Resources

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

A quick way to increase productivity in business-to-business sales forces is through efficient sales territory design. Sales territories – salespeople's assigned set of customers and prospects –are often created out of expedience or outdated assumptions. A more considered approach yields significant and immediate improvements in sales effectiveness. In this webcast...Read more

Large firms typically have both a sales function, and a sales force effectiveness (SFE) function. With names like sales operations, commercial effectiveness, revenue operations ("RevOps"), or sales excellence, they provide direction and support to the sales organization, which remains focused on execution. Corporate SFE functions require an unusual combination of...Read more