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- February 2016 (Revised August 2020)
- Case
InsightSquared: Developing the Sales and Marketing Plan
Fred Shilmover and Sam Clemens prepared for their fourth quarter board meeting. They were excited to have scaled their software startup, InsightSquared, to $2 million in revenue and secured an $8 million round of venture capital. However, they disagreed on the path... View Details
Keywords: Sales Planning; Applications and Software; Marketing; Sales; Planning; Growth and Development Strategy
Roberge, Mark, Tom Eisenmann, and Frank Cespedes. "InsightSquared: Developing the Sales and Marketing Plan." Harvard Business School Case 816-074, February 2016. (Revised August 2020.)
- April 2011
- Case
Designs by Kate: The Power of Direct Sales
By: John A. Deighton and Sarah Abbott
The sales representatives at Designs by Kate (DBK) sell private label jewelry at hosted parties and through online social media channels. They are also responsible for recruiting, training, and managing new sales reps. CEO and founder Kate Creevey designed the... View Details
Keywords: Direct Sales; Consumer Marketing; Marketing Management; Personal Selling; Sales Compensation; Sales Organization; Motivation and Incentives; Marketing Strategy; Salesforce Management; Performance; Compensation and Benefits; Apparel and Accessories Industry
Deighton, John A., and Sarah Abbott. "Designs by Kate: The Power of Direct Sales." Harvard Business School Brief Case 114-284, April 2011.
- February 2019 (Revised July 2019)
- Case
Sales Force Management at Nobel Ilac
By: Doug J. Chung and Gamze Yucaoglu
Nobel Ilac was a Turkish generic pharmaceutical company marketing more than 100 drugs in 20 countries and, as of 2017, had over 2,500 employees worldwide. Nobel had implemented a transformation strategy—more specifically, a customer segmentation plan—whereby the sales... View Details
Keywords: Sales Strategy; Compensation; Employee Retention; Recruiting; Pharmaceuticals; Salesforce Management; Strategy; Organizational Design; Human Resources; Compensation and Benefits; Employees; Retention; Recruitment; Pharmaceutical Industry; Turkey
Chung, Doug J., and Gamze Yucaoglu. "Sales Force Management at Nobel Ilac." Harvard Business School Case 519-067, February 2019. (Revised July 2019.)
- July 2016 (Revised October 2016)
- Case
Entrepreneurial Sales and Marketing Vignettes
By: Mark Roberge and Frank Cespedes
Which sales candidate is a startup’s ideal first hire? What marketing channels are best to invest in? How aggressively should an executive team align sales with customer success? Early stage founders, sales leaders, and marketing executives often face one, and... View Details
Keywords: Entrepreneurial Marketing; Entrepreneurial Sales; Business Startups; Talent; Talent Management; Growth Management; Marketing Communications; Social Marketing; Salesforce Management; Pricing; Sales; Marketing
Roberge, Mark, and Frank Cespedes. "Entrepreneurial Sales and Marketing Vignettes." Harvard Business School Case 817-010, July 2016. (Revised October 2016.)
- March 7, 2024
- Article
Integrating Digital Tools into Every Stage of Your Sales Strategy
By: Frank V. Cespedes and Georg Krentzel
In their growth and customer-acquisition activities, most companies now face twin challenges: understanding and responding to omni-channel buying behavior and doing that without inadvertently decreasing sales productivity. Thirty years ago, Peter Drucker noted that... View Details
Keywords: Sales Management; Digital Tools; Sales; Marketing Channels; Technology Adoption; Brands and Branding
Cespedes, Frank V., and Georg Krentzel. "Integrating Digital Tools into Every Stage of Your Sales Strategy." Harvard Business Review (website) (March 7, 2024).
- January 2019 (Revised February 2020)
- Case
Roush Performance: How to Design a Sales Force Compensation Plan
By: Doug J. Chung
Roush Performance manufactured and marketed factory-modified performance vehicles and high-end aftermarket automotive performance parts. Since its inception, Roush Performance had focused on building its engineering technology competency and diversifying its product... View Details
Keywords: Sales Force Management; Motivation; Compensation; Salary; Commissions; Bonuses; Quotas; Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives
Chung, Doug J. "Roush Performance: How to Design a Sales Force Compensation Plan." Harvard Business School Case 519-066, January 2019. (Revised February 2020.)
- May 2009
- Case
Ceres Gardening Company: Funding Growth in Organic Products
By: John H. McArthur and Sunru Yong
Ceres is a leading player in the growing organic gardening industry, selling seeds, small plants, and related items. Their distribution depends heavily on retail sales through independent nurseries and garden centers. Because these small dealers are unable to finance... View Details
Keywords: Accounting Procedures; Marketing; Business Growth; Plant-Based Agribusiness; Marketing Strategy; Expansion; Business Growth and Maturation; Marketing Channels; Credit; Financial Statements; Sales; Retail Industry; Agriculture and Agribusiness Industry
McArthur, John H., and Sunru Yong. "Ceres Gardening Company: Funding Growth in Organic Products." Harvard Business School Brief Case 094-017, May 2009.
- 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
- 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.)
- 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
Schultz, Mike, and Frank V. Cespedes. "What Top-Performing Sales Managers Do Differently." TrainingIndustry.com (May 3, 2023).
- July 9, 2019
- Article
Setting Better Sales Goals with Analytics
By: Doug J. Chung, Isabel Huber, Vinay Murthy, Varun Sunku and Marije Weber
Sales compensation is a critical lever in motivating a salesforce and driving growth in the business-to-business sector: Studies show that revising compensation in line with market trends can have a 50% greater impact on sales than advertisements have, for instance. A... View Details
Keywords: Analytics; Salesforce Management; Compensation and Benefits; Motivation and Incentives; Goals and Objectives
Chung, Doug J., Isabel Huber, Vinay Murthy, Varun Sunku, and Marije Weber. "Setting Better Sales Goals with Analytics." Harvard Business Review (website) (July 9, 2019).
- June 2013 (Revised August 2017)
- Case
Coupa
By: Michael Roberts and William Sahlman
The case describes the growth of Coupa, a software as a service platform for procurement / expense management. The issues in the case are around how fast to grow and how to finance that growth. The case includes a detailed financial model that will help students... View Details
- January 2022
- Case
Walmart USA—Searching for Growth
By: Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Maria P. Roche
In 2022, Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart, and his team looked back at a difficult but ultimately successful past year. The global pandemic had posed enormous challenges, but the company had weathered the storm successfully, raising same-store sales growth,... View Details
Keywords: Health Pandemics; Growth and Development Strategy; Sales; Business Strategy; Business and Shareholder Relations; Retail Industry
Oberholzer-Gee, Felix, and Maria P. Roche. "Walmart USA—Searching for Growth." Harvard Business School Case 722-395, January 2022.
- October 2023
- Article
Finding New Business and Developing Relevant Sales Capabilities
There are few alternatives to growth for most companies. It’s the rare firm whose goal involves getting smaller and, for employees, there is a strong correlation between their company’s growth rate, promotion opportunities, and job satisfaction. But a growth strategy... View Details
Cespedes, Frank V. "Finding New Business and Developing Relevant Sales Capabilities." Top Sales Magazine (October 2023), 24–25.
- February 2020
- Case
Drift: The First Sales Hire
By: Mark Roberge
David Cancel and Elias Torres, the co-founders of Drift, scaled their business to thousands of users and hundreds of thousands in revenue. However, they were falling short of the annual revenue target they communicated to the board of directors. Having scaled the... View Details
Roberge, Mark. "Drift: The First Sales Hire." Harvard Business School Case 820-103, February 2020.
- October 2013 (Revised April 2015)
- Case
Myomo: Getting Sales in Motion
By: Frank V. Cespedes, Shikhar Ghosh and Matthew Preble
In late 2012, the management team of Myomo, a startup which had designed a unique myoelectric arm brace for patients with dysfunctional arms, was deciding which of the three sales models the company had tested to pursue as its sales strategy going forward. Each model... View Details
Keywords: Technological Innovation; Information Technology; Marketing Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Health Care and Treatment; Business Startups; Sales; Growth and Development Strategy; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Health Industry
Cespedes, Frank V., Shikhar Ghosh, and Matthew Preble. "Myomo: Getting Sales in Motion." Harvard Business School Case 814-034, October 2013. (Revised April 2015.)
- 05 Dec 2023
- Cold Call Podcast
What Founders Get Wrong about Sales and Marketing
Keywords: Re: Mark N. Roberge
- May 2009
- Teaching Note
Ceres Gardening Company: Funding Growth in Organic Products (Brief Case)
By: John H. McArthur and Sunru Yong
Teaching Note to 4017. View Details
- September 2018
- Case
Hunley, Inc.: Casting for Growth
By: John A. Quelch and James T. Kindley
Hunley, Inc. manufactures rods for the niche sport of fly fishing. It specializes in freshwater rods that are perceived as "middle-market" products, targeted at "avid" fly fishers. In the face of declining revenue and a decreasing price per unit sold, the company's... View Details
Keywords: Growth and Development Strategy; Marketing Strategy; Decision Choices and Conditions; Sports; Marketing Channels; Distribution Channels
Quelch, John A., and James T. Kindley. "Hunley, Inc.: Casting for Growth." Harvard Business School Brief Case 919-501, September 2018.
- September 2024
- Case
Xendit: Hiring for Growth
By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Steve Castano, Quoc Anh Nguyen and Claire Wu
In 2019, Xendit, a growth-stage Southeast Asia (SEA) fintech venture based in Jakarta, was looking to hire a Head of Sales and Head of Product to lead its next phase of growth. Founded by Moses Lo and Tessa Wijaya, Xendit provided payment infrastructure, modeling... View Details
Keywords: Fintech; Financing and Loans; Entrepreneurship; Jobs and Positions; Sales; Product; Growth and Development; Selection and Staffing; Organizational Culture; Expansion; Financial Services Industry; Technology Industry; Southeast Asia; Indonesia; Philippines
Rayport, Jeffrey F., Steve Castano, Quoc Anh Nguyen, and Claire Wu. "Xendit: Hiring for Growth." Harvard Business School Case 825-046, September 2024.