There is still potential in customer loyalty management

Employees in Marketing & Sales generally have good career opportunities until the end of 2011. This is the result of a study on professional development for which the FOM University of Economics & Management, in cooperation with the German Marketing Association (DMV), surveyed 925 employees in this sector nationwide and carried out parallel analyzes of job advertisements.

According to this, 61 percent of those surveyed expect very good or good business development in the current and following year. However, only 30 percent of those working in the professional fields of internal sales, communication, field sales, general management, product management, information management / customer relationship management (CRM), market research and consulting assumed an increasing demand for workers in the industry. In their own professional field, 46 percent expected a high need for employees.

Above all, the information economy side of the market is gaining in importance, as is sales, public relations and marketing and strategy consulting. “The information economy includes the creation and expansion of customer databases and customer relation management. This area is becoming increasingly important because, in addition to acquiring new customers, companies are now increasingly concerned with retaining existing customers, ”says Prof. Dr. Burghard Hermeier, Rector of the FOM. With a view to the future, only 15 percent of the participants stated that the potential in customer loyalty management is currently exhausted. In contrast, 54 percent assumed that additional potential could be tapped in customer loyalty management. For 85 percent of those surveyed, networking is an important success factor in marketing.

The personal requirements that will be required in Marketing & Sales in the future include media skills for 75 percent of those surveyed, flexibility for 63 percent and creativity for 59 percent. 53 percent of employees considered specialist knowledge to be a core requirement, while specialist competence, after evaluating job advertisements, was an essential prerequisite for hiring for 90 percent of HR managers. In addition, 73 percent of those surveyed consider further academic training to be important and the vast majority have already planned specific measures. “Academic titles are becoming more and more important in this industry, but a bachelor’s or master’s degree alone is not enough,” emphasizes Hermeier. In addition to personal competence, social and technical and methodological skills would also contribute to a career in Marketing & Sales.

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