ABSTRACT
Many conventional sales organizations are under intense pressure from escalating customer demands for superior value, accompanied by the emergence of new business models that replace some traditional sales functions and processes (e.g., Internet-based direct channels, Customer Relationship Management technology), and new organizational strategies to partner with major customers (e.g., key account management and global account management). The Prudential insurance business was long associated with direct selling of policies. In 1995, three-quarters of its business came through its 6000 door-to-door salespeople – the ‘man from the Pru’. It is impossible to conceive a world where the Internet ceased to be part of the business model. It is simply too powerful not to be. But we are still early enough in the real adoption of Web-based initiatives that predicting its full impact remains uncertain.
