Publications

March 2023
Supplement

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

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; Organizational Culture; Technology Industry; Information Technology Industry; Advertising Industry; United States

February 2018
Supplement

Qualtrics (C)

By: Doug J. Chung and James M. Lattin

Qualtrics was an online survey research platform and since the beginning, the company had relied entirely on an inside sales model—sales done remotely without face-to-face contact with clients. The low-cost inside sales model, along with an emphasis on a strong sales... View Details

Keywords: Inside Sales Model; Sales; Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation

February 2018
Supplement

Qualtrics (B)

By: Doug J. Chung and James M. Lattin

Qualtrics was an online survey research platform and since the beginning, the company had relied entirely on an inside sales model—sales done remotely without face-to-face contact with clients. The low-cost inside sales model, along with an emphasis on a strong sales... View Details

Keywords: Inside Sales Model; Sales; Strategy; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Change and Adaptation

Web

Entrepreneurial Sales 101: Founder Selling - Course Catalog

at school was how to sell.” -Dean Nohria Entrepreneurs and general managers must not only understand the sales process but also embrace that the ability to sell is the single most critical success factor of... View Details

27 Mar 2015
News

The Sales Director Who Turned Work into a Fantasy Sports Competition

01 Nov 1999
Research & Ideas

John H. Patterson and the Sales Strategy of the National Cash Register Company, 1884 to 1922

John H. Patterson created an intricate system of management to monitor and train company salesman. He gave them scripts to memorize and assigned them territory to cover. He held conventions and thematic sales contests, and pressured... View Details

Keywords: by Walter A. Friedman

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

July 2017
Case

Magpie: Developing and Using Buyer Personas

By: Frank V. Cespedes

The founders of a start-up platform for publishers have developed preliminary personas of target customers and are evaluating the implications for initial target buyers, messaging, and marketing programs. The case is useful for discussing the process of developing... View Details

Keywords: Buying Process; Marketing; Sales; Distribution Channels; Segmentation; Entrepreneurship; Social Media; Consumer Products Industry; Fashion Industry; United States

1980
Working Paper

Components of Manufacturing Inventories: A Structural Model of the Production Process

By: Alan J. Auerbach and Jerry R. Green

This paper presents a structural model of production and inventory accumulation based on the hypothesis of cost minimization. It differs from previous attempts in several respects. First, it integrates the analysis of input inventories with output inventories, treating... View Details

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The Sales Acceleration Formula provides a scalable, predictable approach to growing revenue and building a winning sales team. Everyone wants to build the next $100 million business and author Mark Roberge has actually done it using a unique methodology... View Details

2006
Working Paper

Cross-Functional Alignment in Supply Chain Planning: A Case Study of Sales and Operations Planning

In most organizations, supply chain planning is a cross-functional effort. Functional areas such as sales, marketing, finance, and operations traditionally specialize in portions of the planning activities, which results in conflicts over expectations, preferences, and... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chain Management; Planning

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August 2018
Teaching Note

Magpie: Developing and Using Buyer Personas

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Teaching Note for HBS No. 818-013. Magpie is a startup with a platform that allows publishers to natively tag the products discussed in their content and thus allows consumers to purchase those products without needing to leave that publisher’s web page. A key aspect... View Details

Keywords: Buying Process; Marketing; Sales; Distribution Channels; Segmentation; Entrepreneurship; Social Media; Consumer Products Industry; Fashion Industry; United States

February 2017 (Revised August 2018)
Case

Sarah Powers at Automated Precision Products

By: Jeffrey T. Polzer, Michael Norris, Julia Kelley and Kristina Tobio

In 2017, Sarah Powers, VP of Sales at an automation hardware firm, is trying to understand why some members of her sales team have been underperforming. She is tasked with analyzing her firm’s email and calendar data to try to find relationships between communications... View Details

Keywords: People Analytics; Sales Attainment; Communication Networks; Data; Human Resources; Business Processes; Sales; Communication; Analytics and Data Science; Analysis; Industrial Products Industry; Manufacturing Industry; United States

06 Sep 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Cross Functional Alignment in Supply Chain Planning: A Case Study of Sales & Operations Planning

Keywords: by Rogelio Oliva & Noel Watson

May 2024
Supplement

HubSpot and Motion AI (B): Generative AI Opportunities

By: Jill Avery

The technologies driving artificial intelligence (AI) had progressed significantly since HubSpot’s acquisition of Motion AI in 2017. Generative AI was the newest major development. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies such as HubSpot were analyzing how generative AI... View Details

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; CRM; Chatbots; Sales Management; Generative Ai; SaaS; Marketing; Sales; AI and Machine Learning; Customer Relationship Management; Applications and Software; Technological Innovation; Competitive Advantage; Technology Industry; United States

October 2016 (Revised April 2018)
Case

DataXu: Selling Ad Tech

By: Frank V. Cespedes, John Deighton, Lisa Cox and Olivia Hull

DataXu served marketers by buying digital advertising for brands using its demand-side platform. It sought a way to build a more predictable revenue stream in the very transactional media marketplace, and hoped that two new marketing analytics products would give it a... View Details

Keywords: Sales Management; Pricing; Programmatic Ad Buying; ＂Marketing Analytics＂; Advertising Technology; Sales; Digital Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Advertising Campaigns; Product Launch; Product Positioning; Media; Technology Industry; Advertising Industry; Boston; Massachusetts

April 6, 2023
Article

A New NFT Launch Strategy: The Wave Mint

By: Scott Duke Kominers and 1337 Skulls Sers

In an NFT project, the mint—the process by which tokens are initially allocated—largely determines who your community is and how they and the broader market view the project going forward. In this piece, we review a new minting strategy recently introduced by 1337... View Details

Keywords: NFTs; Mechanism Design; Sales Management; Sales Model; Crypto Economy; Non-fungible Tokens; Networks; Product Launch; Auctions; Market Design

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February 2016 (Revised January 2017)
Case

Bidding for Finansbank

By: David Scharfstein and Esel Çekin

Because of the deepening Greek crisis, in October 2015, National Bank of Greece (NBG) was required to sell one of its most valuable assets, Finansbank, the eighth largest Turkish bank. There were three potential buyers: Garanti Bank, Turkey's second largest private... View Details

Keywords: Banking; Acquisitions; International Acquisition; Cross-border Investment; Bidding; Bidders; Regulations; ROE; Cost Synergies; Regional Growth; Emerging Market; Sales Process; Valuation; Mergers and Acquisitions; Banking Industry; Turkey; Europe

November 2018
Case

Yatooq: Longing for Arabic Coffee

By: Mark Roberge, Gamze Yucaoglu and Samer Al-Rachedy

As one of the few female entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia, Lateefa Alwaalan had been trying to produce the perfect cup of Arabic coffee for over a decade. In 2007, she began testing various coffee blends, which she later branded Yatooq, the Arabic word for “craving” or... View Details