What Does a Customer Business Manager Do?

The job of a customer business manager in a company that markets and sells products or services is largely tied to initiating and maintaining client relationships. Further, the role of this managing professional is to foresee or at least suspect when an organization's products or services could further satisfy a client, subsequently generating new business for a firm. Other personnel and management professionals may rely on the performance and projections of a customer business manager to set production, sales, and other goals throughout and organization. Business managers are keenly aware of the brands, services, or products that they oversee.

For employers in certain industries, a customer business manager may be responsible for overseeing all aspects of client relationships. In addition to identifying and servicing a client, the business manager may be expected to learn the customers' preferences so that future needs or behaviors may be anticipated. The business manager is likely the point person that a customer turns to during a purchase. Business managers typically are engaged in the supply chain management process for products on a large scale.

It's possible that a customer business manager is dedicated to the performance of a single product or process, or the professional may oversee a series of different items. Similarly, for a large distributor of a certain brand, a business manager may be responsible for a single client that is large enough to service on a full-time basis. Business customer managers work intricately with business plans.

These professionals may not only need to contribute to the employer's business goals and objectives but may also need to be confidently familiar with the business plan of a client. Knowing key operational and financial components of a customer's design may allow the business manager to service that client better than any competitor can do. He or she may need to perform analyses to determine how the business plans of each organization can leverage one another to produce a desired result.

A customer business manager may be responsible for the performance and distribution of a product or service. In addition to managing customer relationships, this professional sets volume targets and income projections based on expectations, commitments, and historical patterns of clients. This professional may be heavily involved with setting profit projections based on involvement with customers and subsequently can determine or analyze if there are any vulnerabilities to sales, production, or profit expectations over a period of time.