Northwest Taps Murphy For Corporate Sales

<B> Northwest Taps Murphy For Corporate Sales</B>

By Jay Campbell

Moving to the Midwest for the first time, airline industry veteran Annette Murphy, 52, last month left Reno Air to take the position of vice president of corporate and agency sales at Minneapolis-based Northwest Airlines.

The Los Angeles native reports to vice president of passenger sales and customer relations John Temple, and replaces Dick Johnson in managing more than 200 corporate and agency salespeople across the United States. Johnson in February moved to Amsterdam to become Northwest's vice president for the Atlantic region, responsible for representing Northwest's interests in its alliance with KLM. Following Johnson's departure, the role was enhanced through the addition of Marcia Butler's travel industry affairs group, which now reports to Murphy as well.

Johnson played a key role in the integration of Northwest's and KLM's sales efforts (<I>BTN,</I> April 27), which now gives Murphy responsibility for the North American sales divisions of both airlines. That integration and increase in scope will be Murphy's main selling point following the resolution of the pilots' strike.

"We're really looking to design win-win agreements for travel agency and corporate accounts, so they can take advantage of the worldwide scope of Northwest/KLM," said Murphy. "In the past, airlines put everyone in the same box, but you have to design agreements that meet your customers' needs."

Previously the senior vice president of customer service for Reno Air, Murphy plans to increase Northwest's customer contact through focus groups, to enhance the technical, leadership and planning skills of Northwest's field sales reps and to simplify the negotiating process. "I want it to be easy to do business with Northwest, but I also am a real proponent of face-to-face communication," she said, referring to Northwest's recent initiation of e-mail messages sent to corporate clients. These have been particularly helpful for large corporate accounts during the strike, insiders said (<I>BTN,</I> Sept. 7).

Before her year at Reno Air, Murphy spent 13 years at USAir, most recently as director of sales for the airline's 24-state western region, and 17 years at American Airlines in numerous sales and customer service roles. She now manages ten North American regional sales offices, each with a field director, and reports to Temple along with the directors of sales development and analysis, specialty and international sales, and customer relations.