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The purpose of this paper is to examine how the cognitive appraisals, coping choices and behavioral responses by business-to-business (B2B) sales professionals confronting the acutely stressful experience of losing a customer, and their pursuit of justice in the win-back process, influences reacquisition outcomes. The paper further examines the role of sales experience as a moderator between coping choices and successful win back.

In all, 98 critical incidents were reported by sales professionals from B2B firms across various industries. NVivo 9, content analysis and logistic regression were used to analyze the data.

The results show that problem-focused coping (PFC) and pro-active responses positively affect win-back outcome. By contrast, emotion-focused coping (EFC) and re-active responses have a negative association with customer reacquisition. The findings also show that sales experience moderates the relationship between levels of EFC and win-back outcomes. Specifically, for sales professionals with low levels of EFC, sales experience helps improve chances of winning back lost customers. But for sales professionals using higher levels of EFC, more sales experience decreases win-back probability. Additionally, the findings show that procedural, interactional and distributive justice all contribute to successful customer reacquisition.

The few published studies of how B2B sales professionals deal with customer defections reveal a mixture of bereavement and drivenness in striving for new accounts. The authors’ focus and findings on the use of PFC and EFC strategies, justice mechanisms and the uneven role of experience in responding to this stressful context suggests that there is much to be gained from additional research. Specifically, probes into how sales professionals may be inadvertently skewed to EFC behaviors by either overly simplistic training systems, learning- versus performance-based incentives or their experience with prior customer defections.

The findings highlight the importance of PFC strategies and the delivery of procedural, interactional and distributive justice strategies to productively adapt to customer defections, activate switch back behavior and win back lost customers. Sales force training systems need to address the increased churning in B2B markets and integrate win-back procedures in sales training programs so that sales professionals do not default to EFC and/or strive for new accounts when facing the stress of customer defection.

The findings contribute to customer defection management and sales literature by integrating coping and justice theories in exploring sales professionals’ cognitive appraisals and coping responses to the acute stress of losing a current customer.

The purpose of this study is to develop a sales process framework to facilitate business-to-business (B2B) customer reacquisition. A comprehensive CRM process needs to include reacquisition strategies. Yet, very few firms have formal procedures to guide reacquisition efforts. This gap in the sales process reflects the relatively sparse literature on B2B customer reacquisition models. The present research intends to fill this gap and creates a sales process model to guide salespeople to regain B2B lost customers.

Using critical incident technique (CIT), this study conducted in-depth interviews with 54 B2B salespeople. Each salesperson reported one successful and one unsuccessful reacquisition incidents. A total of 108 critical incidents were collected for analysis.

A four-step sales process model to regain B2B customers was developed and empirically supported, including: Segment lost customers; Assess reasons for loss; Develop reacquisition activities; and Implement reacquisition strategies.

This study is qualitative and exploratory in nature; future research should develop dyadic surveys to validate the results.

This four-step reacquisition process allows sales firms to identify essential elements and establish protocols/policies to train and motivate salespeople. The framework can facilitate salespeople develop problem-focused solutions to correctly diagnose the situation and effectively re-negotiate with defected customers. Thus, this process may help reduce inefficiency in the reacquisition process and increase reacquisition ratios.

By considering justice/fairness from customer’s perspective, sales firm may properly recover lost business relationship, and do so in ways that are considered both just and ethical.

This is one of the first studies to examine the reacquisition of lost B2B customers. It expands on the traditional sales process to include four steps that enable a sales reacquisition process.

Looks at change and its various guises (TWM, BPR) and how it subsequently became an excuse for job losses, which led to cynicism and antipathy. States re‐engineering has had a particularly bad press and is a heavily tainted word bringing comments such as ‘the fad that forgot people!’ Concludes that re‐engineering has become synonymous with downsizing but needs time to win back confidence in companies.

This study seeks to extend the resource‐based view to the context of customer relationship management. It is intended to develop a measurement model of customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities, and to explore the key antecedents and performance consequences of CRM capabilities.

Questionnaire survey was used to collect data. In order to develop a reliable and valid measurement model of CRM capabilities, several rounds of questionnaire survey were conducted, and hypotheses were tested by utilizing the technique of structural equation modeling.

A three‐factor (customer interaction management capability, customer relationship upgrading capability and customer win‐back capability) measurement model of CRM capabilities is developed and tested. Furthermore, results support the hypothesized influences of customer orientation, customer‐centric organizational system and CRM technology on CRM capabilities, as well as the influence of CRM capabilities on organizational performance.

This study provides a useful measurement mode of CRM capabilities that managers can use to evaluate the status in quo of CRM capabilities of their firms. Managers may also improve their CRM programs more effectively and efficiently by deploying such strategic resources of firms as customer orientation, customer‐centric organizational system and CRM technology to build and strengthen their CRM capabilities.

The paper addresses significant gaps in the current literature by taking a capability view of CRM, developing a valid measurement model of CRM capabilities, and examining how possession of important CRM resources influences the effective deployment of CRM capabilities.

The purpose of the paper is to draw together the salient issues surrounding customer loyalty and customer relationship management (CRM) into a single coherent discussion. Various schools of academic thought are examined. The paper concludes with practical implications for managers.

The literature surrounding customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, effective CRM and managing loyalty in a profitable manner are all reviewed. The paper allows managers to consider a wide range of material in the context of their business.

The need for businesses to retain customers is an important issue in today's global marketplace. To retain customers, a business must forge loyal and long‐term relationships with profitable customers. Reasons why customers leave a company are discussed, and preventative strategies are considered. Loyalty schemes are considered and their relative merits examined.

A key implication of this paper is the need to focus attention on managing customer loyalty in a profitable manner. Certain theories hold the view that generating customer loyalty will automatically drive profits. This paper suggests that this is probably not the case. Given this, the paper calls for data analysis and database segmentation to be considered as an integral part of profitably managing customer loyalty.

The paper provides both a broad and in‐depth discussion of all the salient issues surrounding customer loyalty. By drawing together these issues into a single discussion, the paper offers a unique perspective that is not available in the current literature. Holistically considering all of the practical elements of customer loyalty allows academic researchers and marketing managers to compare and contrast different theories and principles.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the importance of systemizing managerial support to reduce the strain on human resource (HR) and maximize corporate contributions.

The author draws upon 20 years of experience in the fields of law and HR as well as data from 17 different publications.

Building a high-performing employer brand and workplace culture starts by better supporting managers as they navigate modern employee’s wants, needs and goals.

By systematizing how we train, engage and consistently aid managers as they navigate these new workplace expectations, companies reduce turnover, improve productivity and enhance happiness and well-being, and with these benefits, drive down HR time spent mitigating these daily hurdles. HR leaders can focus on broader and more meaningful corporate contributions with that time won back.

The litmus test for evaluating a true outsourcing offer as opposed to a reengineering project is called the monkey test. Consider any particular set of context responsibilities [those that do not affect share price] as the monkey. The question is, at the end of the day, Who has the monkey on their back? The fundamental value of any outsourcing offer is to move the monkey from you back to theirs. If the monkey stays on yours, you have not won back any of the scarce resources needed in the age of the Internet—you still are allocating time, talent, and management attention to managing the monkey. That's a bad deal. But conversely, if you can truly free yourself from the monkey, then regardless of whether there is an immediate cost reduction to take to the bottom lie, you have won the key battle of capturing scarce resources to refocus on core activity.