Sales Management Matters

Ever tried to benchmark your sales organization’s performance? It’s not an easy or inexpensive proposition. Finding objective, credible data has usually meant commissioning research, or settling for an apples-to-oranges affair with poorly-matched data. Now SMA underwriter The TAS Group aims to change that with its new “Dealmaker Index,” a free tool that provides insight to both individuals and sales teams on sales performance and productivity. Too often, these kin ...

Our members are thinking hard about sales productivity. Some are scrambling to react to unexpected growth; others to cratering demand. Many are re-aligning sales organizations as markets around them change unpredictably. They’re in turns exhilarated, terrified, or uncertain in the current economic environment, but their focus on making salespeople more productive is remarkably c ...

SMA's Chairman Bob Kelly interviews Juan Herrera, Vice President CRM at SAP. The interview took place at this spring's excellent MIT Sloan Sales Conference. We'll be posting more interview video with transcripts over the next few days.  ...

The marketing machine behind the latest mobile devices and technology solutions is pumping furiously, and sales organizations are not immune to the promises in the offing. bInstant connectivity, smartphones with thousands of applications at your fingertips—what’s not to like? The real question, though, is not simply whether to go with iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, or something else. The real question is, what are your organization’s needs?  That’s a more co ...

Sales Operations Sales operations leaders typically set sales quota based on historical performance, and a rough estimate of expected incremental growth. More advanced approaches might also utilize some factored value from each person’s sales funnel. Add to these basic approaches a little bit of stretch goal (because we all know those sales guys are sandbagging us), and voila: sales quotas. It’s a disarmingly crude approach.  But sales operations practitioners rarely ...

Everything, Including the Kitchen Sink In today’s computer-enabled workforce, information technology has become as integral to a world-class sales effort as are great products and superior salespeople. Customer relationship management, sales force automation, Internet sites, communication platforms, and other applications are now the mission-critical infrastructure that links buyers to sellers and sellers to their mother ship. However, we have all seen the sobering data on the l ...

[This is the first in a series called Voice of the Manager, featuring guest posts from member practitioners. This post is authored by Nicholas Kontopoulos, Director Global Marketing at SAP. -ed.] I am passionate about fusing innovative business processes with technology. I have to be: that’s the only way the sales warriors of the 21st century can win. Think about it: Sales has become a very complex activity in the 21st century. More competitors, both local and foreign, are ...