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Show Results For
- All HBS Web
(1,075)
- People (1)
- News (142)
- Research (814)
- Events (7)
- Multimedia (4)
- Faculty Publications (218)
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- 27 Oct 2002
- Research & Ideas
Want a Happy Customer? Coordinate Sales and Marketing
sales should not be the same because the functions they perform require important differences. But, they can be complementary and operate in such a way that customers are efficiently and effectively... View Details
Keywords: by Benson Shapiro
- 22 Mar 2017
- Research & Ideas
What's the Ideal Frequency for a Sales Quota?
quota. This raises a key question for sales managers: What kind of quota is the most motivating? Could salesforce performance be kick-started if that quota incentive was delivered more frequently? The answer is contained in a new paper,... View Details
Keywords: by Carmen Nobel
- 22 Feb 2021
- Book
Reaching Today's Omnichannel Customer Takes a New Sales Strategy
Selling is changing, but broad generalizations and false dichotomies about ecommerce, big data, and other trends—hallmarks of current sales advice—are keeping business leaders from making sound decisions, says Frank Cespedes, author of a... View Details
Keywords: by Kristen Senz
- 19 Nov 2010
- Working Paper Summaries
Do Bonuses Enhance Sales Productivity? A Dynamic Structural Analysis of Bonus-Based Compensation Plans
- Article
How Real Sales Learning Happens: In the Flow of Work
By: Yuchun Lee, Mark Magnacca and Frank V. Cespedes
Most learning in sales is through peer learning in task-specific contexts, and the effects are cumulative because modeling behavior is a big driver of how salespeople develop. This is very different from the experience in most training seminars, especially if the... View Details
Lee, Yuchun, Mark Magnacca, and Frank V. Cespedes. "How Real Sales Learning Happens: In the Flow of Work." Learning Solutions (February 15, 2021).
- 23 Aug 2006
- Op-Ed
The Real Wal-Mart Effect
Wal-Mart's domestic sales volume, U.S. consumers save on the order of $18 billion per year. And because Wal-Mart forces its competitors to charge lower prices as well, this figure is a fraction of the company's real impact. These kinds of... View Details
- September 2018
- Case
OYO: Creating Effective Spaces
By: Das Narayandas, Sunil Gupta, Rachna Tahilyani and Mahima Rao-Kachroo
Twenty-four-year old Ritesh Agarwal, founder and CEO of India-based online hotel branding network OYO Rooms, has tackled the issue of unreliability in India's highly fragmented budget hotel industry. In 2018, OYO branded 8,500 properties across 200 cities and managed... View Details
Keywords: Technology; Accomodation; App Development; Operations And Processes; Innovation; Strategy; Change Management; Entrepreneurship; Information Technology; Research; Marketing; Operations; Innovation Strategy; Sales; Accommodations Industry; India; South Asia
Narayandas, Das, Sunil Gupta, Rachna Tahilyani, and Mahima Rao-Kachroo. "OYO: Creating Effective Spaces." Harvard Business School Case 519-023, September 2018.
- 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
Chung, Doug J., and Das Narayandas. "What's the Right Kind of Bonus to Motivate Your Sales Force?" Harvard Business Review (website) (September 12, 2017).
- 30 Aug 2004
- Research & Ideas
Mapping Your Board’s Effectiveness
asking an occasional question or offering an occasional comment to show that they are doing their due diligence. Extending the Balanced Scorecard and strategy map framework to board members will enable them to perform more effectively and... View Details
Keywords: by Robert S. Kaplan
- 21 Nov 2016
- Research & Ideas
It Matters That Your CEO Doesn't Know Much About Sales
payroll monthly gave me a new appreciation for sales and selling,” he says. “As [Samuel] Johnson said, the prospect of hanging in the morning concentrates the mind.” He put much of what he learned in his 2014 book, Aligning Strategy and... View Details
Keywords: by Michael Blanding
- December 2016
- Article
The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales, Revisited
By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf
Even as we approach the twentieth anniversary of widespread file sharing, its impact on the sale of copyrighted material remains in dispute. We contributed to this debate with an early study, “The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales: An Empirical Analysis,” that was... View Details
Oberholzer-Gee, Felix, and Koleman Strumpf. "The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales, Revisited." Information Economics and Policy 37 (December 2016): 61–66.
- Article
Positioning Brands Against Large Competitors to Increase Sales
By: Neeru Paharia, Jill Avery and Anat Keinan
We explore the effect of having a large dominant competitor and show the conditions under which focusing on a competitive threat, rather than hiding it, can actually help a brand. We demonstrate through lab and field studies that highlighting a large competitor's size... View Details
Keywords: Brands; Brand Management; Brand Positioning; Competitive Positioning; Brands and Branding; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Retail Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Air Transportation Industry; United States
Paharia, Neeru, Jill Avery, and Anat Keinan. "Positioning Brands Against Large Competitors to Increase Sales." Journal of Marketing Research (JMR) 51, no. 6 (December 2014): 647–656. (Lead article.)
- 22 Feb 2012
- Working Paper Summaries
The Dynamic Effects of Bundling as a Product Strategy
- Article
Selling After the Crisis
Like perishable goods in grocery stores, sales models have a sell-by date. As product standards evolve and new entrants emerge, buyers have more choices and demand more in terms of quality and performance across vendors. Firms that fail to adjust to changing customer... View Details
Cespedes, Frank V. "Selling After the Crisis." Harvard Business Review 99, no. 2 (March–April 2021): 52–57.
- 08 Feb 2000
- Research & Ideas
Building Effective R&D Capabilities Abroad
"Building Effective R&D Capabilities Abroad," Walter Kuemmerle looks at changes in the research & development function in the global economy. A centralized R&D approach will no longer suffice, says Kuemmerle, for two... View Details
Keywords: by Walter Kuemmerle
- November–December 2013
- Article
The Dynamic Effects of Bundling as a Product Strategy
By: Timothy Derdenger and Vineet Kumar
Several key questions in bundling have not been empirically examined: Is mixed bundling more effective than pure bundling or pure components? Does correlation in consumer valuations make bundling more or less effective? Does bundling serve as a complement or substitute... View Details
Derdenger, Timothy, and Vineet Kumar. "The Dynamic Effects of Bundling as a Product Strategy." Marketing Science 32, no. 6 (November–December 2013): 827–859.
- January 26, 2017
- Article
Executives and Salespeople Are Misaligned—and the Effects Are Costly
By: Frank V. Cespedes and Christopher Wallace
This article discusses the results of a survey of senior executives, middle managers, and sales people from companies across a variety of industries. The survey focused on questions about how well their companies’ strategies informed six critical elements of their... View Details
Cespedes, Frank V., and Christopher Wallace. "Executives and Salespeople Are Misaligned—and the Effects Are Costly." Harvard Business Review (website) (January 26, 2017).
- 2014
- Book
Aligning Strategy and Sales: The Choices, Systems, and Behaviors That Drive Effective Selling
There are many books that provide strategy advice and selling methodologies. But there is a gap in the management literature when it comes to linking sales efforts with strategy. Part 1 of this book provides data indicating how and why sales remain (by far) the biggest... View Details
Cespedes, Frank V. Aligning Strategy and Sales: The Choices, Systems, and Behaviors That Drive Effective Selling. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 2014.
- 09 Nov 2021
- Research & Ideas
The Simple Secret of Effective Mentoring Programs
Old-fashioned mentoring may be one of the most effective ways to improve job performance, but many mentorship programs don’t reach new hires who need guidance most, new research suggests. Newly hired employees at a United States call... View Details
Keywords: by Jay Fitzgerald
- December 2022
- Article
Conflicting Interests and the Effect of Fiduciary Duty: Evidence from Variable Annuities
By: Mark Egan, Shan Ge and Johnny Tang
We examine the variable annuity market to study conflicts of interest and the effect of fiduciary duty in brokerage markets. Insurers typically pay brokers higher commissions for selling more expensive annuities. Our results indicate that sales are four times as... View Details
Keywords: Variable Annuity; Brokers; Fiduciary Duty; Finance; Investment; Insurance; Conflict of Interests; Financial Services Industry; Insurance Industry; United States
Egan, Mark, Shan Ge, and Johnny Tang. "Conflicting Interests and the Effect of Fiduciary Duty: Evidence from Variable Annuities." Review of Financial Studies 35, no. 12 (December 2022): 5334–5386.