Publications

Fall 2010
Article

Government Adoption of Sales Promotions: An Initial Appraisal

By: John A. Quelch and Katherine E. Jocz

December 2003
Case

Sale of Hephaestus, Inc. to Vulcan Ventures, Inc.

Henry Hephaestus founded Hephaestus, Inc. in 1895. Its first product was a tapered roller bearing for use with horse-drawn wagons and carriages. It reduced friction on the axle and reduced the force necessary to move a heavy load, thereby enabling one horse to do the... View Details

Keywords: Business Exit or Shutdown; Entrepreneurship; Family Ownership; Manufacturing Industry

Educators

05 Dec 2023
News

What Founders Get Wrong about Sales and Marketing

11 Jan 2013
News

Sales Moves Beyond Face-to-Face Deals, Onto the Web

13 Mar 2017
News

Hiding Products From Customers May Ultimately Boost Sales

September 12, 2017
Article

What's the Right Kind of Bonus to Motivate Your Sales Force?

By: Doug J. Chung and Das Narayandas

Companies typically compensate their sales force by using some combination of salary, commission, and bonuses, but executives are often unsure which incentives provide the best motivation. Should bonuses be tied to quotas or should they be given unconditionally? Is it... View Details

Keywords: Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives; Salesforce Management

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July 2002
Article

The Sale of Ideas: Strategic Disclosure, Property Rights, and Contracting

By: James J. Anton and Dennis A. Yao

Ideas are difficult to sell when buyers cannot assess an idea's value before it is revealed and sellers cannot protect a revealed idea. These problems exist in a variety of intellectual property sales ranging from pure ideas to poorly protected inventions and reflect... View Details

Keywords: Intellectual Property; Contracts; Strategy; Valuation

August 1986 (Revised May 1989)
Case

Honeywell Information Systems (A): The Indirect Sales Operation

December 1994
Supplement

Physician Sales and Service, Inc. (B): March 1993

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

04 Jan 2022
News

Is Your Sales Team Struggling to Sell Solutions?

Web

Field Course: Entrepreneurial Sales 103 - Course Catalog

HBS Course Catalog Field Course: Entrepreneurial Sales 103 Course Number 6665 Senior Lecturer Lou Shipley Spring; Q4; 1.5 credits Project/Paper To apply, please submit your CV and a paragraph of interest to this application form by... View Details

Article

Your Sales Training Is Probably Lackluster. Here's How to Fix It

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Yuchun Lee

U.S. companies spend over $70 billion annually on training and an average of $1,459 per salesperson—almost 20% more than they spend on workers in all other functions. Yet, when it comes to equipping sales teams with relevant knowledge and skills, the ROI of sales... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Training

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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

March 2023
Case

Innovation at Google Ads: The Sales Acceleration and Innovation Labs (SAIL) (A)

By: Linda A. Hill and Emily Tedards

In 2018, Ana Owczarzak was appointed to lead Google Ads' new innovation and accelerator team - the Sales Acceleration and Innovation Labs (SAIL). The purpose of SAIL was to offer testing and incubation services for individuals within Google Ads who were developing new... View Details

Keywords: Innovation Leadership; Innovation Strategy; Organizational Design; Technology Industry; Advertising Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States

Educators

April 12, 2023
Article

Using AI to Adjust Your Marketing and Sales in a Volatile World

By: Das Narayandas and Arijit Sengupta

Why are some firms better and faster than others at adapting their use of customer data to respond to changing or uncertain marketing conditions? A common thread across faster-acting firms is the use of AI models to predict outcomes at various stages of the customer... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; AI and Machine Learning; Consumer Behavior; Technology Adoption; Competitive Advantage

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November 1986 (Revised June 1987)
Case

Fieldcrest Division of Fieldcrest Mills, Inc.: Compensation System for Field Sales Representatives

By: Frank V. Cespedes

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... View Details

Keywords: Markets; Competitive Strategy; Compensation and Benefits

Educators

December 2021
Article

Employee Responses to Compensation Changes: Evidence from a Sales Firm

By: Jason Sandvik, Richard Saouma, Nathan Seegert and Christopher Stanton

What are the long-term consequences of compensation changes? Using data from an inbound sales call center, we study employee responses to a compensation change that ultimately reduced take-home pay by 7% for the average affected worker. The change caused a significant... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Wages; Compensation and Benefits; Change; Performance; Resignation and Termination; Retention; Analysis

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13 Mar 2017
Research & Ideas

Hiding Products From Customers May Ultimately Boost Sales

copyright 2016 by Kris Johnson Ferreira and Joel Goh Ferreira and Goh launched the research after a conversation with an executive at flash sales boutique Rue La La, with whom Ferreira had conducted previous research on product pricing.... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Retail; Fashion

February 2018
Teaching Note

Rosslyn Resource: Monetization and Sales Strategy (Brief Case)

By: Robert J. Dolan and Sunru Yong

Teaching Note for HBS No. 918-509. View Details