The Oxford Handbook of Strategic Sales and Sales Management

The Oxford Handbook of Strategic Sales and Sales Management
Author: David W. Cravens
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 660
Release: 2012-11-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0191641758
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The Oxford Handbook of Strategic Sales and Sales Management is an unrivalled overview by leading academics in the field of sales and marketing management. Sales theory is experiencing a renaissance driven by a number of factors, including building profitable relationships, creating/delivering brand value, strategic customer management, sales and marketing relationships, global selling, and the change from transactional to customer relationship marketing. Escalating sales and selling costs require organisations to be more focused on results and highlight the shifting of resources from marketing to sales. Further the growth in customer power now requires a strategic sales response, and not just a tactical one. The positioning of sales within the organisation, the sales function and sales management are all discussed. The Handbook is not a general sales management text about managing a sales force, but will fill a gap in the existing literature through consolidating the current academic research in the sales area. The Handbook is structured around four key topics. The first section explores the strategic positioning of the sales function within the modern organisation. The second considers sales management and recent developments. The third section examines the sales relationship with the customer and highlights how sales is responding to the modern environment. Finally, the fourth section reviews the internal composition of sales within the organisation. The Handbook will provide a comprehensive introduction to the latest research in sales management, and is suitable for academics, professionals, and those taking professional qualifications in sales and marketing.

Aligning Strategy and Sales

Aligning Strategy and Sales
Author: Frank Cespedes
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2014-08-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1422196089
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"The best sales book of the year" — strategy+business magazine That gap between your company’s sales efforts and strategy? It’s real—and a huge vulnerability. Addressing that gap, actionably and with attention to relevant research, is the focus of this book. In Aligning Strategy and Sales, Harvard Business School professor Frank Cespedes equips you to link your go-to-market initiatives with strategic goals. Cespedes offers a road map to articulate strategy in ways that people in the field can understand and that will fuel the behaviors required for profitable growth. Without that alignment, leaders will press for better execution when they need a better strategy, or change strategic direction with great cost and turmoil when they should focus on the basics of sales execution. With thoughtful, clear, and engaging examples, Aligning Strategy and Sales provides a framework for diagnosing and managing the core levers available for effective selling in any organization. It will give you the know-how and tools to move from ideas to action and build a sales effort linked to your firm’s unique goals, not a generic selling formula. Cespedes shows how sales efforts affect all elements of value creation in a business, whether you’re a start-up seeking to scale or an established firm looking to jump-start new growth. The book provides key insights to optimize your firm’s customer management activities and so improve selling and strategy.

Strategic Customer Management

Strategic Customer Management
Author: Nigel F Piercy
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2009-03-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0191567647
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A revolution is taking place in the way companies organize and manage the 'front-end' of their organization, where it meets its customers. Traditional concepts of sales management, account management, and customer service are being overtaken by initiatives like customer business development, the strategic sales organization, and strategic customer management. This book aims to provide insights into how this revolution is unfolding and to provide a framework for executives and management students to address the issues involved. The book focuses on the transformation of the traditional sales organization into a strategic force leading the strategic customer management process in companies. Traditionally, the area of sales management has mainly been treated as a tactical, operational topic in the conventional marketing literature - simply part of the communications mix within the planned marketing programme. However, the emergence of major customers as dominant buyers in many sectors as a result of pressures towards consolidation and enhanced scale of operations, is changing the way in which sales issues are addressed in supplier organizations. The growth of new forms of buyer-seller relationship based on collaboration and partnering has encouraged organizations to reconsider the sales and account management operation as an important source of competitive differentiation in commoditized markets. Increasingly, sales is being perceived as a central part of business strategy and attention given to the challenges in better aligning sales processes with strategy. This has many implications for the design of the sales organization and its management strategy, which go far beyond the confines of conventional marketing views.

Harvard Business Review on Strategic Sales Management

Harvard Business Review on Strategic Sales Management
Author:
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Total Pages: 197
Release: 2007
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781422114926
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You invest considerable time and money in managing your sales force. And if your company’s like many, you’re finding it increasingly difficult to ensure handsome returns on your investment in sales. This concise volume gives you the insights you need—from the preeminent thinkers whose work has defined the field, to the rising stars who will redefine the way we think about business

Sales Growth

Sales Growth
Author: McKinsey & Company Inc.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2016-04-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1119281091
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The challenges facing today's sales executives and their organizations continue to grow, but so do the expectations that they will find ways to overcome them and drive consistent sales growth. There are no simple solutions to this situation, but in this thoroughly updated Second Edition of Sales Growth, experts from McKinsey & Company build on their practical blueprint for achieving this goal and explore what world-class sales executives are doing right now to find growth and capture it—as well as how they are creating the capabilities to keep growing in the future. Based on discussions with more than 200 of today's most successful global sales leaders from a wide array of organizations and industries, Sales Growth puts the experiences of these professionals in perspective and offers real-life examples of how they've overcome the challenges encountered in the quest for growth. The book, broken down into five overarching strategies for successful sales growth, shares valuable lessons on everything from how to beat the competition by looking forward, to turning deep insights into simple messages for the front line. Page by page, you'll learn how sales executives are digging deeper than ever to find untapped growth, maximizing emerging markets opportunities, and powering growth through digital sales. You'll also discover what it takes to find big growth in big data, develop the right "sales DNA" in your organization, and improve channel performance. Three new chapters look at why presales deserve more attention, how to get the most out of marketing, and how technology and outsourcing could entirely reshape the sales function. Twenty new standalone interviews have been added to those from the first edition, so there are now in-depth insights from sales leaders at Adidas, Alcoa, Allianz, American Express, BMW, Cargill, Caterpillar, Cisco, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Deutsche Bank, EMC, Essent, Google, Grainger, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intesa Sanpaolo, Itaú Unibanco, Lattice Engines, Mars, Merck, Nissan, P&G, Pioneer Hi-Bred, Salesforce, Samsung, Schneider Electric, Siemens, SWIFT, UPS, VimpelCom, Vodafone, and Würth. Their stories, as well as numerous case studies, touch on some of the most essential elements of sales, from adapting channels to meet changing customer needs to optimizing sales operations and technology, developing sales talent and capabilities, and effectively leading the way to sales growth. Engaging and informative, this timely book details proven approaches to tangible top-line growth and an improved bottom line. Created specifically for sales executives, it will put you in a better position to drive sales growth in today's competitive market.

Sales Success (The Brian Tracy Success Library)

Sales Success (The Brian Tracy Success Library)
Author: Brian Tracy
Publisher: AMACOM
Total Pages: 151
Release: 2015-01-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0814449204
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The performance difference between the top salespeople in the world and the rest is smaller than you may think. Learn where you can elevate your game today and reach unprecedented new heights. Did you know that the 80/20 rule applies to the world of sales too? Eighty percent of all sales are made by only twenty percent of salespeople. How are they raking in so much money though, and how can others join them? Sales trainer extraordinaire Brian Tracy has spent years studying the world’s best salespeople and their methods to discover that the difference between the top 20 and the bottom 80 boils down to only a handful of critical areas in which the top professionals perform better than their peers. In this compact and convenient guide, Tracy shares 21 tried-and-true techniques that can help any salesperson gain that winning edge. In Sales Success, you will learn how to: Set and achieve clear goals Develop a sense of urgency and make every minute count Know your products inside and out Analyze your competition Find and quickly qualify prospects Understand the three keys to persuasion Overcome the six major objections, and much more! Packed with proven strategies and priceless insights, Sales Success will get you planted firmly on the path to success, making more money than you thought possible and greater career satisfaction than you ever believed you would find.

Sales Management That Works

Sales Management That Works
Author: Frank V. Cespedes
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2021-02-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1633698777
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Named to the longlist for the 2021 Outstanding Works of Literature (OWL) Award in the Sales & Marketing category In this smart, practical, and research-based guide, Harvard Business School professor Frank Cespedes offers essential sales strategies for a world that never stops changing. The rise of e-commerce. Big data. AI. Given these trends (and many others), there's no doubt that sales is changing. But much of the current conventional wisdom is misleading and not supported by empirical data. If you as a manager fail to separate fact from hype, you will make decisions based on faulty assumptions and, in a competitive market, eventually fall behind those with a keener grasp of the current selling environment. In this no-nonsense book, sales expert and Harvard Business School professor Frank Cespedes provides sales managers and executives with the tools they need to separate the signal from the noise. These include how to: Hire and deploy the right talent Pay and incentivize your sales force Improve ROI from your training programs Create a comprehensive sales model Set and test the right prices Build and manage a multichannel approach Brimming with fascinating examples, insightful research, and helpful diagnostics, Sales Management That Works will help sales managers build a great sales team, create an optimal strategy, and steer clear of hype and fads. Salespeople will be better equipped to respond to changes, executives will be able to track and accelerate ROI, and readers will understand why improving selling is a social as well as an economic responsibility of business.

The Sales Manager's Guide to Greatness

The Sales Manager's Guide to Greatness
Author: Kevin F. Davis
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2017-03-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1626343896
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2018 Axiom Business Book Award Winner, Silver Medal Straightforward advice for taking your sales team to the next level! ​If your sales team isn’t producing the results expected, the pressure is on you to fix the situation fast. One option is to replace salespeople. A better option is for you to optimize your performance as a sales leader. In The Sales Manager’s Guide to Greatness, sales management consultant Kevin F. Davis offers 10 proven and distinctly practical strategies, skills, and tools for overcoming the most challenging obstacles sales managers face and moving your team ahead of the pack. This book will help you: Learn the 6 sales rep instincts that can cripple your management effectiveness, and replace these instincts with a more powerful leadership mindset – true sales leadership begins with improving the leader within Stop getting bogged down by distractions, become more proactive, and find more time to coach, lead, and inspire your salespeople Get every salesperson on your team to be more accountable and driven to achieve breakthrough sales results Master the 7 keys to hiring great salespeople Create a more customer-driven sales team by blending the buyer’s journey into your sales process Speed up the improvement of your team by mastering the 7 keys to achieving better coaching outcomes Excel at the most challenging coaching conversation you face – how to solve a sales performance problem that is caused by a rep’s lousy attitude Attain higher win-rates by intervening as a coach at the most critical stages of a buying cycle, quickly identify opportunities at risk, and coach more deals to the close Discover why so many salespeople fail at sales forecasting and how to impress your company’s upper management by submitting more accurate forecasts And much more… You can apply the strategies outlined in this book immediately to take control of your time and priorities as a sales manager, become more strategic, deliver high-performance coaching that grows revenues, and ultimately drive your team to greatness.

Sales Excellence

Sales Excellence
Author: Christian Homburg
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2012-10-24
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3642291694
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This book presents a very novel and strategic approach to Sales Management, an area that has suffered from a lack of sophistication in practice. This content-rich and thought-provoking book has a very unique positioning: It considers the sales performance of an organization at a very high, strategic level and offers specific guidance in managing not just a few direct reports but an entire organization?s sales function. The book includes many useful tools and guidelines and is enhanced with numerous examples that help bring the concepts to life and make them very approachable for the trade market. A checklist-based scoring system that is utilized throughout the book allows readers to specifically evaluate their own company as well as to track its progress as concepts are applied over time. This work is an essential resource and thought-provoking read for ambitious Sales Managers, including CEO-level executives.

Building a Winning Sales Management Team

Building a Winning Sales Management Team
Author: Andris A. Zoltners
Publisher: Zs Associates, Incorporated
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2012
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780985343606
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First-line sales managers (FLMs) play a key role in helping a sales organization drive profitable revenue growth in an ever-changing business environment. But although directly responsible for managing and driving sales force performance, FLMs often don't get enough time, attention, and resources from sales leaders. "Building a Winning Sales Management Team" shows just how important FLMs are to sales organizations--and what happens when companies underinvest in these key players. Authors of four previous books on sales management, Zoltners, Sinha and Lorimer show in "Building a Winning Sales Management Team" just how companies can nurture successful FLMs and improve sales force productivity. The book has dozens of real-life examples of how investing in first-line management paid off in a big way. In developing the book, the authors collaborated with leaders from some of the world's top companies. The authors also draw on their cumulative experience as sales and marketing consultants, faculty members at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, and business speakers and writers to produce fresh, completely original insights on sales force effectiveness. "Building a Winning Sales Management Team" shows in detail exactly how companies can improve FLM performance. The authors reveal eight key drivers for defining, creating and enabling a successful first-line sales management team, and show how FLMs are critical facilitators of change. The book also includes a self-assessment tool to help organizations determine the right priorities to start improving sales management team performance.