Sales Management Matters

Symmetrics Group’s Michael Perla recently joined us on a webcast to review findings from our research Annual Sales Meetings – Best Practices in Preparation and Planning. Conducted in collaboration with Symmetrics Group, the research examines how large organizations plan effective annual sales meetings. It includes input from 51 business-to-business sales...Read more

CallidusCloud’s Chris Lesar offered several ideas for improving proposal effectiveness on our recent webcast Optimizing Sales Proposals and Quoting. Lesar frames the discussion by suggesting fouressential elements in a CPQ (Configure, Price, and Quotation) process: Product Selection Proposals Negotiations and Approvals Order Fulfillment Each element poses significant challenges, including delivering...Read more

We recently completed fascinating research on corporate training and development programs for sales managers. In a recent webcast (Research Update: Developing Sales Managers), research underwriter Business Efficacy’s Kurt Theriault joined me for a preliminary review of the study findings. The research show that firms spend less, per-person, on sales manager...Read more

We recently featured Splunk sales effectiveness leaders Bart Fanelli and Kym Wood in “Case Study: Sales Enablement at Splunk.” Splunk (NASDAQ:SPLK) has taken the “big data” space by storm; the firm IPO’d in April. Their webcast is noteworthy on several fronts: it offers great practitioner-focused perspective on effective sales enablement;...Read more

Mercer’s Shawn Rossi discussed sales strategy development in a recent webcast, Sales Planning and Strategy: Optimizing Resources, Tactics, and Outcomes. Sales strategy, says Rossi, answers three questions: What, How and Where What What is your growth target? Many factors impact this – including budget resources, past achievement, and demand projections. Rossi...Read more

Richardson’s Mike Kunkle and Dario Priolo recently presented Six Emerging Trends in Sales Force Effectiveness; among the trends they spotlight: a resurgent focus on new account acquisition. Their excellent webcast is archived here. Most markets, they point out, are thawing after the recession’s long winter. But with the relief of...Read more

The “SMART” goal setting methodology is well known (“SMART” goals are “Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic and Time-related”). In a recent webcast Iconixx Software’s Bruce Jackson and Carolyn Jenkins described how SMART goal setting should apply to KPI (“Key Performance Indicator”) development. KPIs are often used as a kind of short-hand...Read more

Remember that crummy conference bag you didn’t get at last year’s Sales Force Productivity conference? You’re not getting one at this year’s conference either. Do you need another crummy conference bag? One you schlepp around for three days, full of stuff you aren’t even sure you want? An ugly, logo-slathered...Read more