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All HBS Web
(953)
- People (1)
- News (221)
- Research (621)
- Events (1)
- Multimedia (1)
- Faculty Publications (253)
- December 15, 2015
- Article
Don't Turn Your Sales Team Loose Without a Strategy
By: Frank V. Cespedes and Steve Thompson
When formulating a strategy, markets and segments are typically important categories. But only customers buy. Hence, for most firms, de facto strategy and much resource allocation are the aggregate result of the deals their salespeople close. However, few firms clarify...
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Cespedes, Frank V., and Steve Thompson. "Don't Turn Your Sales Team Loose Without a Strategy." Harvard Business Review (website) (December 15, 2015).
- 06 Sep 2004
- Research & Ideas
The Innovator’s Battle Plan
least attractive. Sales can go up (high price points replace low price points). Margins typically go way up. The incumbent stops worrying about disloyal, dissatisfied, low-paying (overshot) customers whom outsiders may term...
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- November 1986 (Revised June 1987)
- Case
Fieldcrest Division of Fieldcrest Mills, Inc.: Compensation System for Field Sales Representatives
Focuses on the compensation plan for Fieldcrest sales representatives. Management is reviewing the structure of the plan and must decide how to establish compensation goals and guidelines for the following year so that sales efforts are allocated among products and/or...
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Cespedes, Frank V. "Fieldcrest Division of Fieldcrest Mills, Inc.: Compensation System for Field Sales Representatives." Harvard Business School Case 587-097, November 1986. (Revised June 1987.)
- 22 Mar 2017
- Research & Ideas
What's the Ideal Frequency for a Sales Quota?
spend more than $800 billion annually on those efforts. Sales compensation plans are at the center of all this activity, the primary tool managers use to motivate and incentivize salespeople. View Details
Keywords:
by Carmen Nobel
- 06 Jul 2015
- Research & Ideas
Money and Quotas Motivate the Sales Force Best
It's well understood that cash bonuses often motivate a sales force to step up its game, but they don't work in every scenario and in some cases can backfire, a new study from Harvard Business School has found. The key variable? Whether...
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- 18 Feb 2014
- News
Stick with Plan A
MADDY "When I have my mind set on something, I do not create a Plan B," says Monique Maddy (MBA 1993). "I feel that it lessens my commitment and my focus. If it doesn't work out, I come up with another Plan...
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- Research Summary
Incorporating Price and Inventory Endogeneity in Firm-Level Sales Forecasting.
Forecasting firm-level sales is a key activity in top-down planning in most organizations. In the retailing industry, firms can use inventory and price to stimulate demand. Hence, standard time series methods for sales forecasting can be improved by incorporating...
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- October 2017 (Revised March 2020)
- Case
Medicetra Medtech Company, Inc.
By: Doug J. Chung
Medicetra MedTech Company is a dental equipment distributor, and senior management is deciding whether to implement a new incentive compensation program for the sales force. For many years, Medicetra had paid salespeople only a fixed salary. Although the current plan...
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Keywords:
Sales Compensation;
Sales Force Retention;
Employee Fairness;
Salesforce Management;
Compensation and Benefits;
Motivation and Incentives;
Retention;
Fairness;
Performance Improvement
Chung, Doug J. "Medicetra Medtech Company, Inc." Harvard Business School Case 518-049, October 2017. (Revised March 2020.)
- 25 Jan 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
The Effects of Quota Frequency on Sales Force Performance: Evidence from a Field Experiment
Keywords:
by Doug J. Chung and Das Narayandas
- September 2002
- Case
Align Technology, Inc.: Matching Manufacturing Capacity to Sales Demand
By: H. Kent Bowen and Jonathan P Groberg
Align Technology is a four-year-old medical products company that has invented a new product requiring new manufacturing processes. Demand for the new product has grown more slowly than initial forecasts predicted, and the cost structure is preventing the company from...
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Keywords:
Health Care and Treatment;
Collaborative Innovation and Invention;
Problems and Challenges;
Product;
Forecasting and Prediction;
Marketing Strategy;
Sales;
Demand and Consumers;
Production;
Health Industry
Bowen, H. Kent, and Jonathan P Groberg. "Align Technology, Inc.: Matching Manufacturing Capacity to Sales Demand." Harvard Business School Case 603-058, September 2002.
- 22 Mar 2010
- Research & Ideas
One Strategy: Aligning Planning and Execution
Every firm has two strategies, we learn early on in the pages of One Strategy: Organization, Planning, and Decision Making. "Explicit" strategy is the one you read about in your company's planning memos and PowerPoint slides....
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- 28 Jun 2007
- Working Paper Summaries
Alignment in Cross-Functional and Cross-Firm Supply Chain Planning
Keywords:
by Santiago Kraiselburd & Noel Watson
- October 1989 (Revised June 1993)
- Case
RKO Warner Video, Inc.: Incentive Compensation Plan
By: George P. Baker III
Details the design and implementation of an incentive bonus plan for video store managers. The problem for top management of the chain is to induce the store managers to "sweat the details," to keep the stores neat and well organized, and to deal courteously and...
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Keywords:
Acquisition;
Change;
Strategic Planning;
Performance Improvement;
Sales;
Management;
Employee Relationship Management;
Situation or Environment;
Success;
Motion Pictures and Video Industry;
Entertainment and Recreation Industry
Baker, George P., III. "RKO Warner Video, Inc.: Incentive Compensation Plan." Harvard Business School Case 190-067, October 1989. (Revised June 1993.)
- 21 Nov 2016
- Research & Ideas
It Matters That Your CEO Doesn't Know Much About Sales
as a sales issue.” Planning and hiring To reap any of these benefits companies must develop links between the C-suite and the customer-facing side of the business. In his article, Cespedes offers two...
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Keywords:
by Michael Blanding
- November 2019 (Revised April 2020)
- Case
Purple Innovation, Inc.: The Online to Offline Marketing Challenge
By: Elie Ofek and Nakisha Williams
This case focuses on Purple Innovation Inc. (Purple), a company that started out in the Direct to Consumer (DTC) mattress space. In late 2018, after a successful launch and IPO with sales predominantly originating from its website, Purple was looking to sustain its...
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Keywords:
Offline Sales;
Marketing Strategy;
Digital Marketing;
Growth and Development Strategy;
Consumer Products Industry;
Retail Industry
Ofek, Elie, and Nakisha Williams. "Purple Innovation, Inc.: The Online to Offline Marketing Challenge." Harvard Business School Case 520-040, November 2019. (Revised April 2020.)
- May 2014 (Revised March 2017)
- Case
Unilever's Lifebuoy in India: Implementing the Sustainability Plan
Unilever's new Global Brand VP must not only revitalize Lifebuoy soap's sagging market performance, but simultaneously impact the health of one billion people worldwide. The latter challenge comes from Unilever's new CEO who has introduced the Unilever Sustainable... View Details
Keywords:
Multinational Management;
Corporate Social Responsibility;
Strategy Implementation;
Marketing Strategy;
Mission And Purpose;
Change Management;
International Business;
Global;
Fast-moving Consumer Goods;
Soap;
Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact;
Health Care and Treatment;
Environmental Sustainability;
Global Strategy;
Developing Countries and Economies;
Beauty and Cosmetics Industry;
Health Industry;
India
Bartlett, Christopher A. "Unilever's Lifebuoy in India: Implementing the Sustainability Plan." Harvard Business School Case 914-417, May 2014. (Revised March 2017.)
- 10 Apr 2014
- Research & Ideas
John Kotter’s Plan to Accelerate Your Business
book, he follows how the accelerators are used by Paul Davidson, a top sales executive at a B2B tech firm, who was grappling with sales growth decline. Davidson shared four goals at the start of building the...
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Keywords:
by Kim Girard
- 01 Sep 2005
- News
Business Plan Contest Has Many Winners
contacted the 705 alumni who took part in the Business Plan Contest between 1997 and 2004. The survey’s 269 respondents reported starting 254 enterprises, with nearly 200 businesses still up and running and generating $550 million in...
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- 18 Aug 2011
- Lessons from the Classroom
Business Plan Contest: 15 Years of Building Better Entrepreneurs
the Aldrich classrooms on the Harvard Business School campus where other people's ventures are the usual topic of discussion. Judges—a mix of angel investors, VCs, serial entrepreneurs, and industry executives—score the plans on criteria...
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- fall 1985
- Article
A Theory of Salesforce Compensation Plans
By: R. Lal, A. K. Basu, V. Srinivasan and Richard Staelin
Lal, R., A. K. Basu, V. Srinivasan, and Richard Staelin. "A Theory of Salesforce Compensation Plans." Marketing Science (fall 1985). (Winner of TIMS College of Marketing. Award for Best Article in Marketing Science For the best marketing paper published in Marketing Science or Management Science presented by Institute of Management Sciences.)