Morning Keynote: Leading Agile Sales Organizations

Almost all sales organizations operate in change-intensive environments, forced to respond to shifts in competition, demand, labor markets, and buyer preferences. Firms are increasingly likely to embark on large-scale sales transformation initiatives; SMA’s research shows an average interval of just three years between such comprehensive change initiatives in large organizations.

As a result, senior sales leaders now consider change readiness a capability critical to the sales force’s success, and essential to its long-term competitiveness. What makes sales organizations change ready, and effective in adapting to changing circumstances?

In this session we examine the characteristics of change-ready sales forces, while considering management’s role in building the sales organization’s adaptive capabilities. Topics include:

• Organizing sales transformation initiatives
• Change leadership as a sales management core competency
• Adaptive planning and strategy development for sales leaders
• Managing performance while accommodating uncertainty
• Approaches to knowledge management, learning delivery, and salesperson development that enable adaptation
• Culture as an enabling force for adaptation
• Sales leadership action plans for improving sales force change readiness

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