Resources

Sales leaders ask with some frequency: "If we changed our sales process, could our current sales force be successful?" The sales organization must adapt in response to changes in buyer behavior, increased competition, disruptive technology, segmentation strategy changes, and many other factors. Yet different sales processes often require different selling...Read more

This study examines the effects of goal setting on salesperson effort and new product sales. Employing the motivation hub’s theoretical framework, company-assigned goals (i.e., quotas), self-set goals, and self-efficacy are modeled as antecedents to selling effort and new product sales. To investigate the model, longitudinal data were collected from 143...Read more

It’s perhaps the most impactful way a sales manager can drive performance, yet sales coaching is frequently the least-understood, most inconsistently implemented skill for sales managers.  Effective coaching is critical to any sales team’s success, and is a hallmark of consistently-high-achieving sales organizations. Coaching sales teams provides challenges unlike those...Read more

The weekly sales meeting is part of most sales managers' life. But for many it’s an unproductive and tedious routine. Too often, the weekly meeting is spent “catching up” on the status of opportunities, instead of coaching or problem solving. In this Sales Management Association Case Study webcast, Thermo Fisher...Read more

Firms undergoing sales force transformation face many challenges, and chief among them is accurately assessing their existing sales organization. In this Sales Management Association case study webcast, we review a global telecom company’s reorganization of its sales and technical support organizations, including the ways employee assessments guided their decisions on...Read more

The Sales Operations function is uniquely positioned to drive adaptive change within the organizations they support. With its access to critical data, Sales Ops enables informed decision making and contingency planning; with its close links to field resources, Sales Ops can also drive fast and efficient change implementation. Both roles...Read more

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...Read more

The Sales Management Association's Sales Operations Advisory Board, a panel of senior sales operations practitioners, academics, and thought-leaders, observes that a small number of issues represent critical priorities for sales operations. The Board's guidance shapes the Sales Management Association's focus and research in specific content areas for the benefit of...Read more