Publications

19 Dec 2018
News

Case Study: Should a Direct-to-Consumer Company Start Selling on Amazon?

06 Aug 2019
Cold Call Podcast

Super Bowl Ads Sell Products, but Do They Sell Brands?

Kenny: : "This flat tire needs a man," says the narrator of the Goodyear Tire commercial that aired during the inaugural Super Bowl between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs in 1967. The ad featured a damsel in distress with a blown tire on a... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Sports; Entertainment & Recreation; Media & Broadcasting

November 2021
Teaching Note

Seeding and Selling Asana

By: Jeffrey F. Rayport, Tom Quinn, Amram Migdal and Susie Ma

This teaching note accompanies case no. 821-054, “Seeding and Selling Asana.” View Details

Keywords: Sales; Information Technology; Applications and Software; Technology Industry; United States

06 Aug 2019
News

Super Bowl Ads Sell Products, but Do They Sell Brands?

Article

Sales Methodologies and Selling

By: Frank V. Cespedes

Sales methodologies play an important role. A common approach in a sales force allows for consistency, dissemination of best practices, acceleration of learning, and it helps the firm to scale because management then has common metrics to monitor and evaluate. However,... View Details

Keywords: Methodology; Sales; Analysis

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06 Feb 2006
News

Selling Livedoor

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

January 1990 (Revised February 1993)
Case

Selling Durable Goods

Examines the pricing policy for a firm that is a monopoly supplier of a durable good. Lowering price over time in an attempt to increase market penetration seems desirable. But doing so may also cause some buyers to postpone their purchases. Describes these... View Details

Keywords: Price; Consumer Behavior; Monopoly

September 2007 (Revised April 2009)
Case

Norway Sells Wal-Mart

By: Robert C. Pozen and Aldo Sesia

In June 2006, Norway's Pension Fund decided to divest its position in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. after an investigation by the Fund's Ethics Council. According to a spokesperson of Norway's Finance Ministry, "The recommendation to exclude Wal-Mart cites serious and... View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Ethics; Insurance; Investment Activism; Investment Funds; Government and Politics; Rights; Problems and Challenges; Labor and Management Relations; Power and Influence; Retail Industry; Norway

01 Sep 2022
News

Selling with Service

May 2018
Article

The Changing Craft of Selling

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Tiffani Bova

This article draws on two surveys: one with more than 3,100 sales professionals about trends affecting the role(s) of sales in their companies, and the other with over 7,000 consumer and business buyers about their expectations when dealing with sales people. The... View Details

Keywords: Sales; Change; Trends; Performance Effectiveness

Article

Get Ready to Sell

By: Frank V. Cespedes and Bud Hyler

Time-to-market measures the time to have a product ready to ship. But that’s not revenue and cash. Many firms with superb R&D functions lack an understanding of what’s needed to be ready-to-sell. Meanwhile, relevant tools are increasing in scope and decreasing in cost.... View Details

Keywords: Ready-to-sell; Sales; Health Pandemics; Performance Effectiveness

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Fast Answer

Short interest selling

Where can I find aggregate data for short interest selling on the NYSE? Search Bloomberg Academic: Type: NI SHI and hit Enter Use Global Financial... View Details

November 2006
Case

Selling Biovail Short

By: Malcolm P. Baker, Chris Lombardi and Aldo Sesia

Hedge fund SAC Capital and analysts from Gradient Analytics and Banc of America face charges of stock price manipulation from Biovail, a Canadian pharmaceutical company. Gradient and BofA produced negative reports on Biovail's earnings quality. At the same time, SAC... View Details

Keywords: Stock Shares; Investment Banking; Asset Pricing; Financial Strategy; Crime and Corruption; Pharmaceutical Industry; Financial Services Industry; Canada

April 2007
Teaching Note

Sell Yourself! (TN)

By: Thomas J. Steenburgh and Michael I. Norton

August 1978 (Revised October 1979)
Exercise

Selling a Firm

By: Howard Raiffa

Find at Harvard

01 Jun 2023
News

Buy Big, Sell Small

If you live in a rural village or small city in India and run low on toothpaste, rice, or cooking oil, you’ll likely visit your local kirana, the equivalent of a US neighborhood variety store and a mainstay of the country’s $932 billion retail economy. The shops are... View Details

Keywords: Deborah Blagg; retail; supply chain management; entrepreneurship; leadership; innovation; Miscellaneous Store Retailers; Retail Trade

Article

Selling After the Crisis

By: Frank V. Cespedes

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

Keywords: Sales Model; Sales; Management; Customer Relationship Management; Health Pandemics