CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AS A KEY FACTOR IN BUILDING AND MAINTAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES OF COMPANIES

For building and preservation of long-term competitive advantages, it is not enough that companies are just better and faster than their competitors. Competitor orientation strategy, without aim for customers' satisfaction may lead company to "Cul-de-sac". This situation is an indicator that management decisions depend exclusively on the moves of competitors. In doing so, companies forget the real reason for their existence, customers satisfaction. Knowledge about customer needs and desires, identified in process of building sales network focused on the customer, can help top management of the company to apply it through value creation building. The main goal of this research is to explore companies' awareness level about the customer satisfaction as a key element in process of building competitive advantages based on sales policy differentiation. Research was conducted through individual interview survey based of pre-prepared questionnaire and includes companies engaged in B2B sales, not sales to end customers. Research results should demonstrate a difference in perception of customer satisfaction in international companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the one, and domestic companies, on the other hand. Analyzing the results of research we make a conclusion about possibilities that companies build a Customer-Orientation Sales (COS) Model.