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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(4,329)
- People (11)
- News (946)
- Research (2,729)
- Events (7)
- Multimedia (21)
- Faculty Publications (1,501)
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- August 1996 (Revised October 1996)
- Case
Howard, Shea & Chan Asset Management (D): Sales Presentation
Provides the context and hard copy material to accompany a video sales presentation. Participants are asked to develop criteria for evaluating a sales presentation and then to apply the criteria to the video presentation. View Details
Shapiro, Benson P. "Howard, Shea & Chan Asset Management (D): Sales Presentation." Harvard Business School Case 597-024, August 1996. (Revised October 1996.)
- March 1993
- Teaching Note
Managing Sales Interfaces: Course Module, Instructor's Overview
By: Frank V. Cespedes
- 2003
- Other Unpublished Work
New Horizons in Selling and Sales Management
By: Frank V. Cespedes
Keywords: Salesforce Management
- November 2014 (Revised February 2016)
- Case
DoubleDutch
By: Frank V. Cespedes and Matthew G. Preble
Lawrence Coburn and Pankaj Prasad, co-founders of the event solution startup DoubleDutch, have to make a significant decision about their young company's sales function. DoubleDutch's key product was a mobile application (app) and event management platform that... View Details
Keywords: Sales Management; Selling; Marketing Management; Strategy Implementation; Business Marketing; Sales Force Management; Salesforce Management; Marketing; Sales; Marketing Strategy; Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Technology Industry; United States; Europe; Asia
Cespedes, Frank V., and Matthew G. Preble. "DoubleDutch." Harvard Business School Case 815-044, November 2014. (Revised February 2016.)
- September 1996
- Supplement
Howard, Shea & Chan Asset Management (D): Sales Presentation, Video
Presents a sales presentation, allowing students and executive participants to develop a set of criteria for such a presentation and apply them to a real one. View Details
Shapiro, Benson P. "Howard, Shea & Chan Asset Management (D): Sales Presentation, Video." Harvard Business School Video Supplement 597-501, September 1996.
- August 2021
- Article
Improving Sales Hiring
By: Frank V. Cespedes
Sales hiring presents inherent challenges not found to the same extent in talent management in other functional areas. Moreover, common hiring practices make a tough job needlessly harder. This article suggests practical ways to improve sales hiring: Hire for the Task,... View Details
Cespedes, Frank V. "Improving Sales Hiring." Top Sales Magazine (August 2021), 20–21.
- May 1985
- Supplement
Quaker Oats Co.: Field Sales Force Strategy and Management, R. Balsbaugh Interview, Video
By: John A. Quelch
Quelch, John A. "Quaker Oats Co.: Field Sales Force Strategy and Management, R. Balsbaugh Interview, Video." Harvard Business School Video Supplement 885-522, May 1985.
- October 7, 2014
- Blog Post
How to Select Sales Managers Who Can Actually Manage.
By: Frank V. Cespedes
Keywords: Sales
Cespedes, Frank V. "How to Select Sales Managers Who Can Actually Manage." HubSpot (October 7, 2014). http://blog.hubspot.com/sales/how-to-select-sales-managers-who-can-actually-manage.
- 2021
- Book
Sales Management That Works: How to Sell in a World That Never Stops Changing
By: Frank V. Cespedes
Selling is changing, but the impact on sales of megatrends like ecommerce, big data, and AI is often misunderstood and not supported by empirical data. Managers who fail to separate fact from hype will make decisions based on bad assumptions and, in a competitive... View Details
Cespedes, Frank V. Sales Management That Works: How to Sell in a World That Never Stops Changing. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 2021.
- July 2023
- Teaching Note
Belden and Digital Transformation: From Product Sales to Solutions Sales
By: Frank V. Cespedes
Teaching Note for HBS Case No. 823-002. Belden manufactures devices such as switches, cables, adapters, and connectors. Faced with market changes, the firm initiated a new Enhanced Solutions Delivery (ESD) initiative. In November 2022 executives are evaluating the... View Details
- January 2019 (Revised October 2019)
- Case
Commercial Sales Transformation at Microsoft
By: Doug J. Chung
Industry leaders should adapt to changes in the business context and consider different ways to grow. Advances in technology had shifted software demand to the cloud. As a result, Microsoft announced a strategic shift in direction from its existing ‘Windows first’... View Details
Chung, Doug J. "Commercial Sales Transformation at Microsoft." Harvard Business School Case 519-054, January 2019. (Revised October 2019.)
- April 2008
- Case
Campbell and Bailyn's Boston Office: Managing the Reorganization
By: Anne Donnellon and Dun Gifford Jr
Ken Winston, the regional sales manager at a securities brokerage firm, has reorganized his generalist salespeople into Key Account Teams (KAT) to increase sales of specialized, higher-margin fixed income products. Winston is also implementing a new corporate... View Details
Keywords: Organizational Behavior; Fixed Costs; Group Dynamics; Human Resource Management; Compensation; Matrix Organization; Sales; Leading Teams; Management; Leadership; Organizational Design; Organizational Structure; Groups and Teams; Organizational Culture; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Change Management; Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Financial Services Industry; Boston
Donnellon, Anne, and Dun Gifford Jr. "Campbell and Bailyn's Boston Office: Managing the Reorganization." Harvard Business School Brief Case 082-182, April 2008.
- Research Summary
Overview
Dr. Burch’s research focuses on capitalism, work, and gender in the twentieth-century United States. Her work reinterprets the history of direct selling by placing it at the center, rather than on the margins, of narratives about advanced capitalism. Examining the... View Details
- January 2008
- Article
The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy
This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. In 1979, a young associate professor at Harvard Business School published his first... View Details
Keywords: Profit; Five Forces Framework; Industry Growth; Industry Structures; Business and Government Relations; Competitive Strategy
Porter, Michael E. "The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy." Special Issue on HBS Centennial. Harvard Business Review 86, no. 1 (January 2008): 78–93.
- April 2006 (Revised April 2012)
- Background Note
The Company Sale Process
Lays out the steps, the timeline, and the process by which a company is sold. Focuses on the sale of companies with enterprise values greater than $100 million. These transactions are large enough to require the help of a financial adviser and attract both strategic... View Details
Fruhan, William E., Jr. "The Company Sale Process." Harvard Business School Background Note 206-108, April 2006. (Revised April 2012.)
- May 2011
- Case
Baria Planning Solutions, Inc.: Fixing the Sales Process
By: Steven C. Wheelwright and William Schmidt
Baria Planning Solutions (BPS) is a consulting firm that specializes in using spend analysis to help companies identify savings through reduced procurement costs and improved supplier performance. Management is concerned about the disappointing performance of the sales... View Details
Keywords: Quantitative Analysis; Technology; Operations Management; Product Lines; Manufacturing; Capacity Planning; Production Planning; Production; Management Practices and Processes; Service Operations; Supply Chain Management; Salesforce Management; Planning; Consulting Industry; North and Central America
Wheelwright, Steven C., and William Schmidt. "Baria Planning Solutions, Inc.: Fixing the Sales Process." Harvard Business School Brief Case 114-568, May 2011.
- October 2024
- Article
How to Use Sales Assessments
By: Frank V. Cespedes
Judging a person’s fit for a sales job is complex, and research shows that managers greatly overrate their ability to predict someone’s performance on the basis of interviews. Hence, using assessments is a growing trend in sales hiring and training. This article... View Details
Cespedes, Frank V. "How to Use Sales Assessments." Top Sales Magazine (October 2024), 10–11.
- September 2024
- Article
Sales Coaching and Value Creation
By: Frank V. Cespedes
Despite the prevalence of “coachability” in firms’ stated hiring criteria, managers over-estimate the amount of time they actually devote to coaching their people. For example, research indicates that only 15% of sales managers even spend as much as 25% of their time... View Details
Keywords: Competency and Skills; Employee Relationship Management; Management Practices and Processes
Cespedes, Frank V. "Sales Coaching and Value Creation." Top Sales Magazine (September 2024), 20–21.
- April 2018
- Article
Effective Sales Training: What Are the Foundational Elements?
By: Frank V. Cespedes
Across industries, turnover in sales positions averages about 25–30% annually. This means that, at many firms, the equivalent of the entire sales force must be replaced and trained every four years or so. No other function has an ongoing talent management task of that... View Details
Cespedes, Frank V. "Effective Sales Training: What Are the Foundational Elements?" Top Sales Magazine (April 2018), 22–23.
- May 2023
- Article
Where Sales Technology (Really) Helps
By: Frank V. Cespedes
Interest in Sales Enablement (SE), the catch-all term for attempts to increase sales productivity with AI and other technologies, is driven by multiple factors. One is the declining costs of the tools. Also, selling is now data-hungry work and not just in tech sectors.... View Details