Social Media is Changing Everything (in the Sales Force)
Learn current practices, trends, and emerging issues related to the sales organization's use of social media. Participate in SMA's Social Media and the Sales Force Research Initiative.
Certification Programs for Sales Operations and Sales Management Professionals
The Sales Management Association now offers two new professional designations: the Certified Sales Management Professional (CSMP) and the Certified Sales Operations Professional (CSOP). Learn more.
Group Membership
SMA's group membership allows your whole team to benefit from SMA content, events, and networking. Learn more.
New Associate Membership
SMA's new Associate Membership option is now available to sales management and sales operations practitioners. This Beta program provides access to a monthly selection of content, and other member benefits. Learn more.
Sales Force Coaching Content Roundup
Coaching is fundamental to improving salespeople's performance, yet it remains perhaps the least understood and most inconsistently implemented management skill in sales organizations. Learn how great sales leaders use coaching to drive results by accessing SMA's coaching content.
SMA Research on iPads in the Sales Force
Who's using them, and why? Find out by participating in SMA's research initiative on tablet PC usage in sales organizations.
Research Brief
2012 Sales Operations Issues StudyJanuary 05, 2012
The most recent update to our annual Sales Operations Issues study includes input from sales operations professionals from 125 firms, with median annual revenue of US$400 million. Highlights include analysis of sales operations departments' accountabilities, roles, and most important issues, respondents' assessment of their current performance in key functional areas, reporting relationships, and job titles.
Survey findings correlate issues deemed "most critical to sales operations." These are issues that intersect when rated by three criteria: those considered most important to sales force performance, those issues with which Sales Operations is highly involved, and those which are judged lowest performing. These critical issues include: redesigning sales force roles and responsibilities to optimize performance, improving account planning quality, improving new hire onboarding, and improving sales manager training effectiveness.
Research Brief
Supply Chain Has an Operations Plan. Does Your Sales Force?December 21, 2011
Companies typically apply operations strategy to the supply chain, establishing clear principles and processes for operating, directed at specific goals such as reducing costs and speeding up delivery times. The leaders of consulting firm Sales Economics, Inc., explain that applying the same kind of strategy to the sales organization can help the company make best use of resources and increase company competitiveness and profitability.
Presentation Bank
Sales Operations: Enabling Business StrategyJuly 01, 2011
From our recent sales operations workshop at DePaul University
Sales Operations is rapidly becoming a function critical to achieving sales excellence, maintaining a competitive edge, and expediting the execution of new business strategies. In this workshop presentation, Sales Economics' Alejandro Erasso and Matthias Linnenkamp examine how Sales Operations connects sales support processes across different functions of the organization for maximum impact on business and sales strategies. Also covered: practical approaches for organizing and prioritizing Sales Operations activities. This presentation was originally delivered at The Sales Management Association's May workshop, "Focusing Sales Operations' Productivity Impact" at DePaul University.
Presentation Bank
Sales Coaching ResearchJune 21, 2011
Summary Results
Developed by Florida State University's Sales Institute in partnership with The Sales Management Association and The TAS Group, this research investigates various sales coaching practices within organizations. The survey results summarized here reflect data from 75 respondent firms with 100 or more sales resources. Among the more compelling findings: sales coaching is considered among the most important sales force initiatives, but gets insufficient executive leadership support. Additionally, respondents who report that their firms engage in specific coaching behaviors have better performance results than those who do not (regardless of the perceived "importance" of coaching within their organizations. We'll be publishing more related to this research in the coming weeks.
Management Tool
Territory Alignment Modeling ToolApril 24, 2011
Quantifying the Business Case for Territory Realignment
This spreadsheet tool quantifies sales capacity and missed opportunity by sales territory, and may be used for modeling the business impact of territory realignment.
Management Tool
Strategic Sales Plan - A Suggested FormatFebruary 01, 2011
Planning is a critical discipline for sales leadership, and fundamental to success at every level in the sales organization. Effective sales plans analyze past performance, reveal coherent strategy, clarify sales objectives, and detail actionable steps required to achieve goals. This suggested strategic sales plan format provides an outline of essential plan elements, as well as commentary on issues to consider when crafting the plan.
Presentation Bank
Linking Sales Execution With the Business PlanNovember 09, 2010
Most corporate business plans are clear on the sales organization’s performance objectives; that is, they tell us “how much” the sales organization is required to produce. What’s often missing: the “how?”
In this SMA webcast, we review approaches for linking the specific action plans for sales execution with the business plan. Session attendees will learn to bring proven process discipline and analytical rigor to the sales planning effort as a way making the business plan actionable to sales leadership. Areas of focus include territory sizing and deployment, workload optimization, sales quota allocation, and incentive compensation alignment.
Session presenters are Dan Caldarera, a sales operations leader with more than 20 years experience with Johnson and Johnson, and Ken Kramer, Director at TerrAlign Group.
Case study
Improving Sales Force Proficiency in Assessing Customer NeedsOctober 29, 2010
Reed Business Information’s implementation of a “Letter of Understanding” tool in the sales organization.
Like many firms over the past two decades, Reed Business Information (RBI) found its sales organization straining to keep pace in a changing selling environment. As its services offerings grew more complex, and its customers more demanding, RBI made “consultative selling” proficiency a strategic initiative for the sales organization. RBI’s adoption of several selling tools helped ensure their consultative selling efforts yielded tangible outcomes. In this paper, we review RBI’s success implementing a specific tool, the Letter of Understanding (LOU) tool, used by salespeople to document their understanding of customers’ issues and needs. The LOU proved critical to the sales force’s success in assessing, qualifying, and communicating customers’ needs.
Management Tool
Sales Compensation Plan Policies and GuidelinesOctober 27, 2010
A selection of policies from various companies, sales positions, and compensation plans.
The following is a representative collection of plan policies and guidelines picked from sales compensation plans in many different industries. Policies shown reflect a wide range of objectives, strategies, and market conditions. They are intended to provide a general framework for developing policies, and should not be used without the involvement of a qualified legal professional.
Case study
SMA Case Study: Sales Pipeline ManagementApril 30, 2010
Insights from NCR's Global Sales Operations
SMA's Sales Operations Advisory Board recently identified a list of issues critical to sales operations. Near the top of their list: improving forecasting accuracy and pipeline management effectiveness. In this Sales Management Association Case Study Webcast, Sales Operations Advisory Board member Kate Laneve, Director of Sales Operations at NCR, shares her own list of pipeline management best practices based in part on what's been successful within NCR. Includes discussion on essential pipeline metrics, implementing improvement initiatives across a large sales organization, and optimizing information delivery.
