Resources

The use of virtual environments as a support platform for demonstrating products and providing after-sales advice is today relatively commonplace. The Web-video interface represents a fundamental shift away from traditional selling atmospherics where the facial appearance of sales personnel replaces many traditional dimensions of service quality. Although salesperson attractiveness has previously been studied...Read more

The recent economic downturn hurt more than sales performance – it allowed potentially destructive management practices to gain a foothold in many organizations. Hyper-vigilant forecasting, constant reporting, and increased spans of control are some of the sales management approaches borne of necessity in crisis, but which foster dysfunction during recovery....Read more

Sales executives deal with a daily barrage of data - forecast numbers, pipeline velocity, lead volume, territory effectiveness, win/loss reports. The biggest challenge is figuring out how to consume the data and translate it into better decision-making. How is this accomplished? The answer for an ever-increasing number of successful professionals...Read more

Recent surveys of sales, sales operations, and executive leaders found that optimizing “sales strategy” is expected to have the greatest impact on sales force productivity. (Greater than improving pipeline management, quota setting, sales compensation, or sales training.) Given it’s perceived importance, you’d think most companies would be good at sales...Read more

The past few years have unlocked unprecedented innovation in the areas of sales force effectiveness. More than ever, sales managers have tools at their disposal to help them improve the productivity and success of their sales teams. In this webcast, we discuss six emerging trends that could be the source...Read more

By applying data analytics, sales organizations can increase effectiveness through greater coverage, better-aligned territories, and more timely interventions with at-risk sales people. But few organizations make the best use of data often readily available to management. This webcast describes how sales organizations can get the most out of performance data,...Read more

Cash incentives alone are not sufficient to drive sales force adoption of critical behaviors, tools, and training. Leading sales organizations are turning to "gamification" - the integration of game dynamics – to enhance coaching plans and foster salesperson engagement, and create a culture of constructive competition. Gamification is changing how...Read more

Reprinted with permission from The Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management. A national random sample of industrial salespeople was surveyed to examine the effects of salespeople’s perceptions of top management long-term orientation, top management emphasis, and top management risk aversion on customer-oriented selling behaviors. The results indicated that perceived...Read more