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& sales operations.

Webcast

January 27, 2012

What’s the first thing a sales effectiveness consultant (worth their salt) will build into a proposal? Ride-alongs with your sales organization. The reason is simple: direct observation can tell you almost everything you need to know about a salesperson’s effectiveness. Ride shotgun enough, and you’ll also gain understanding of bigger issues underpinning organization performance, like strategy, support, and process. The observational data, stories, and insights gleaned from working with salespeople can give consultants – or managers – enormous credibility.

In this SMA webcast, we’ll review the “when,” “how,” and “why” of manager/salesperson ride-alongs.

Presented by Catalytic Advisor's Everett Hill.

This is the first in a series of webcasts focused on gathering sales force performance data. The series focuses on analysis, observation, and benchmarking techniques used by management consultants, sales operations practitioners, and sales leaders to improve managerial insight into sales effectiveness.

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Webcast

January 25, 2012

New Research on Sales Force Effectiveness From Forrester

Companies across all industries are rethinking their selling systems. Under continued pressure to improve productivity without raising selling expense, sales forces must now respond to disruptive changes in how customers buy. Empowered, digitally-armed and connected buyers are exerting greater control over buyer/seller conversations, and they’re engaging less with salespeople.

Who can blame them? Inadequately empowered salespeople from silo-oriented organizations offer less value – and take up more time – than simply surfing the web.

In the new sales paradigm, businesses must transform their selling models into dynamic, communications-intensive systems, empowering individual sellers to define, create and deliver value to customers. Gain insight into how progressive sales organizations are invigorating teams with tools and processes empowering them as 21st-century sales warriors.

Presented by Forrester’s Scott Santucci. 

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Webcast

January 17, 2012

Transforming a sales force involves substantial investments of time, people and money. How do firms measure the impact of their sales transformation initiatives, and calculate return on the investments required? This SMA webcast explores ideas for measuring and maximizing sales transformation investment return.

Topics include:

• Understanding prevailing approaches to measuring sales transformation effectiveness
• Shared characteristics of successful transformation initiatives
• Review of a specific methodology for determining transformation ROI
• Case study review involving specific sales transformation projects
• Validating transformation investments

Presented by Kate Wartchow, Ph.D., Chief learning Officer, Ninety Five 5 and Jack Phillips, Ph.D., Chairman of the ROI Institute.

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Webcast

January 11, 2012

From TAS Group's Dealmaker Index Research Initiative

In this SMA webcast, Wendy Reed, EVP Marketing of The TAS Group presents the results of TAS's global Dealmaker Index study, including implications for companies and individuals focused in improving sales performance.

Based on an analysis of 92 sales performance factors, mapped against proven successful approaches, the Dealmaker Index measures the effectiveness of sales organizations and sales individuals across areas such as deal close rates, sales cycle management, value creation and sales opportunity development.

Registrants are encouraged to complete their own Dealmaker Index prior to viewing the session (about 10-15 minutes, registration required): www.dealmakerindex.com. Completing the survey allows you to benchmark indivdual and or company results against the larger srudy findings.

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Research Brief

January 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.

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Research Brief

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.

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Webcast

December 15, 2011

Social media has changed the way customers buy, and redrawn relationships between buyers and sellers. In response, sales operations departments are refocusing support investments, and aligning social media strategy with their sales organizations. In this SMA webcast, we’ll review how sales forces are harnessing social media to find, grow, and retain customers, and how sales operations departments are deploying social media tools that maximize productivity. Presented by InsideView's Ralf vonSosen, Vice President of Marketing and Laura Molex, Customer Success Manager.

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Academic Research

December 15, 2011

From The Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Winter 2011

Business-to-business sales has changed from being an isolated function with little cross-functional influence to becoming an integrated part of long-term customer management and from an operational practice to a strategically focused part of business strategy. This suggests a need to change the unit of analysis from the activities and attributes of the salesperson toward strategic and managerial practices. This research, involving nine multinationally operating firms, identifies management practices pertinent to solution sales, develops a multilevel and cross-functional framework for the management of solution sales, and shows that managerial and strategic practices have statistically significant hierarchical relationships with overall sales performance.

Kaj Storbacka, Pia Polsa, and Maria Sääksjärvi

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Webcast

November 03, 2011

Sales managers can have an outsized impact on the sales organization’s performance. Why then, do so many companies invest so little in sales manager training? Firms that skimp on sales manager training forgo a critical opportunity to impact overall sales force effectiveness.
In this SMA webcast we outline best practices in sales management training, and detail how several leading firms have overcome the unique challenges associated with training this pivotal role.  

Drawing on experience assisting world class, Fortune 500 sales organizations develop comprehensive sales management training programs, Vantage Point Performance’s Michelle Vazzana will reveal practical insights for impacting sales manager development.  

Topics include:

• Sales management’s distinct role
• Identifying managers’ specific training needs
• Integrating core skills into a management system
• Linking management behaviors and sales force performance
• The investment required and the return you can expect
• A real-world case study of success

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Webcast

October 26, 2011

Three tools re-shaping tomorrow's sales organizations

Sales organizations are constantly innovating. In this webcast, we review three recent practices generating attention from leading sales organizations and solutions providers. These include sales playbooks, portals, and sales enablement platforms. Presented by Callidus/iCentera’s Craig Nelson, Vice President of Sales Enablement, this webcast provides specific examples, documents best practices, advises on adapting these ideas to your organization, and suggests how practitioners are defining ROI after adoption

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