they will be well treated. Evidence from the consumer literature indicates that customer satisfaction can be increased by personalizing all types of CRM technologies (Torcy 2002). Similarly, firms implementing e-commerce should assist users in gaining the full benefits of the technology (Min and Galle 2003), which parallels the findings from suppliers seeking to sell CRM-related technologies (Frambach et al. 1998). Training salespeople to train their customers on CRM technologies may become a new aspect of the sales manager's role. A research agenda for customer adoption of technology is presented in Table 2.
LIMITATIONS
It was hoped that the inclusion of information systems journals would help identify and compare research vectors for CRM from the more managerially focused marketing journals with the more technologically focused information systems publications. The Journal of Database Marketing, however, yielded few relevant articles focused on the intersection of technology and CRM processes, and the Management Information Systems Quarterly was devoid of CRM process-related articles with relevance to sales. Again, articles that focused on technology, with relevance to CRM processes, which were not directly relevant for sales management, were not included in this review. Both journals, however, contained a number of articles that might be beneficial in understanding CRM technologies. Likewise, both journals contained theoretical articles on technology acceptance that did not focus on CRM specifically. It was beyond the scope of this paper to elaborate on the usefulness of such articles for CRM technology acceptance, but they appear to be useful for exploring the conceptual distinctiveness of CRM technologies from other information technologies. Likewise, the inclusion of other e-commerce journals may have revealed additional articles with relevance to sales management, but the initial computerized search failed to identify any prominent e-commerce journals with a substantial number of articles with a CRM focus.
CONCLUSION
This paper is the first comprehensive and systematic review of the CRM literature as it pertains to sales. (2) A total of 38 articles on CRM or related processes or technologies were ultimately included. Each was determined to have direct relevance to sales. Contributions derived from the extant literature, toward both theory and practice, were noted. The meager number of published works along with the practicality of the topic suggests that additional CRM research would be opportune and beneficial. It is hoped that this systematic review proves useful in furthering those inquiries.
APPENDIX
Literature Review
Changing Nature of Channel Functioning and Interfirm Relationships
Area of
Investigation/
Title of Study Authors Study Purpose
"Understanding B2B and Berthon et al. To conceptualize
the Web: The Acceleration (2003, p. 553); business-to-business
of Coordination and IMM (13213) marketing in
Motivation" an online context.
"Industrial Distributors: Mudambi and To conceptualize why
Can They Survive in the Aggarwal the distributor has
New Economy?" (2003, p. 317); not disappeared in
IMM the Internet age.
"How Is Information Leek, Turnbull, To determine how
Technology Affecting and Naude information
Business Relationships? (2003, p. 119); technology (IT)
The Results from a UK IMM affects supplier-
Survey" buyer relationships.
Survey started with a
semi structured
qualitative analysis
followed by a mailed
questionnaire
with 107 responses.
"From Consumer Response Stewart and To conceptualize a
to Active Consumer: Pavlou new way to measure
Measuring the (2002, p.376); profitability of
Effectiveness of JAMS interactive media.
Interactive Media"
"Employing Information Stump and To study whether even
Technology in Purchasing: Sriram nonspecific IT
Buyer-Supplier (1997, p. 127); investments will
Relationships and Size of IMM enhance exchange
the Supplier Base" relationships. A
sample size of 277
purchasing
professionals was
drawn from the
National Association
of Purchasing
Management.
Changing Nature of the Sales Role
"Creating a Partnership- Jones, Chonko, To theorize about the
Oriented, Knowledge and Roberts sales force role in
Creation Culture in (2003, p. 336); organizational
Strategic Sales JBIM learning.
Alliances: A Conceptual
Framework"
"Infusing Technology into Widmier, Jackson, To study the use of
Personal Selling" and McCabe technology in sales.
(2002, p. 189); Mailed questionnaires
JPSSM to 1,500 subscribers
to sales marketing
and management; 187
were returned.
"The Information Samli, Wills, To conceptualize the
Superhighway Goes and Herbig opportunities for
International: (1997, p.51); marketing provided by
Implications for IMM the Internet.
Industrial Sales
Transactions"
"Personal Selling and Anderson To conceptualize the
Sales Management in the (1996, p. 17); changes that are
New Millennium" JPSSM occurring in sales
jobs.
"The Impact of Electronic Hill and Swenson To analyze the
Data Interchange on the (1994, p.79); changing role of
Sales Function" JPSSM salespeople with EDI
using case studies.
Strategic Processes for CRM
"Creating Customer Campbell To understand the
Knowledge Competence: (2003, p.375); internal firm process
Managing Customer IMM necessary to create
Relationship Management customer knowledge
Programs Strategically" competence. Sample
was drawn from five
financial firms using
CRM. In-depth
interviews were
conducted with
multiple managers.
"Using Online Databases Wilson To identify and
for Developing (2003, p.388); explore how to use
Prioritized Sales Leads" JBIM data to create
successful sales
leads. A case study
was used to develop
the procedures for
creating successful
sales leads. The
studied firm out a
survey to try and
find potential sales
leads.
"Selling in the New Ingram, LaForge, To explore current
Millennium: A Joint and Leigh literature on sales
Agenda" (2002,p.559); strategy, leadership,
IMM and technology and
then conceptualize
an "agenda" of items
to be explored in
future research.
"Research Priorities in Leigh and To identify a set of
Sales Strategy and Marshall research issues to be
Performance" (2001, p. 83); explored relevant to
JPSSM the change to
relationship
marketing.
"Customer Relationship Abbott, Stone, To understand the
Management in Practice-- and Buttle content and
A Qualitative Study" (2001, p.24); deployment of
JDM marketing databases
within companies.
Two-stage research
design: (1) e-mails
were sent to 40
employees and
and followed up with
17 phone interviews;
and (2) three case
studies of companies
using CRM.
"Emerging Technologies Mirani, Moore, To conceptualize the
for Enhancing and Weber relationship between
Supplier-Reseller (2001, p. 101); partner relationship
Partnerships" IMM technology, which
treats resellers as
"virtual extensions
of the internal sales
teams," and CRM
technology.
"A Framework for Shoemaker To conceptualize how
Examining IT-Enabled (2001, p. 177); specific
Market Relationships" JPSSM technological systems
affect developing a
relationship
orientation.
"The Impact of Internet Avlonitis and To explore the
Use on Business-to- Karayanni relationship between
Business Marketing: (2000, p. 441); the Internet and
Examples from American IMM sales management/
and European Companies" product/management
activities. The
sample was drawn from
the Yahoo business
directory with a
sample size of 134.
The questionnaire was
administered via the
Internet.
"Marketing Actions and Berger et al. To create a framework
the Value of Customer (2002, p. 39); for managing
Assets: A Framework for JSR customers as an
Customer Asset asset.
Management"
Managing Market Day To conceptualize how
Relationships" (2000, p. 24); to develop a
JAMS relationship
orientation. Uses
Canadian Pacific
Hotels and United
Services Automobile
Association (USAA)
as case studies.
"The Acquisition and Use Rivers and Dart To determine the
of Sales Force Automation (1999, p. 59); factors that lead to
by Mid-Sized JPSSM successful adoption
Manufacturers" and use of SFA.
Questionnaires were
mailed to a sample of
mid-sized
manufacturers from a
government
database-210
respondents.
"Adoption of a Service Frambach et al. To test supply-side
Innovation in the (1998, p. 161); supplier of the
Business Market: An JBR innovation) variables
Empirical Test of the in an adoption model.
Supply-Side Variables" Sample consists of
247 respondents drawn
from NIPO Business
Monitor Web using a
questionnaire.
Salesperson Adoption of CRM Technology
"Factors Leading to Sales Jones, Sundaram, To look at intended
Force Automation Use: and Chin use versus actual use
A Longitudinal Analysis" (2002, p. 145); and SFA infusion into
JPSSM work processes. Chose
one large U.S.-based
insurance company and
surveyed autonomous
sales agents. Data
were collected from
subjects before SFA
implementation and
again six months
after.
"Salesforce Automation Pullig, Maxham, To test
Systems: An Exploratory and Hair organizational
Examination of (2002, p. 401); factors that would be
Organizational Factors JBR more likely to lead
Associated with to successful SFA
Effective Implementation implementation.
and Salesforce Sampled 23 sales
Productivity" managers with both
open-ended questions
and quantitative
questions.
"The Hidden Minefields Speier and To use the general
in the Adoption of Sales Venkatesh theory regarding user
Force Automation (2002, p. 98); acceptance of
Technologies" JM technology and
identity theory to
analyze SFA failure.
Sampled salespeople
from two firms that
had SFA failure: firm
1 had 277
respondents; firm 2
had 177 respondents.
"An Exploratory Study Erffmeyer and To study design and
of Sales Force Automation Johnson implementation of
Practices: Expectations (2001, p. 167); SFA. Personal
and Realities" JPSSM interviews with
open-ended
questionnaire; sample
size of 43 sales
managers.
"Technology and the Sales Morgan and To understand sales
Force: Increasing Inks force acceptance of
Acceptance of Sales Force (2001, p. 463); SFA. Sampled sales
Automation" IMM force at an insurance
underwriter firm and
received 132 complete
surveys.
"Sales Force Automation Engle and To identify the
Usage, Effectiveness, and Barnes specific tasks or
Cost-Benefit in Germany, (2000, p. 216); activities that
England and the United JBIM salespeople use IT
States" for and which
activities might be
linked to individual
performance. Surveys
were mailed to a
sample of sales
representative from
one company operating
in the United States,
Germany, and England.
Customer Adoption of CRM Technology (Business-to-Consumer)
"The Influence of Meuter et al. To see factors that
Technology Anxiety on (2003, p. 899); affect customer
Consumer Use and JBR adoption of SST Data
Experiences with were collected from
Self-Service Technology" two samples: (1) from
respondents at an
airport and (2) from
a Web-based survey. A
total of 823 surveys
were returned.
"A New Wave in Creating Torcy To conceptualize the
Customer Satisfaction" (2002, p. 366); effects of CRM
JDM technology on
customer
satisfaction.
"Customer Efficiency: Xue and Harker To study customer
Concept and Its Impact (2002, p. 253); efficiency and its
on E-Business Management" JSR potential effect on
e-business. Data were
assembled from an
electronic database
with a sample of
4,836
"Self-Service Meuter et al. To study customer
Technologies: (2000, p. 50); satisfaction and use
Understanding Customer JM of SST Questionnaire
Satisfaction with based on critical
Technology-Based Service incident technique.
Encounters" Internet survey with
sample size of 823.
"The Antecedents and Sheth, Sisodia, To conceptualize the
Consequences of and Sharma antecedents, results,
Customer-Centric (2000, p. 55); and conditions of
Marketing" JAMS customer-centric
marketing.
"Do You See What I See? Burke To conceptualize the
The Future of Virtual (1997, p. 24); future of Internet
Shopping" JAMS channels on marketing
communication, sales,
and logistics.
"Buyer-Seller Deeter-Schmelz To investigate the
Relationships and and Kennedy buyer's perceptions
Information Sources in an (2004, p. 188); of usefulness of both
E-Commerce World" JBIM traditional and
high-technology
communication tools
in buyer-seller
relationships. The
survey was mailed to
members of a national
purchasing
organization. There
were 138
questionnaires
returned, for a
response rate of 14
percent.
"Descriptive and Kennedy and To examine
Predictive Analyses of Deeter-Schmelz professional buyers'
Industrial Buyers' Use of (2001, p. 279); needs, experiences,
Online Information for JPSSM and expectations for
Purchasing" online purchasing.
Began with five
semistructured
interviews and then
mailed questionnaires
to members of
National Association
of Purchasing
Management; received
232 responses.
"Building Customer Bauer, Grether, To analyze managing
Relations Over the and Leach relationships using
Internet" (2002, p. 155); the Internet. Sample
IMM was sent to CEOs
listed on stock
exchange; received 94
responses.
"E-Purchasing: Profiles Min and To identify variables
of Adopters and Galle that influence
Nonadopters" (2003, p. 227); adoption of
IMM e-commerce. Mailed
questionnaire to a
sample from National
Association of
Purchasing Management
members; received 656
responses.
Area of
Investigation/ Study Variables
Title of Study Type Studies
"Understanding B2B and Conceptual
the Web: The Acceleration
of Coordination and
Motivation"
"Industrial Distributors: Conceptual
Can They Survive in the
New Economy?"
"How Is Information Empirical Current and future perceived
Technology Affecting usefulness, current and
Business Relationships? future usage attitudes
The Results from a UK toward IT
Survey"
"From Consumer Response Conceptual
to Active Consumer:
Measuring the
Effectiveness of
Interactive Media"
"Employing Information Empirical Purchasing applications
Technology in Purchasing: and support, vendor
Buyer-Supplier communications, IT
Relationships and Size of investments, percent of
the Supplier Base" transactions using IT size
of supplier base, closeness
of buyer-seller
relationship, quality
emphasis.
Changing Nature of the Sales Role
"Creating a Partnership- Conceptual
Oriented, Knowledge
Creation Culture in
Strategic Sales
Alliances: A Conceptual
Framework"
"Infusing Technology into Empirical Organizing, presenting,
Personal Selling" reporting, informing,
supporting and process
transactions, communicating.
"The Information Conceptual
Superhighway Goes
International:
Implications for
Industrial Sales
Transactions"
"Personal Selling and Conceptual
Sales Management in the
New Millennium"
"The Impact of Electronic Conceptual
Data Interchange on the
Sales Function"
Strategic Processes for CRM
"Creating Customer Conceptual
Knowledge Competence:
Managing Customer
Relationship Management
Programs Strategically"
"Using Online Databases Conceptual
for Developing
Prioritized Sales Leads"
"Selling in the New Conceptual
Millennium: A Joint
Agenda"
"Research Priorities in Conceptual
Sales Strategy and
Performance"
"Customer Relationship Conceptual Access, data accuracy, and
Management in Practice-- how database was populated.
A Qualitative Study"
"Emerging Technologies Conceptual
for Enhancing
Supplier-Reseller
Partnerships"
"A Framework for Conceptual
Examining IT-Enabled
Market Relationships"
"The Impact of Internet Empirical Use of Internet tools,
Use on Business-to- product management
Business Marketing: activities, sales management
Examples from American activities, sales
and European Companies" performance, and sales
efficiency.
"Marketing Actions and Conceptual
the Value of Customer
Assets: A Framework for
Customer Asset
Management"
"Managing Market Conceptual
Relationships"
"The Acquisition and Use Empirical Acquisition and benefits
of Sales Force Automation of SFA.
by Mid-Sized
Manufacturers"
"Adoption of a Service Empirical Perceived innovation
Innovation in the characteristics, adopter
Business Market: An characteristics, network
Empirical Test of the participation, competitive
Supply-Side Variables" environment information,
innovation development, and
marketing strategy.
Salesperson Adoption of CRM Technology
"Factors Leading to Sales Empirical Behavioral intentions,
Force Automation Use: attitude and subjective
A Longitudinal Analysis" norms, intention to adopt
and infusion.
"Salesforce Automation Empirical Climate factors, shared
Systems: An Exploratory values, and SFA categories.
Examination of
Organizational Factors
Associated with
Effective Implementation
and Salesforce
Productivity"
"The Hidden Minefields Empirical Actual system usage, sales
in the Adoption of Sales performance, absenteeism,
Force Automation and voluntary turnover.
Technologies"
"An Exploratory Study Empirical Organizational
of Sales Force Automation characteristics, goals and
Practices: Expectations expectations, implementation
and Realities" issues, and outcomes.
"Technology and the Sales Empirical Accurate expectations, user
Force: Increasing influence, training,
Acceptance of Sales Force commitment from management,
Automation" and acceptance of SFA.
"Sales Force Automation Empirical SFA usage, country
Usage, Effectiveness, and differences, sales
Cost-Benefit in Germany, performance.
England and the United
States"
Customer Adoption of CRM Technology (Business-to-Consumer)
"The Influence of Empirical Technology anxiety,
Technology Anxiety on demographics, SST usage,
Consumer Use and overall SST experience.
Experiences with
Self-Service Technology"
"A New Wave in Creating Conceptual
Customer Satisfaction"
"Customer Efficiency: Empirical Consumer transactional
Concept and Its Impact efficiency, demographics.
on E-Business Management"
"Self-Service Empirical Level of self-service
Technologies: technology use and
Understanding Customer satisfaction of use.
Satisfaction with
Technology-Based Service
Encounters"
"The Antecedents and Conceptual
Consequences of
Customer-Centric
Marketing"
"Do You See What I See? Conceptual
The Future of Virtual
Shopping"
"Buyer-Seller Empirical Relationship type,
Relationships and usefulness of information
Information Sources in an sources, and importance of
E-Commerce World" information sources.
"Descriptive and Empirical Manner if Internet use,
Predictive Analyses of benefits of use, demographic
Industrial Buyers' Use of and organizational
Online Information for characteristics affecting
Purchasing" use.
"Building Customer Empirical Satisfaction, commitment,
Relations Over the trust, constant
Internet" availability, efficient
transfer of information,
interactivity, integration
of transaction, and
individuality.
"E-Purchasing: Profiles Empirical Size of purchasing units,
of Adopters and industry sector, and
Nonadopters" application of e-commerce.
Area of
Investigation/
Title of Study Key Findings
"Understanding B2B and While it is possible to disintermediate a
the Web: The Acceleration channel member using the Internet, the
of Coordination and member's function does not disappear. The
Motivation" main issue facing use of the Internet is
coordination or control of economic
activities. Sales managers should attempt
to select the mode of interaction that
tends to favor relational interactions
over transactional interactions.
"Industrial Distributors: Distributors are a key part of CRM because
Can They Survive in the of their customer focus. They are also key
New Economy?" to effective production and operation
management, and knowledge management,
because manufacturers must focus on their
core business.
"How Is Information In this study, empirical evidence showed
Technology Affecting that suppliers were more computer literate
Business Relationships? than buyers, and perceived technology to
The Results from a UK be more useful. However, buyers were using
Survey" the Internet to gather information on
suppliers. Interpersonal contact is
critical to maintaining relationships.
"From Consumer Response Interactive media changes the roles of
to Active Consumer: members within the value chain rather than
Measuring the disintermediating members. Interactivity
Effectiveness of is not by itself of value to the consumer
Interactive Media" or marketers. Interactivity must serve the
needs of the actors involved.
"Employing Information In contrast to traditional transaction
Technology in Purchasing: cost theory, this study supports
Buyer-Supplier empirically that even IT investments that
Relationships and Size of are sharable or quasi-public can
the Supplier Base" strengthen exchange relationships. Sales
managers should implement the proper IT
investment even if it is sharable or
quasi-public.
Changing Nature of the Sales Role
"Creating a Partnership-- The sales force should not be overlooked
Oriented, Knowledge in organizational learning, because the
Creation Culture in sales force is a key source and user of
Strategic Sales information. Salespeople should be willing
Alliances: A Conceptual to drop old ideas if new ideas have the
Framework" potential for growth or new opportunities.
"Infusing Technology into Salespeople and managers know what data to
Personal Selling" collect, how to collect the data, and how
to analyze the data in their daily
activities. Salespeople were surveyed to
determine the actual use of sales
technology. The firm initiates most
technology, and most technology is used in
the office, implying that potential
opportunities for application in the field
are often missed.
"The Information
Superhighway Goes The role of salespeople will change;
International: they will no longer be the sole conduit of
Implications for information into a firm. They will
Industrial Sales increasingly need to focus on skills
Transactions" dealing with interpersonal relationships
and persuasion to qualify leads and close
deals rather than on skills dealing with
providing information.
"Personal Selling and The sales force is increasingly focusing
Sales Management in the on long-term relationships and technology
New Millennium" and is changing the way salespeople work.
Sales managers need to adapt to the new
technical selling environment in order to
be able to survive. Sales organizations
will become flatter, and sales managers
will have to have broader experience and
more training.
"The Impact of Electronic EDI frees salespeople from order
Data Interchange on the processing, allowing them to provide
Sales Function" increased customer service. Sales managers
will have to reengineer information flows
because the sales force is no longer the
sole conduit for information. Because EDI
requires a minimum technical competency,
sales managers must include some
technological training.
Strategic Processes for CRM
"Creating Customer Managers are currently devoting more
Knowledge Competence: attention to generating customer knowledge
Managing Customer than to disseminating it. Adequate
Relationship Management customer information processes, marketing
Programs Strategically" IT interfaces, senior management
involvement, and employee reward and
evaluation systems are necessary but
insufficient conditions to build a
customer knowledge competency.
"Using Online Databases A marketing information system to hold and
for Developing use the sales leads needs to be developed
Prioritized Sales Leads" for decision making. Supplemental market
research should be conducted to provide
more information, such as the market size
for products, geographic location, and
information on market segmentation. All of
the acquired information should be used to
create sales tactics and monitor sales
outcomes.
"Selling in the New Future research needs to focus on the 15
Millennium: A Joint research topics that were identified so
Agenda" that research can keep up with sales
trends. Sales force and organizational
success in the future will depend on (1)
developing effective sales strategies, (2)
providing sales force leadership, and (3)
using technology productively.
"Research Priorities in The sales function is rapidly changing.
Sales Strategy and Academic research in the past focused on
Performance" SFA, ignoring the bigger picture of CRM.
increasingly on (I) establishing a
customer-centric culture; (2) market
segmentation; (3) market adaptability; (4)
IT; (5) sales, service, and technical
support systems; (6) customer feedback and
satisfaction; and (7) selecting and
developing sales personnel.
"Customer Relationship Databases are critical to CRM and
Management in Practice-- marketing. Customer service and sales
A Qualitative Study" departments are primarily responsible for
changes in the data.
"Emerging Technologies PRM can be a stand-alone technology but
for Enhancing will likely be integrated with CRM and may
Supplier-Reseller eventually be consolidated into an
Partnerships" all-encompassing "e-business solution"
technology.
"A Framework for Many types of sales technology are
Examining IT-Enabled required to be competitive and they can be
Market Relationships" a key strategic resource. IT tools have
evolved to enable market-relating
capabilities.
"The Impact of Internet Although there is no empirical support for
Use on Business-to- a direct effect for the use of Internet
Business Marketing: tools to increase sales performance, there
Examples from American is support that the Internet assists firms
and European Companies" in becoming market-oriented, raising sales
performance indirectly.The Internet has
also made sales management activities
easier-allowing for greater selling time.
"Marketing Actions and There are four actions that firms must
the Value of Customer take to understand how marketing
Assets: A Framework for activities affect customer assets: (1)
Customer Asset create a customer database, (2) segment
Management" customers, (3) forecast CLV, and (4)
allocate resources to maximize value of
customers. Marketing managers should try
to manage customers by making profitable
investments in value-producing areas. They
need to refine key metrics for valuing
customers and invest in adequate
technology.
Managing Market Effective relationship management
Relationships" facilitated by effective IT can become a
capability. The entire organization must
support relationship management and must
have a system for learning how to improve.
"The Acquisition and Use It is difficult to predict firm
of Sales Force Automation acquisition of SFA and returns on SFA, but
by Mid-Sized this study provides empirical evidence
Manufacturers" that firms which alter processes at the
same time as adding SFA generally were
more successful than those that did not.
Managers should carefully analyze
processes when implementing a new SFA.
"Adoption of a Service Empirical support is provided showing that
Innovation in the the probability of successful adoption
Business Market: An increases if the supplier of the
Empirical Test of the innovation adequately shows the properties
Supply-Side Variables" of the new innovation or reduces the
adopter's risk by offering incentives.
Managers should carefully plan and
position new innovations.
Salesperson Adoption of CRM Technology
"Factors Leading to Sales Empirical support shows that intention to
Force Automation Use: use SFA and actual use of SFA may not be
A Longitudinal Analysis" the same. Sales managers should know that
information dissemination is critical to
successful implementation.
"Salesforce Automation Sales managers cited that the most
Systems: An Exploratory important climate factor was training and
Examination of the most important shared value was
Organizational Factors customer orientation. Sales managers said
Associated with that SFA needed to help in prospecting,
Effective Implementation account development (servicing), and the
and Salesforce creation of buyer profiles.
Productivity"
"The Hidden Minefields Empirically supported with a longitudinal
in the Adoption of Sales study that salespeople perceived SFA
Force Automation favorably immediately after training; but
Technologies" six months after implementation,
salespeople perceived that the tools had a
negative effect on performance or
disrupted the sales process.
"An Exploratory Study The study shows that investment in SFA was
of Sales Force Automation significant. Eighty percent of respondents
Practices: Expectations were somewhat to very satisfied, but many
and Realities" indicated that better planning and
training were needed, and they should have
used a team approach when implementing
SFA.
"Technology and the Sales Supported empirically that successful SFA
Force: Increasing implementation requires that the sales
Acceptance of Sales Force force must perceive SFA training to be
Automation" more beneficial than time spent selling,
the sales force must feel that they
influence the SFA design, and the
expectations of the sales force must be
met.
"Sales Force Automation SFA contributes to higher sales
Usage, Effectiveness, and performance overall. However, SFA needs to
Cost-Benefit in Germany, be accompanied by process changes and
England and the United training. Different countries are using
States" SFA in different ways.
Customer Adoption of CRM Technology (Business-to-Consumer)
"The Influence of This study provides empirical evidence
Technology Anxiety on showing that technology anxiety is a more
Consumer Use and important determinant of customer SST
Experiences with adoption than demographics. Sales managers
Self-Service Technology" must take measures to address technology
anxiety among SST users.
"A New Wave in Creating Sales managers must personalize CRM
Customer Satisfaction" technology to the individual customer as
much as possible to increase customer
satisfaction.
"Customer Efficiency: It may be possible to identify potentially
Concept and Its Impact efficient customer groups to focus on. The
on E-Business Management" design of the Web site is critical. There
may be long-term advantages to focusing on
customer efficiency through increased
customer loyalty.
"Self-Service Source of (dis) satisfaction from SST is
Technologies: different from interpersonal encounters.
Understanding Customer Respondents noted that failure of SST is
Satisfaction with the primary source of dissatisfaction. SST
Technology-Based Service failures were blamed on technology and
Encounters" process failure.
"The Antecedents and Marketing will eventually move closer to
Consequences of customer-centric marketing.
Customer-Centric Customer-centric marketing should provide
Marketing" greater customer loyalty and efficiency
without necessarily spending more on
marketing efforts.
"Do You See What I See? The Internet will continue to grow as a
The Future of Virtual marketing tool, allowing retailers to
Shopping" adjust marketing and sales in real time to
meet customer needs. Customer Adoption of
CRM
"Buyer-Seller Sales organizations seeking to implement
Relationships and the Internet in buying situations would
Information Sources in an benefit from trying to understand and
E-Commerce World" alleviate sales force fears of
disintermediation. Buyers still value the
traditional information sources of
salespeople and buying center members.
Even in basic buying and contractual
relationships, traditional sources were
still considered valuable.
"Descriptive and Buyers view the Internet more as an
Predictive Analyses of information-gathering tool than as a
Industrial Buyers' Use of purchasing tool. There is empirical
Online Information for support showing that organizational
Purchasing" characteristics are more important for
online purchasing than demographic
characteristics of the buyers and that
most online purchasing consists of routine
reorders and simple purchases. Salespeople
are still essential in the buying process.
"Building Customer There is empirical support for an
Relations Over the interaction between commitment,
Internet" satisfaction, and trust. On the Internet,
those factors require constant
availability of information, efficient
information transfer, interactivity, and
individualization. Ability to purchase
negatively relates to satisfaction.
"E-Purchasing: Profiles The firm implementing e-commerce must
of Adopters and assist partners to gain full benefits of
Nonadopters" the technology; e-commerce works better in
some industries than in others, and no
single form of e-commerce dominates. There
is empirical support that e-purchasing
works better in information-intensive
industries, managerial support leads to
more successful implementation, and
concern over cost and security inhibits
successful implementation.
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