1
“Who Owns Your Customer?”
2
Instructor Bio
Professional
General Electric, 1980 – 1991
Cost Analyst, Space Systems Division, 1980 – 1983
Corporate Auditor, Corporate Finance Staff, 1983 – 1985
Senior Financial Analyst, Audit and Acquisitions, 1985 – 1986
Manager - Financial Planning and Analysis, Power Funding Corporation, 1986 – 1989
Manager – Finance and Office Operations, Newburgh Auto Auction, 1989 - 1991
Manheim Auctions, 1991 – 1994
Controller, Big H Auto Auction, 1991 -1992
Assistant General Manager, Big H Auto Auction, 1992 -1994
The Greater Group of Auctions, 1994 – 1996
General Manager, Greater New Orleans Auto Auction, 1994 – 1996
Manheim Auctions, 1996 – 1999
General Manager, Manheim New Orleans, 1996 – 1999
First Choice Auto Auctions, 1999 – Present
Vice President and General Manager, 1999 – 2002
CEO and Managing Partner, 2002 – Present
Southeastern Louisiana University – College of Business, 2012 – Present
Adjunct Professor, Management
John Poteet
Louisiana’s First Choice Auto Auction
E: jpoteet@auctionacademy.net
P: 985-345-3302
Education
BSBA – Finance, 1979, University of Alabama at Huntsville
MBA – 1997, A. B. Freeman School of Business, Tulane University
PhD – Organization and Management, 2011, Capella University
Other Professional Activities
Louisiana Used Motor Vehicle Commission, 2009 – Present
Past President, National Auto Auction Southern Chapter
Past President, Texas Wholesale Auto Auction Association
President, Options (A non-profit engaged in helping people with disabilities), 20010 – Present
Personal
Married to Georgianne Poteet for 34 years. Two sons, Andrew 33, and Alex, 27.
Enjoy golf, reading, traveling to new places and we are avid fans of the Southeastern Louisiana University Lions, Houston Astros and New Orleans Saints.
3
Strategic Management of Customer Relationships
THE ROLE OF THE SALES FORCE IN
IMPLEMENTING STRATEGY AND DEVELOPING
AND MANAGING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS: A
GROUNDED THEORY STUDY OF SALES
PROFESSIONALS IN THE WHOLESALE AUTO
AUCTION INDUSTRY
By
John Poteet, PhD, Organization and Management
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Strategic Management of Customer Relationships
Who Owns your Customer?
By
John Poteet, Auction Executive
Six Research Questions
• How do sales professionals develop and maintain customer relationships?
• How do companies protect an established customer relationship if a sales
professional leaves the company, especially if the sales professional joins a
competitor?
• How does marketing strategy get communicated to the sales force?
• How does the company ensure that the sales force is implementing its
strategy and customers are loyal to the company as well as their specific
sales professional?
• How does the company prevent turnover of sales professionals?
• What follow up measures do companies employ to assess sales
professionals’ customer relationships?
Concept 1 – Developing customer relationships.
Theme 1 – Salespeople recognized
that
customers desire a strong
relationship
with salespeople.
Theme 2 – Trust is paramount in the
salesperson-customer
relationship.
Concept 2 – Maintaining customer relationships.
Theme 1 – The salesperson is the
ongoing
advocate for the customer in
dealing with
the auction.
Theme 2 – Salespeople need to be in
the
customer’s place of business
frequently.
Concept 3 – Management contact with
customers.
Theme 1 – It is important for
management
to contact and develop
relationships with
customers
concurrent with salespeople.
Theme 2 – It is critical for
management to
follow up with
customers after receiving
salesperson input regarding customers.
Concept 4 – Management interaction with
salespeople.
Theme 1 – Most communication
between
management and it’s
sales force is
informal
although written reports are
usually required.
Concept 5 – Strategy flow within the organization.
Theme 1 – Most strategic initiatives
and
planning flowed from
the executive level of
the
organization.
Theme 2 – Executive and sales
management
depend on the sales force
to feed data from
customers to the
company.
Theme 3 – Managers and salespeople
perceive that most
communication is
informal.
Concept 6 – Implementation of company strategy by
the sales force.
Theme 1 – Trust is the most important
important trait for salespeople in
developing customer
relationships.
Theme 2 – Strategy implementation
was
more likely to occur if the
salesperson
perceived that
management was listening
to his or her
suggestions and input
regarding customer relationships.
Concept 7 – Management relationship with
salespeople.
Theme 1 – Many sales managers
indicated
that they felt that it was
important to
supply leadership to
their salespeople
and act as a
mentor to them as much as
possible.
Theme 2 – Salespeople usually felt that
they were on their own and sales
managers had many
other non-sales
responsibilities that often kept them
away from the sales force .
Concept 8 – Management and salesperson
perceptions.
Theme 1 – Salespeople and sales
managers
believed that trust,
rapport, and empathy
needed to be
mutual with management to
ensure
good relationships.
Theme 2 – Salespeople did not believe that
management fully recognized the
competitive environment in the field
or that more salespeople deployed would
very
likely result in increased business.
Concept 9 – Salespeople are self-motivated.
Theme 1 – Salespeople believed that
they
are self-motivated and felt a
strong sense
of autonomy in their jobs.
Concept 10 – Measurement of sales force
effectiveness and customer relationship
development.
Theme 1 – All of the companies in
the
study had some type of
measurement for
salespeople based
on sales of vehicles.
Theme 2 – There was little formal
training
of the sales force.
Summary of Major Findings
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Customers of auto auctions desire a strong relationship with a
salesperson that can act as their advocate and take care of their
needs.
Salespeople in the auto auction industry have significant control
of their customer relationships.
Salespeople receive relatively little formal training in their jobs.
Salespeople believe that they don’t need much supervision and
are self-motivated as well as self-reliant. In addition, they have
considerable autonomy in their daily activities.
Although strategic decisions flow down from upper
management, salespeople generally give much needed input
regarding strategic initiatives. However, salespeople often feel
that management doesn’t recognize some of the difficulties
that salespeople face when dealing with customers.
Sales managers are often stretched thin with other operational
duties, which result in less supervision of salespeople.
Implications for Action
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Auction management should develop methods of communicating
and collaborating with the sales force.
Management should initiate as much contact as possible with
customers to engender brand loyalty and help mitigate the
potential loss of customers if salespeople leave the company.
Training programs should be initiated and utilized on a continuing
basis to ensure that salespeople are following company guidelines
while developing customer relationships.
Sales managers should allocate more time to sales force
management, particularly with customer visits, to assess the
quality of the customer relationship.
Management should design measurements of the sales force that
include some form of customer relationship assessment.
Summary… or, “So What?”
• The findings of the study have some clear
implications for auction management.
Auctions are B2B businesses that often
depend on strong customer relationships. In
many cases those relationships are developed,
nurtured, and controlled by the sales force.
Since auctions operate in a highly competitive
environment with a limited population of
customers, customer loyalty is imperative for
continued financial success.