International B2B, Sales and Relationship Management

Introduction

International business-to-business (B2B) marketing concerns the exchange of products, services, technologies, projects, and solutions between organizations operating across national borders. Unlike many consumer purchases, B2B exchanges usually involve several decision makers, lengthy negotiations, technical specifications, formal contracts, multiple currencies, regulatory requirements, and continuing service obligations. The purchase is often justified not by personal preference but by its effect on an organization’s costs, revenues, risk, productivity, compliance, and strategic position.

International B2B success therefore depends on more than exporting a product. Firms must understand how organizations buy, how business networks influence decisions, how value is created over time, and how sales and service activities should be adapted to different institutional and cultural environments. Relationship quality is especially important because customers frequently evaluate suppliers through repeated interactions: technical support, delivery reliability, documentation, training, problem resolution, and willingness to collaborate.

This chapter develops an applied framework for organizational buying, international relationship marketing, key-account management, negotiation, trade shows, distributors, salesforce design, customer experience, and service recovery.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Explain the characteristics of international B2B markets and organizational buying.
2. Analyze buying centers, buying situations, supplier-selection criteria, and networks.
3. Apply relationship-marketing and key-account-management principles.
4. Design practical approaches to negotiation, trade shows, distributors, and international salesforces.
5. Evaluate customer experience, service quality, and service-recovery decisions across cultures.
6. Identify ethical, legal, technological, and managerial risks in international B2B relationships.

1. The Nature of International B2B Markets

B2B markets include manufacturers purchasing components, retailers purchasing merchandise, governments purchasing infrastructure, hospitals purchasing equipment, and firms purchasing professional, financial, logistical, or digital services. International B2B transactions may occur through direct exporting, agents, distributors, licensing, strategic alliances, franchising, contract manufacturing, or foreign subsidiaries.

Several characteristics distinguish international B2B markets from consumer markets:

• Derived demand: Demand for industrial inputs is derived from demand for a final product or service. A slowdown in automobile sales can reduce demand for vehicle components.
• Fewer but larger buyers: A supplier may depend on a relatively small number of accounts, making each relationship commercially significant.
• Professional purchasing: Buyers commonly use specifications, tenders, audits, supplier ratings, and total-cost analysis.
• Multiple participants: Technical, financial, operational, legal, procurement, and senior-management stakeholders may all influence the decision.
• Reciprocal dependence: Customers depend on suppliers for continuity and quality; suppliers depend on customers for revenue, forecasts, and market access.
• Longer time horizons: Equipment, software, infrastructure, and industrial services may be purchased through multiyear contracts.
• International complexity: Exchange rates, customs, sanctions, data rules, local content requirements, tax systems, and political risk affect the exchange.

B2B value is multidimensional. A supplier’s offer may create functional value through performance, economic value through lower total cost, strategic value through innovation, and relational value through trust and responsiveness. The customer’s evaluation should therefore include the entire solution rather than only the quoted price.

Total Cost of Ownership

A buyer should distinguish acquisition price from total cost of ownership (TCO). A simplified TCO model is:

Where:

• P = purchase price;
• Tr = transportation, insurance, duties, and related acquisition costs;
• I = installation and implementation costs;
• O = operating costs;
• M = maintenance and support costs;
• D = disposal, switching, or decommissioning costs;
• R = measurable residual value or recovery value.

All terms should be stated in the same currency and over a clearly defined time period. The model is useful when comparing alternatives with different prices and operating consequences, although forecasting future costs involves uncertainty. For example, a machine costing less initially may have higher energy use, downtime, and maintenance costs.

2. Organizational Buying and the Buying Center

Organizational buying is a process through which an organization identifies a need, specifies requirements, evaluates suppliers, selects an offering, and manages the resulting relationship. The process is not always linear. A technical failure, regulatory change, or budget revision can cause the organization to return to an earlier stage.

The buying center is the group of people who participate in or influence a purchase. Common roles are:

One individual may perform several roles, and the composition of the buying center can vary by country, industry, and purchase. In a family-owned firm, the owner may be the decider, buyer, and approver. In a multinational corporation, these roles may be dispersed across local operations, regional procurement, global engineering, and headquarters.

Buying Situations

Three classic buying situations are useful analytical categories:

1. Straight rebuy: A routine reorder with little change. The supplier must protect reliability, service, and account access.
2. Modified rebuy: Existing requirements, suppliers, terms, or specifications are changed. Competitors have an opportunity to enter.
3. New task: The organization faces a new problem and must acquire unfamiliar products or services. Education, risk reduction, and technical credibility are important.

International sellers should diagnose the buying situation rather than assuming that every opportunity requires the same sales process.

The Organizational Buying Process

A practical process includes:

1. Problem or opportunity recognition.
2. General need description.
3. Product or technical specification.
4. Supplier search and prequalification.
5. Request for information, quotation, or proposal.
6. Evaluation of alternatives.
7. Negotiation of commercial, technical, legal, and service terms.
8. Supplier selection and contract approval.
9. Delivery, implementation, and use.
10. Performance review and relationship renewal.

The seller’s role changes at each stage. Early in the process, the seller may help the customer define the problem. Later, the seller must supply evidence, respond to compliance requirements, negotiate risk allocation, and deliver measurable performance.

3. Networks and Relationship Marketing

Relationship marketing focuses on creating, maintaining, and developing mutually valuable exchanges rather than treating every transaction as an isolated sale. In international B2B markets, relationships often involve a network of customers, suppliers, logistics providers, regulators, consultants, financial institutions, technology partners, and industry associations.

A network perspective recognizes that a supplier may not control the entire value proposition. For example, an industrial-equipment firm may depend on a local installer, a software integrator, a customs broker, and a financing partner. Failure by one participant can affect the customer’s perception of the focal supplier.

Important relationship dimensions include:

• Trust: Confidence that the partner is competent, honest, and reliable.
• Commitment: Willingness to invest resources in maintaining the relationship.
• Communication: Timely, accurate, and culturally appropriate information exchange.
• Coordination: Alignment of activities, schedules, forecasts, and responsibilities.
• Adaptation: Adjustments in products, processes, contracts, or service arrangements.
• Reciprocity: Recognition that both parties contribute and receive value.
• Dependence and power: The extent to which one party relies on the other and can influence outcomes.

Relationship marketing does not mean accepting every customer demand or avoiding commercial discipline. Strong relationships require clear expectations, performance measures, escalation procedures, and fair governance. A relationship that produces sales but destroys margin, creates compliance exposure, or generates excessive dependence may not be strategically attractive.

Relationship Portfolio Analysis

Customers should be evaluated as a portfolio rather than only by current sales. Useful criteria include current profitability, future potential, strategic importance, relationship risk, service cost, payment quality, and learning value. A large account may have low profitability if it demands extensive customization and long payment terms. Conversely, a smaller account may provide valuable access to a growing industry or reference market.

Customer profitability can be estimated as:

Where CP is customer contribution or profitability, R is revenue, VC is variable product and delivery cost, SC is service and account-management cost, and AC is allocated account-specific cost. The calculation is meaningful only when the cost definitions and allocation method are consistent. It should support judgment rather than replace it, because strategic options and future potential may not appear in current accounting data.

4. Key-Account Management

Key-account management (KAM) is a structured approach to managing strategically important customers. A key account is not necessarily the largest account; it is an account whose loss, growth, influence, or learning value has substantial consequences for the supplier.

A KAM program normally includes:

1. Selection: Define transparent criteria, such as revenue potential, profitability, strategic fit, innovation potential, and risk.
2. Account diagnosis: Map the customer’s strategy, structure, decision makers, operations, competitors, suppliers, and future needs.
3. Value proposition: Connect the supplier’s capabilities to measurable customer outcomes.
4. Relationship mapping: Identify supporters, neutrals, opponents, decision authority, and gaps in access.
5. Account objectives: Establish targets for revenue, margin, retention, share of wallet, service performance, and joint innovation.
6. Action plan: Assign responsibilities, resources, milestones, and contingencies.
7. Governance: Use business reviews, executive sponsorship, issue escalation, and performance dashboards.
8. Evaluation: Review value created for both parties and revise the plan.

A useful account plan should answer: What is the customer trying to achieve? What risks does the customer face? How does the buying center define value? Which competitors and substitutes threaten the relationship? What investments are justified? What should the supplier refuse or renegotiate?

KAM also creates risks. A salesperson who becomes too close to one customer may promise unauthorized concessions. Excessive customization can reduce scalability. Concentration in one account or country can increase commercial vulnerability. Organizations should therefore separate relationship quality from informal favoritism and maintain documented approval processes.

5. International Negotiation

International B2B negotiation concerns more than price. Parties may negotiate specifications, delivery schedules, warranties, payment security, intellectual property, training, exclusivity, data access, liability, dispute resolution, currency, local content, and termination rights.

Effective preparation includes:

• defining objectives, priorities, and walk-away conditions;
• separating interests from stated positions;
• estimating the other party’s interests and constraints;
• identifying alternatives if agreement is not reached;
• establishing authority levels for discounts and concessions;
• determining which issues can be traded;
• checking legal, tax, sanctions, and export-control implications;
• preparing culturally appropriate communication.

A concession should normally be conditional rather than automatic: “If the customer commits to a three-year volume schedule, the supplier can consider a lower unit price.” This protects value and makes the exchange visible.

Cultural differences may affect communication style, time orientation, hierarchy, directness, silence, relationship-building, and attitudes toward written commitments. However, national-culture frameworks are generalizations, not stereotypes. Individuals differ by profession, generation, organization, and experience. The appropriate approach is cultural intelligence: research the context, observe behavior, ask respectful questions, and adapt without abandoning ethical standards.

Negotiators should also distinguish relationship-building from improper inducement. Gifts, hospitality, commissions, and facilitation payments may violate law or organizational policy. Anti-bribery rules can apply across borders even when a practice is locally tolerated.

6. Trade Shows and Business Development

International trade shows combine market intelligence, lead generation, demonstrations, reputation building, and relationship development. Their value depends on preparation and follow-through rather than booth appearance alone.

A disciplined trade-show process has three phases:

Before the event: Define objectives, identify target accounts, schedule meetings, train staff, prepare localized materials, verify claims and translations, and establish a lead-scoring method.

During the event: Qualify visitors, listen for business problems, record buying-center information, demonstrate relevant outcomes, and avoid collecting unstructured contacts with no next action.

After the event: Classify leads, obtain consent for follow-up, send relevant information, assign ownership, schedule meetings, and measure conversion. A lead is not a commercial result until it progresses through a defined opportunity process.

Useful indicators include qualified leads, meetings with target accounts, opportunities created, opportunity value, conversion rate, acquisition cost, and revenue or margin attributable to the event. Attribution is difficult when trade shows support long sales cycles, so firms should use consistent definitions and avoid claiming causation from simple contact counts.

7. Distributors, Agents, and International Channels

A distributor normally buys and resells products, taking inventory and commercial risk. An agent typically facilitates transactions for commission without taking ownership of the goods. A local subsidiary provides greater control but requires greater investment. The choice depends on market potential, required control, local knowledge, service complexity, capital, regulatory conditions, and channel conflict.

Distributor selection should assess financial strength, technical competence, customer coverage, reputation, service capacity, digital capability, data transparency, conflicts of interest, and compliance systems. Contracts should address territory, targets, pricing authority, inventory, training, intellectual property, customer ownership, reporting, audit rights, anti-bribery obligations, sanctions compliance, data protection, warranty handling, and termination.

Channel governance should avoid both neglect and micromanagement. Suppliers can provide training, joint business planning, marketing development funds, technical certification, shared forecasting, and service-level agreements. They should also monitor grey markets, unauthorized discounting, parallel imports, and misleading claims. Exclusivity should be granted only when performance obligations and review rights are clear.

8. International Salesforce Design

An international salesforce may be organized by geography, product, customer industry, account, or a hybrid structure. Geographic structures encourage local responsiveness; product structures support technical specialization; industry or account structures improve customer understanding. Hybrid designs can coordinate complex global accounts but may create duplicated contact and internal conflict.

Key salesforce decisions include:

• direct employees versus independent representatives;
• local versus expatriate staff;
• central versus local authority;
• inside, field, digital, and technical sales roles;
• territory and account allocation;
• recruitment, training, coaching, and evaluation;
• compensation and incentive design.

Performance measures should balance outcomes and behaviors. Revenue alone may encourage excessive discounting, poor payment quality, unsuitable customers, or neglect of service. A balanced scorecard may include gross margin, qualified pipeline, retention, forecast accuracy, customer satisfaction, collection quality, compliance, and development of strategic accounts.

Incentive systems must be lawful and culturally appropriate. Targets should reflect market maturity, territory potential, sales-cycle length, and controllable effort. Employees should not be rewarded for promising delivery dates or product capabilities that the organization cannot provide. Sales operations should use a common customer relationship management (CRM) system with clear data ownership and privacy controls.

9. Customer Experience and Service Recovery

B2B customer experience is the customer’s cumulative perception across interactions and touchpoints, including inquiry, quotation, contracting, delivery, installation, invoicing, technical support, renewal, and termination. It is broader than satisfaction with a single salesperson.

Service quality can be managed through explicit service standards, such as response time, resolution time, uptime, documentation accuracy, first-time-right delivery, and escalation procedures. Customer feedback should be interpreted alongside operational data because satisfied respondents may still be commercially vulnerable, while dissatisfied respondents may be reacting to a temporary incident.

Service recovery is the process of correcting a failure and restoring confidence. A sound recovery sequence is:

1. Detect and acknowledge the problem quickly.
2. Establish the facts and protect safety, compliance, and continuity.
3. Communicate ownership without making unsupported promises.
4. Provide containment and a realistic corrective plan.
5. Agree on remedy, responsibility, and timing.
6. Verify that the customer’s operation has recovered.
7. Identify the root cause and prevent recurrence.
8. Document learning and review compensation authority.

Compensation should be proportionate and consistent. It may include replacement, expedited delivery, technical support, service credits, training, or financial compensation. An apology is valuable when it is accompanied by action and accountability. Recovery should not conceal a systemic issue or pressure a customer to waive legitimate rights.

Cross-cultural service recovery requires attention to language, hierarchy, face concerns, directness, and expectations of personal contact. A global standard can define non-negotiable safety and ethical requirements, while local teams adapt communication and relationship practices.

10. Technology, Data, and AI in B2B Relationships

CRM platforms can consolidate account histories, contacts, opportunities, service cases, contracts, and forecasts. Marketing automation and digital content can support account-based marketing, in which communications are tailored to selected organizations and buying centers. Video meetings, remote diagnostics, customer portals, electronic procurement, and predictive maintenance can reduce distance and improve responsiveness.

AI may assist with lead prioritization, account research, sales forecasting, proposal drafting, translation, sentiment analysis, and service-ticket routing. Its use requires human oversight. Data may be incomplete, biased, outdated, or collected without adequate consent. Generative systems may produce inaccurate technical claims or disclose confidential information. Organizations should establish rules for approved tools, data classification, auditability, human approval, intellectual property, privacy, and customer notification where appropriate.

Technology should strengthen—not replace—judgment and relationships. A globally standardized CRM process can improve visibility, but excessive data entry can reduce adoption. The objective is better decisions and customer outcomes, not simply more records.

11. Ethics, Law, and Governance

International B2B managers operate within overlapping legal and ethical systems. Relevant issues include anti-bribery and corruption, competition law, sanctions and export controls, customs compliance, product safety, modern slavery, environmental claims, data protection, intellectual property, tax, labor standards, and contract enforcement.

Governance practices include:

• third-party due diligence before appointing agents or distributors;
• documented approval of discounts, commissions, gifts, and hospitality;
• segregation of sales and compliance responsibilities;
• accurate books and records;
• contract review for governing law and dispute resolution;
• screening of customers, intermediaries, goods, and destinations;
• secure handling of personal and commercial data;
• whistleblowing and non-retaliation mechanisms;
• training adapted to role and risk;
• monitoring, investigation, and corrective action.

Ethical marketing also requires truthful claims, transparent total costs, respect for customer confidentiality, and avoidance of exploitative dependence. Sustainability statements should be evidence-based and specific. A supplier should not transfer environmental or labor risks to poorly monitored intermediaries while presenting itself as responsible.

Applied Case: NordAxis Industrial Systems

This is an illustrative case. NordAxis, a European manufacturer of automated packaging equipment, sought to expand into Southeast Asia. Its machines were technically competitive, but local customers complained about slow spare-parts delivery, unclear warranty procedures, and sales presentations that focused on machine features rather than production outcomes.

Background and Problem

NordAxis appointed an exclusive distributor in three countries. The distributor had strong relationships with food manufacturers but limited engineering staff. Sales grew rapidly, yet breakdowns increased. NordAxis blamed poor local maintenance; the distributor blamed late technical responses from headquarters. A major multinational customer threatened to switch suppliers.

Analysis

A buying-center review showed that production managers valued uptime, procurement valued price and payment terms, engineering valued integration capability, and finance valued predictable operating cost. NordAxis had been selling to procurement contacts while failing to build relationships with users and technical influencers. Its distributor contract specified sales targets but not service-level obligations, spare-parts inventory, escalation, or data reporting.

A simplified TCO analysis showed that a competitor’s machine with a higher purchase price had lower expected downtime and maintenance cost. Thus NordAxis’s price-based proposal did not communicate its potential value. Cultural and language differences also caused indirect customer complaints to be interpreted as minor concerns.

Approach and Solution

NordAxis and the distributor created a joint key-account plan for the threatened customer. They mapped the buying center, appointed a technical account manager, and established monthly operational reviews. The contract was amended to include certified technician requirements, critical-spares stock, response-time standards, warranty responsibilities, CRM reporting, anti-bribery controls, and quarterly performance reviews.

The sales team changed its proposal from machine features to a production-outcome model covering throughput, changeover time, training, preventive maintenance, and contingency support. Headquarters created a multilingual service portal and remote-diagnostics process. Sales incentives were revised to include gross margin, service quality, payment performance, and retention rather than equipment revenue alone.

Outcome

After implementation, the customer renewed its contract and included NordAxis in a regional expansion discussion. The distributor invested in technical capability because the revised agreement linked territory protection to service performance. NordAxis did not eliminate every failure, but it improved visibility, escalation, and accountability. The case demonstrates that international B2B growth depends on an integrated system of value proposition, buying-center access, channel governance, service delivery, and relationship learning.

Learning Points

1. A technically strong product may fail when the customer experience is weak.
2. Key-account plans must include users and technical influencers, not only procurement.
3. Distributor agreements should govern service and information, not only sales volume.
4. TCO reasoning can reveal value that a price comparison hides.
5. Incentives shape behavior across the entire sales and service system.

Challenges and Limitations

International B2B relationship management has no universal formula. Relationships can reduce switching and transaction costs, but they can also create lock-in, complacency, and favoritism. Local adaptation improves relevance but may fragment the brand and operating model. Global standardization improves control but may ignore local law and customer expectations. Quantitative account metrics can support prioritization but may undervalue future learning, innovation, or network influence. Cultural frameworks can prompt useful questions but become harmful when treated as fixed national stereotypes.

Managers should therefore use evidence, multiple perspectives, transparent governance, and periodic review. The most resilient approach combines commercial discipline with empathy, technical competence, legal compliance, and willingness to learn from service failures.

Best-Practice Checklist

• Map the buying center and revisit it as the decision evolves.
• Define value in customer outcomes and total cost, not features alone.
• Select key accounts using strategic and profitability criteria.
• Build relationships at several organizational levels.
• Prepare negotiations with priorities, alternatives, authority limits, and compliance checks.
• Treat trade shows as managed opportunity processes.
• Select and govern distributors through capability, transparency, and service standards.
• Balance sales incentives with margin, retention, quality, and ethical behavior.
• Measure customer experience across the full lifecycle.
• Make service recovery rapid, factual, fair, and preventive.
• Use CRM and AI responsibly, with human review and data governance.

Chapter Summary

International B2B marketing involves complex organizational purchases, professional buying centers, long sales cycles, and continuing interdependence. Effective managers diagnose buying situations, identify the roles and interests of participants, and communicate value through performance, total cost, risk reduction, and service outcomes.

Networks and relationship marketing show that value is co-created among suppliers, customers, intermediaries, partners, and institutions. Key-account management converts this insight into account selection, relationship mapping, joint planning, governance, and performance review. Negotiation, trade-show management, distributor governance, and salesforce design must be coordinated rather than managed as isolated activities.

Customer experience extends across the entire B2B lifecycle. Strong service recovery requires rapid acknowledgement, containment, corrective action, fair remedy, and learning. Digital tools and AI can improve visibility and responsiveness, but they require privacy, accuracy, security, and human oversight. Finally, international B2B growth must be governed by anti-corruption, competition, sanctions, data, safety, sustainability, and truthful-communication principles.

Key Terms

Organizational buying: The process by which an organization identifies, evaluates, selects, and manages a purchase.

Buying center: Individuals who participate in or influence an organizational buying decision.

Derived demand: Demand for an industrial input resulting from demand for another product or service.

Straight rebuy: A routine purchase made with little change.

Modified rebuy: A repeat purchase involving changes in specifications, suppliers, or terms.

New task: A first-time or substantially unfamiliar organizational purchase.

Total cost of ownership: The acquisition, operating, service, and disposal costs associated with an offering.

Relationship marketing: Managing exchanges to create and sustain mutual value over time.

Business network: Connected organizations and institutions that influence value creation and exchange.

Trust: Confidence in a partner’s competence, reliability, and integrity.

Key-account management: A structured approach to strategically important customers.

Customer profitability: The contribution generated by a customer after relevant costs.

BATNA: The best alternative available if negotiation does not produce agreement.

Distributor: An intermediary that purchases and resells products, usually taking inventory risk.

Agent: An intermediary that facilitates transactions, generally for commission, without taking ownership.

Customer experience: The cumulative perception formed across customer interactions and touchpoints.

Service recovery: Actions taken to correct a service failure and restore confidence.

CRM: Systems and processes used to manage customer information and interactions.

Account-based marketing: Coordinated marketing directed at selected organizations and their buying centers.

Due diligence: Investigation of a prospective partner’s capability, integrity, ownership, and risk.

Review Questions

Short Answer Questions

1. What is a buying center, and why is it important in international B2B marketing?
2. Distinguish a straight rebuy, modified rebuy, and new-task purchase.
3. What is the difference between a distributor and an agent?
4. Define key-account management.
5. Identify four stages of effective service recovery.

Long Answer Questions

1. Explain how organizational buying differs from consumer buying and discuss the implications for international sales strategy.
2. Discuss the role of trust, commitment, communication, and power in international B2B relationships.
3. Explain how a firm should select, govern, and evaluate an international distributor.
4. Analyze the benefits and risks of using CRM and AI in international B2B sales.
5. Discuss how cultural differences can influence international negotiation and service recovery without assuming that national cultures determine individual behavior.

Analytical / Application Questions

1. A supplier has high sales revenue from a customer but low profitability because of customization, urgent deliveries, and long payment delays. Using the customer-profitability concept, recommend whether and how the supplier should redesign the relationship.
2. Design a key-account plan for a multinational customer whose procurement department favors a low-priced competitor while operations values reliability and technical support.
3. An exclusive distributor is achieving sales targets but generating repeated customer complaints and providing little market information. Diagnose the governance problem and propose contract, incentive, and service changes.

Multiple Choice Questions with Answers

Question 1

Which buying-center role normally controls access to information or decision makers?

A. User

B. Gatekeeper

C. Initiator

D. Approver

Correct Answer: B. Gatekeeper

Question 2

Which situation involves a repeat purchase with changes to specifications or suppliers?

A. Straight rebuy

B. Modified rebuy

C. New task

D. Impulse purchase

Correct Answer: B. Modified rebuy

Question 3

In the simplified TCO model, which item is normally included?

A. Only the quoted purchase price

B. Only the supplier’s advertising expense

C. Operating, maintenance, and disposal costs

D. The customer’s unrelated investments

Correct Answer: C. Operating, maintenance, and disposal costs

Question 4

What is a central purpose of key-account management?

A. To give every customer identical resources

B. To manage strategically important customers systematically

C. To eliminate all intermediaries

D. To maximize sales volume regardless of margin

Correct Answer: B. To manage strategically important customers systematically

Question 5

Which statement best describes a distributor?

A. It usually purchases and resells products, taking inventory risk

B. It only introduces buyers and never handles products

C. It is always owned by the manufacturer

D. It provides government regulation

Correct Answer: A. It usually purchases and resells products, taking inventory risk

Question 6

Which negotiation practice best protects value?

A. Giving unconditional concessions immediately

B. Avoiding preparation of alternatives

C. Making concessions conditional on reciprocal commitments

D. Discussing only the unit price

Correct Answer: C. Making concessions conditional on reciprocal commitments

Question 7

Which activity belongs primarily to the post-trade-show stage?

A. Defining event objectives

B. Training booth staff

C. Scheduling target-account meetings before the event

D. Assigning leads and arranging follow-up actions

Correct Answer: D. Assigning leads and arranging follow-up actions

Question 8

Which sequence best represents effective service recovery?

A. Deny, delay, and close the complaint

B. Acknowledge, contain, correct, verify, and learn

C. Discount every future order automatically

D. Transfer responsibility to the customer

Correct Answer: B. Acknowledge, contain, correct, verify, and learn

Question 9

Why should international sales incentives include measures beyond revenue?

A. Revenue is never relevant in B2B markets

B. Other measures can discourage harmful discounting and poor-quality sales

C. Salespeople should not be evaluated

D. Customer retention cannot be measured

Correct Answer: B. Other measures can discourage harmful discounting and poor-quality sales

Question 10

Which is an appropriate governance practice for international intermediaries?

A. Ignoring ownership and reputation

B. Allowing undocumented commissions

C. Conducting due diligence and monitoring compliance

D. Providing unlimited territory protection without conditions

Correct Answer: C. Conducting due diligence and monitoring compliance