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Marketing & Sales Programs

12 Feb 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Adding Bricks to Clicks: The Effects of Store Openings on Sales through Direct Channels

Keywords: by Jill Avery, Mary Caravella, John Deighton & Thomas Steenburgh; Retail

Article

New Sales Realities

Business leaders need to understand that it’s the fit of People, Process, Pricing, and Partners that drives sales effectiveness. As firms confront new buying processes, required sales competencies affect hiring, training, and development (People). Without a coherent... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Performance Effectiveness

September 19, 2014
Article

How to Focus Your Sales Team on the Right Effectiveness Metrics.

Keywords: Sales

November 2021
Article

The Comprehensive Effects of Sales Force Management: A Dynamic Structural Analysis of Selection, Compensation, and Training

By: Doug J. Chung, Byungyeon Kim and Byoung G. Park

This study provides a comprehensive model of an agent’s behavior in response to multiple sales management instruments, including compensation, recruiting/termination, and training. The model on agents’ behavior takes into account many of the key elements that... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Compensation and Benefits; Resignation and Termination; Training; Behavior; Analysis

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Article

Sales Managers Must Manage

A common complaint from C-level executives about their sales colleagues concerns the latter’s ability to manage, not sell. Nearly every firm has examples of successful salespeople who are poor managers because they persist in their behaviors as reps rather than... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Management Skills

30 Jun 2019
Working Paper Summaries

The Comprehensive Effects of Sales Force Management: A Dynamic Structural Analysis of Selection, Compensation, and Training

Keywords: by Doug J. Chung, Byungyeon Kim, and Byoung G. Park

The Comprehensive Effects of Sales Force Management: A Dynamic Structural Analysis of Selection, Compensation, and Training

This study provides a comprehensive model of an agent’s behavior in response to multiple sales management instruments, including compensation, recruiting/termination, and training. The model takes into account many of the key elements that constitute a realistic... View Details

December 2017
Article

Discordant vs. Harmonious Selves: The Effects of Identity Conflict and Enhancement on Sales Performance in Employee-Customer Interactions

By: Lakshmi Ramarajan, Nancy Rothbard and Steffanie Wilk

Across multiple studies, we examine how identity conflict and enhancement within people affect performance in tasks that involve interactions between people through two mechanisms: role-immersion, operationalized as intrinsic motivation, and role-taking,... View Details

Keywords: Identity; Interpersonal Communication; Sales; Performance

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Research Summary

The Effects of Firm Size and Sales Growth Rate on Inventory Turnover Performance in the U.S. Retail Sector

We review and extend recent academic literature on the inventory turnover performance of public-listed U.S. retailers using firm-level financial data. Past research has shown that there is a large variation in the inventory turnover performance of retailers across... View Details

12 PM – 1 PM EST, 11 Feb 2016
Webinars: Career

Sales Skills Everyone Needs

Are you a sales professional looking to break through the noise? Could you use some insight into leveraging social dynamics and modern persuasion techniques? Whether you are a seasoned sales rep looking to sharpen your skills, or an entrepreneur looking to unravel... View Details

September 2024
Article

Sales Coaching and Value Creation

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

October 1989 (Revised November 2006)
Background Note

Deployment, Focus, and Measuring Effectiveness

Written for a module in the Marketing Implementation course (second-year MBA elective). Offers a framework for considering relevant factors that affect sales force deployment and criteria for measuring sales effectiveness and the conduct of field marketing efforts. View Details

Keywords: Performance Effectiveness; Sales; Marketing

Educators

2024
Working Paper

Fire Sales of Safe Assets

By: Gabor Pinter, Emil Siriwardane and Danny Walker

We use trade-level data to study price pressure effects in the UK gilt market from September to October 2022. During this period, forced sales by liability-driven investment funds (LDIs) led to price discounts on the order of 10%, accounting for roughly half the total... View Details

Keywords: Investment Funds; Capital Markets; United Kingdom

October 1988 (Revised November 2006)
Background Note

Aspects of Sales Management: An Introduction

Discusses certain general issues that affect sales-management requirements in most companies: 1) the nature of the salesperson's "boundary role" in the organization, and 2) the relevance and limits of compensation policies as a key means of affecting the salesperson's... View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management

Educators

May 3, 2023
Article

What Top-Performing Sales Managers Do Differently

By: Mike Schultz and Frank V. Cespedes

Sales managers hire reps, influence their training, provide (we hope) feedback and so reinforce good selling behaviors, and are key in the execution of growth and change initiatives. In a study of more than 1,000 sales managers and sellers across industries, we found... View Details

Keywords: Management Practices and Processes; Sales; Performance Effectiveness

Article

Four Ways to Build a Productive Sales Culture

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Steven Maughan

This article distinguishes sales efficiency (SE) initiatives (e.g., CRM, training, and KPI dashboards) from sales optimization (SO) decisions (e.g., aligning sales tasks with business strategy, customer selection, and deployment of sales resources across... View Details

Keywords: Strategy; Sales

March 1990 (Revised October 1999)
Case

Mary Kay Cosmetics: Sales Force Incentives (A)

By: Robert L. Simons and Hilary Weston

Describes the incentive system by which Mary Kay Cosmetics motivates the sales force of 200,000 independent agents who comprise the firm's only distribution channel. Illustrates the powerful effect on sales-force behavior that results when creative types of employee... View Details

Keywords: Motivation and Incentives; Cost Management; Salesforce Management; Distribution Channels; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; United States

Educators

November 2006 (Revised December 2006)
Module Note

Personal Selling and Sales Management

Develop a better understanding of what salespeople do, what motivates them to succeed, and how to effectively manage their efforts. View Details

Keywords: Salesforce Management