Evolution of strategic sales organizations in business-to-business marketing

Purpose - This paper aims to focus on changes in the way in which business-to-business companies are responding to customer and market pressures for higher service and relational investments, and the need for new capabilities in managing the business risk in the company's customer portfolio The paper seeks to propose a model of the strategic sales organization as a basis for management review of how to realign sales, account management, and marketing processes around customers to achieve and sustain superior customer value. Design/methodology/approach - The study traces the emergence of new pressures and mandates which are changing management thinking about the "front-end" of organizations and edging companies towards a revolution in the role of sales, account management and marketing comparable to earlier reinventions in operations and supply chain strategy. Findings - The outcome of the review is a model of the imperatives for the strategic sales organization Practical implications The model produced in the review provides a tool or framework for executive consideration of the strategic sales issue, both in evaluating the strategic role and performance of the existing sales and account management structures and in designing new roles for delivering competitive strength in the future Originality/value - While the strategic role of the sales organization has been discussed in the literature, this paper provides a practical framework for executives to use in addressing the potential role of the strategic sales organization The framework also highlights promising research directions for marketing and sales scholar