Sales Management Matters

Sales forecasting is fairly consistent across organizations around the globe. The standard forecasting process usually begins with lead identification. The lead is then qualified and an attempt is made to understand the prospect’s needs. A proposal is presented to the prospect to address the needs, and the sale is usually...Read more

Sales forces effective in salesperson onboarding – getting new salespeople up-to-speed efficiently – enjoy surprising productivity advantages over their peers, our recently-concluded research shows. These firms have 10% greater sales growth rates, and 14% better sales and profit objective achievement. But onboarding isn’t easy – just 40% of firms with...Read more

On-Demand Sales Training vs. Live Sales Training It’s no secret that part of the value of live and in-person sales training is the opportunity to engage in discussion and practice the art of selling through real-life simulations and role play. And of course, in-person training provides sales trainers with the...Read more

The concept of sales as something that could be trained and improved upon began in the late 1800s when NCR opened the first sales training school after demonstrating their methods at a trade show. While many aspects of sales have changed in the last couple hundred years, a few things...Read more

As a sales manager, you are responsible for a lot of metrics—really important metrics, in fact, including revenue growth, customer retention, product mix, and dozens of other performance metrics. But these metrics are more than numbers to you and your sales force because they define your force’s performance. Whether you...Read more

Running a sales team takes a great amount of balance between process and technology, especially now that technology is such an integral part of a sales team's tool set. The catch is that less than a third of sales organizations have seen an adequate ROI from their investments in sales...Read more

Strong Sales Managers are important to the success of a selling organization. There are many tactics used to build and test the strength of Sales Managers within organizations. However, are there skills and competencies that can’t be taught or learned? According to our?Developing Sales Manager research initiative, there are 4...Read more

Inside sales staffing is outpacing traditional salesperson growth by more than 50%, according to our recently completed study in inside sales trends. As expected, participants in our recent study (senior sales and sales operations managers) said inside sales’ lower cost structure helped drive headcount growth. However, even more important is...Read more