Behind every successful business is the implementation of a superior strategy. Winning firms earn their success. To do this, business organizations have to first develop a superior marketing plan and implement this plan via effective sales and customer plans. Therefore, both marketing and sales have to work as one system.

In this powerful and practical book you will learn the following:

- How to understand customer needs and value drivers.

- How to segment your markets and customers.

- How to analyze customer, competitor and market data to develop superior marketing plans.

- How to translate marketing plans into actionable sales and customer plans.

- How to work with templates and actual plans to guide your own business.

- How to get marketing, sales and other functions working together to focus on the customer to help you get a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Ajay K. Sirsi is a Marketing Professor at the Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, Canada, where he teaches Strategic Market Planning, Business-to-Business Marketing, Marketing Research and Marketing Management. He teaches executive management classes in Marketing and Sales Strategies, Brand Equity, Pricing for Profit and Marketing Management in the Executive Development Program at the business school. He also teaches Marketing Research and Marketing Management for the Marketing Research & Intelligence Association (MRIA).

Ajay has undertaken both consulting and educational activities for FT Global 500 corporations in the United States, Canada, Brazil, China, France, India, Japan and Korea in the areas of developing business and marketing strategy, sales execution, developing and implementing customer value, building brand identity/equity, and building corporate brands. His clients include: Bayer, Bombardier, Glaxo SmithKline, International Paper, Manulife Financial, Novartis, Royal Bank, and TELUS.

His current research focuses on creating customer value, developing strategic marketing plans and sales execution, and sales force and managerial effectiveness.

Prof. Sirsi is the author of many articles which have appeared in prominent academic and practitioner journals such as the Journal of Consumer Research, Canadian Journal of Marketing Research, the Journal of Health Care Marketing, the Journal of Hospital Marketing, and the Journal of Professional Services Marketing. He is a recipient of the prestigious Robert Ferber Award and the award for best article published in the Journal of Consumer Research. He is the co-author of another book: Marketing: Real People, Real Decisions (Prentice Hall).

Ajay can be reached at asirsi@schulich.yorku.ca or at (416) 486-8490.