Sales and Marketing the Six Sigma Way

Book excerpt: Quality management. Process mapping. Speed to production. In the past 50 years, a rigorous, measurement-based methodology called Six Sigma has brought production management to previously unimaginable levels of success and sophistication. Top corporations such as Motorola and GE have built their reputations, products, and revenues using this approach. Indeed, Six Sigma has found widespread application in every significant industry and business-except marketing and sales. In Sales and Marketing the Six Sigma Way, sales and quality guru Michael Webb shows how to blend marketing and sales efforts with the cutting-edge methods of Six Sigma to boost their bottom lines. With Webb's book as a guide, readers learn to engineer rapid routes to customer value, accurately predict future revenue, and ensure return on investment for their projects. In Sales and Marketing the Six Sigma Way, you will:* Find out why "the usual fixes" for sales problems don't work* Meet executives who have used Six Sigma to imrpove marketing and sales results* See the pitfalls that await the unwary when applying process improvement in sales* Learn how to introduce Six Sigma to sales and marketing professionals* Discover through examples and cases how to manage sales as a process Webb walks readers through several Six Sigma sales and marketing projects from start to finish, highlighting the tools, decisions, and results that made them successful. He shows the practical methods managers use to translate process improvement principles to the human world of selling and marketing. With his dual background in sales and marketing management and in quality improvement, Webb speaks clearly to readers in both disciplines. This makes Sales and Marketing the Six Sigma Way,the indispensible guide for sales and marketing professionals who want to excel in today's business environment, and for quality improvement experts who want to help them.