TQM for Sales and Marketing Management

by James W. Cortada

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0070237522
• ISBN13: 9780070237520
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 232 Pages
• Weight: 1.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Marketing and Sales Revolution

Business is revolutionizing its approach to quality and, in return, is being rebolutionized.Corporations, faced with cutthroat gloabal competition and shorter product life cycles, have been quick to embrace Total Quality Management (TQM) principles in their manufacturing processes. James W. Cortada argues in this well-written and easily understood book the coporation's customer focal points, sales and marketing departments, must play a lead role if the effort is to be successful.Assuming the reader neither wants, nor needs, a primer on salesmanship or basic customer-oriented marketing, Cortada dispenses practical, realistic and sage advice for the executive attempting to implement a quality strategy within his marketing and sales departments.If thre is a loud message in the book, it is change must begin immediately. The customers demand it and are willing to pay a premium for it. Balancing TQM marketing theory and tactical advice while avoiding long strings of war stories, the author guides the reader through and around many of the pitfalls leading to increased customer loyalty and repeat business -- the twin goals of any marketing organization.Cortada suggests the quality journey begins by using the twin beacons of customer satisfaction and cycle-time reduction to look at four elements of the practitioner's sales and marketing effort -- measurements, organization, compensation and education. Although inwardly directed, they provide an opportunity to shake-down his or her quality drive before tackling the more difficult external issues.No matter how well conceived, the author warns, the drive will be resisted. Initially, the measurements are a step to alter the behavior of your organization, he says, and will be replaced with others tied to the tactical concerns of customers. Organizational and compensation changes are required to realign resources with the new vision. Education lubricates these wheels of change.Cortada suggest forming councils of customers and peers to trade experiences and to benchmark progress. Their support, he suggests, is vital during early stages when most employees have doubts and are insecure about what does not initially resemble old-fashioned salesmanship."They...," concludes Cortada, "provide sales management with a wonderful reaffirmation of what we have always known: that the customer is king and the king wants quality."