Sales Management Matters

Mark Hurd, chief executive officer of Oracle Corporation, will headline the Sales Thought Leadership Conference at Stanford Graduate School of Business. The biennial conference, which the Sales Management Association sponsors and helps produce, features a novel format and an exclusive audience, half of whom are leading sales academics, and half...Read more

This post is part two of a three-part series. In our last blog, we revealed many of the snarly situational factors that get in the way of coaching. The good news is that coaching obstacles are not insurmountable, and there are ways to improve sales performance in a meaningful, sustainable...Read more

This post is part one of a three-part series. Recent research by Vantage Point and the Sales Management Association indicates that sales coaching is perceived by sales leaders to be the most important competency for sales manager training. And we agree! We believe strongly enough in this notion that we...Read more

The Sales Management Association’s latest research on studying agreement practices found that most firms take longer than expected to prepare and execute agreements. These delays are perceived as more acute from the sales organization’s point of view than from customers’ — understandable given that sellers are often more anxious to...Read more

The Sales Management Association recently concluded a detailed study of the state of training and development within sales organizations of 111 companies, covering over 80,000 salespeople and 15,000 sales managers. The study revealed some concerning details about the woeful state of training and development and shed some light on how...Read more

Many new technologies, even valuable ones, arrive in the world with more hype than substance. Over time, their value is revealed as applications proliferate and adoption ramps. But until then, it can be difficult to parse what’s truly impactful from what is simply noise. In this regard, blockchain is no...Read more

Web-based buying alternatives are ratcheting up channel conflict for many sales organizations. Warring channels erode the sales force’s carefully crafted value propositions, and undermining sales strategy and growth prospects in all aspects of the business. Technology businesses, often heavily reliant on indirect sales and distribution channels, are especially vulnerable. In...Read more

Which competencies are the most important for sales operations? Our recent research posed this question to our members, more than 100 of whom offered insights into 14 core sales ops competencies as they’re valued and practiced in their respective organizations. Sales ops’ role in the firm is sometimes the analytical...Read more