Resources

Sales organizations consider coaching an important management role and a critical driver of sales force effectiveness, but few firms effectively coach salespeople. Many fail to elevate coaching among competing manager priorities, while others deliver training, performance feedback, or training, rather than true coaching. This webcast focuses on skills coaching. It...Read more

Firms expect a lot from their sales compensation programs. They design sales comp plans to motivate and direct salespeople, to attract and retain top performing talent, and to produce sales results aligned with business objectives and strategy. But the sales comp plan's effectiveness isn't always self-evident. How do managers gauge...Read more

Many business-to-business firms use sales engagement or marketing automation platforms. These solutions track buyers' online behavior, and guide and automate many selling activities. Firms marketing these solutions claim they improve sales effectiveness and productivity, but their true benefits to sales organizations remain unclear. In new research, a team of academic...Read more

In high-performing sales organizations, effective sales compensation plans share a common decision logic and design framework. These rules are generally well known among incentive design specialists, but are missing from many business-to-business firms’ sales compensation programs. Ignoring these time-tested design guidelines and rules often results in ineffective sales compensation plans....Read more

Sales compensation plans change frequently, but plan changes can easily misfire. Effective sales comp plan changes align the interests of multiple stakeholders in the firm while providing the sales force with understandable and achievable incentives. In this webcast, we offer a management guide to preparing the organization for sales compensation...Read more

Sales compensation is the sales organization's biggest expense by far, and an important growth investment for most business-to-business firms. But sales compensation programs routinely fall short of expectations. Sales Management Association’s research shows only about one-third of sales organizations consider their sales compensation programs effective. Firms with effective sales compensation...Read more

Sales organizations face persistent pressure to adapt — to changing market conditions, shifting customer preferences, new competitive influences, and many other factors. Adapting often requires salespeople to develop new knowledge, capabilities and skills. This research examines the range of sales learning and development investments management makes in an effort to...Read more

Sales leaders often talk about sales culture, but how many work proactively to shape positive cultures in their organizations? Many assume culture is a construct too vague to define, let alone manage. In doing so, they miss an opportunity to harness one of the most impactful drivers of sales productivity....Read more