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2 “Who Owns Your Customer?”

3 Instructor Bio John Poteet Louisiana’s First Choice Auto Auction E: P: 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, Manheim Auctions, 1991 – 1994 Controller, Big H Auto Auction, Assistant General Manager, Big H Auto Auction, 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 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), – 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.

4 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

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.Customers of auto auctions desire a strong relationship with a salesperson that can act as their advocate and take care of their needs. 2.Salespeople in the auto auction industry have significant control of their customer relationships. 3.Salespeople receive relatively little formal training in their jobs. 4.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. 5.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. 6.Sales managers are often stretched thin with other operational duties, which result in less supervision of salespeople.

Implications for Action 1.Auction management should develop methods of communicating and collaborating with the sales force. 2.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. 3.Training programs should be initiated and utilized on a continuing basis to ensure that salespeople are following company guidelines while developing customer relationships. 4.Sales managers should allocate more time to sales force management, particularly with customer visits, to assess the quality of the customer relationship. 5.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.