Deliberate learning as a strategic mechanism in enabling channel partner sales performance

As suppliers increasingly depend on their indirect sales channel, enablement of channel partners has become a strategic asset. We focus on the central role of deliberate learning within strategic enablement strategy. Specifically, we conceptualize deliberate sales learning as a three-dimensional construct (knowledge articulation, knowledge codification, knowledge certification) and identify the mechanisms through which it impacts on channel partner sales performance. Based on a survey of channel partners (N = 383) of an FT100 company, we establish exploitative and explorative learning orientations as antecedents of deliberate sales learning, where this relationship is moderated by channel partners' preference for online learning formats. The relatively weaker relationship between explorative learning orientation and deliberate sales learning is positively enhanced for those channel partners with a preference for interactive online modules. Further, we demonstrate that deliberate sales learning and deliberate sales practice act in serial mediation to positively impact sales performance. In addition to future research opportunities, we identify three core implications for the practice of strategic sales enablement; enhancing return on investment, managing learner motivation and activating learning engagement of channel partners.     

Impediments to sales force automation

Sales force automation (SFA) occurs when firms adopt technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of sales-related activities. Research has shown, however, that 55-75% of SFA projects fail. This paper first identifies and explains impediments that exist in three SFA areas: planning, communication, and evaluation. The high failure rate of SFA can also be explained by gaps that exist, between the sales force and management, in SFA perceptions and goals. Finally, after discussing each of these areas, study implications are provided to sales managers and suggestions are offered for future research.     

Sales trainer roles, competencies, skills, and behaviors: A case study

Numerous studies have examined different issues related to evaluating the effectiveness of sales training programs. Limited needs assessment, lack of training objectives, no alignment between training objectives and corporate goals, and sales training content, are all potential factors that can influence the effectiveness of training programs. Yet, little attention has been paid to the role of a central actor in the training process — the sales trainer. The evaluation of sales training programs is incomplete without taking into consideration the qualifications of the trainer. Through a case study, this paper suggests there are 8 roles that are associated with the sales trainer position. To effectively execute these roles, this exploratory investigation identified 18 related skills that are grouped into 5 competencies. Recommendations are offered regarding the relevance of this research for practitioners and suggestions are provided for future research in this area.     

Strategic enablement investments: Exploring differences in human and technological knowledge transfers to supply chain partners

Business-to-business firms have a long history of investing in training their supply chain partners using primarily salespeople. However, advances in technology now allow for elements of sales enablement programs to be automated and run without human involvement. This paper examines how human and technology enablers are suited to transfer tacit and explicit knowledge respectively. It constructs a strategic enablement investment framework that, depending on the mix of investments in human or technology enablers, results in four types of learning environments: self-directed, collaborative, adaptive, and complex. We close by discussing the implications for future research and offer guidance for industrial marketing managers.     

How New Product Introductions Affect Sales Management Strategy: The Impact of Type of "Newness" of the New Product

How do firms adjust sales management strategy for new product launch? Does sales management strategy change more radically for different types of new products such as new‐to‐the‐world products versus product revisions? Because firms introducing a new product rely considerably on their sales force in the product launch effort, the types and degree of changes made in managing the selling effort are important issues. Past studies have demonstrated that firms make substantial adjustments in their sales management strategy when they introduce a new product. This study expands on previous investigations by examining whether sales management strategy changes are conditioned by the type of newness of the new product to the market and to the firm. Australian sales managers were asked to respond to a mail questionnaire concerning pre‐ and post‐new product launch sales management activities. Three groups of firms were compared: (1) those with new‐to‐the‐market and new‐to‐the‐firm products (i.e., new‐to‐the‐world products); (2) those with products new to the firm but not new to the market; and (3) those with products that are revisions to the firm and not new to the market. The study finds that firms do not make the most adjustments for products with the greatest degree of market newness—the new‐to‐the‐world types of products—except in the sales management strategy categories of compensation and supervision. In the other sales management strategy categories defined for study—organization, training, quotas and goals, and sales support as well as for all categories in the aggregate—sales management strategy changes were greatest in incidence, as measured both by the percent of firms making changes and the average number of changes per firm, when the new product was new to the firm but not new to the market. These results suggest that, because different types of new products face different competitive environments, there may be greater incentive for a not‐new‐to‐the‐market new‐to‐the‐firm product to make changes in sales strategy. Uncertainties about market size and customer location with new‐to‐the‐world products may limit the understanding of what changes to make in the strategy categories of quotas and territories. Similarly, uncertainties about product use and customer acceptance of new‐to‐the‐world products may limit the development of training and sales support materials by these firms. Instead, these firms may rely more on compensation and supervision to direct sales efforts for new‐to‐the‐world products. However, observing the market experience and performance of the first‐to‐market product can benefit firms launching a not‐new‐to‐market and new‐to‐the‐firm product, allowing them to rely more on strategy changes in training, sales support materials, organizational adjustments such as redeployments, and quotas.     

对成品油销售企业人才培训体系创新的思考

经过十多年的重组与发展,中国石油、中国石化两大集团均已建成覆盖全国市场的超级连锁零售网络,但在销售企业员工培训方面尚未形成一个完整的、覆盖全体、逐级进阶的培训课程体系,导致培训课程间经常脱节与重复,学非所用、学超所用的现象大量存在,成为制约企业发展的瓶颈之一。对应于加油站区域化分级管理体制,可以将零售业务培训体系分为＂省公司管理人员、地市公司管理人员、片区管理人员/加油站经理、加油站主管、一线操作员工＂五个级别,其中,省、市、片区与加油站经理为管理人员培训,加油站主管与一线操作人员培训为岗位技能培训。在模块化培训体系中,晋职培训与拓展培训是同一岗位在职培训的两个阶段,即前期的入职上岗培训与后期的在岗提高培训,二者有机衔接,相辅相成。     

A survey of sales management practices

When ascertaining what sales management tools and practices to use, one approach would be for sales managers to compare the tools and practices they are presently using (or contemplating) with those used in other firms. This article provides sales managers with the opportunity for such a comparison by presenting the results of a study that examined what tools and practices sales managers are currently employing.     

Understanding the sales-marketing interface dysfunction experience in business-to-business firms: A matter of perspective

Despite its importance, the sales-marketing interface (SMI) in business-to-business (B2B) firms is often dysfunctional. While scholars have proposed functional-level impactors of SMIs, research that examines how sales and marketing personnel, at an individual level, perceive, evaluate, and respond to SMI dysfunction is sparse. Our study employs a discovery-oriented, theories-in-use approach and uses in-depth interview data collected from 42 participants in 21 sales-marketing dyads across multiple levels from a variety of B2B industries to examine this phenomenon. Findings reveal that the same dysfunction may trigger vastly different sensemaking processes in sales and marketing personnel's minds wherein they sense and interpret the same dysfunction encounter differently. These interpretations lead them to resort to activities that may, at times, be counterproductive to resolving the dysfunction. In addition, sales and marketing personnel view the interface dysfunctions as following a bidirectional pattern, as opposed to a sequential pattern that has been documented in the literature. Collectively, differential dysfunction experiences within the SMI have implications for whether and to what extent the dysfunction is addressed.     

Organizational innovativeness and firm performance: Does sales management matter?

Salespeople interact with individual customers to drive revenues by identifying and finding solutions for customer needs. The external knowledge salespeople acquire in conjunction with the network position they hold in their firm suggests that the sales force has great value in facilitating organizational innovativeness. Sales managers set the tone for sales operations, and an intellectually stimulating sales manager can create ripple effects of innovative thinking across the sales force and organization. In this paper, we propose that sales manager intellectual stimulation helps drive organizational innovativeness and, in turn, sales growth. Survey data collected from a cross-industry sample of business-to-business sales leaders are linked to an objective measure of firm sales growth. The results indicate that sales manager intellectual stimulation leads to organizational innovativeness. They also suggest that the degree to which the sales department is integrated within the firm strengthens this positive relationship. Finally, the relationship between organizational innovativeness and sales growth follows a non-linear U shape.     

Global corporate competition: Who's winning,who's losing,and the R&D factor as one reason why

This study summarizes the major changes over the period 1960–86 in the shares of world markets of the world'S leading American, European and Asian corporations based in 15 major industries. It relates the differential sales growth rates of the gaining and losing firms to national trends in industrial competitiveness, to employment change and to long-term returns to shareholders. One principal determinant of firms' global growth rates, and thence gains and losses in ‘world market share’, corporate research and development (R&D) intensity, is examined and tested on an 83-firm, six-industry subset of the overall data base. The proportion of corporate sales revenues allocated to commercially oriented R&D emerges as a, perhaps the, principal indicator of subsequent sales growth performance relative to competition over 5–10-year periods. Insofar as many U.S. and U.K. firms have lost global market share relative to Asian and European competitors over the past two decades, a significant contributory factor would appear to have been negligence on the part of many U.S. and U.K. firms of investment in technology as a factor determining strategic, competitive advantage.     

Financial Incentives and Salesperson Time Orientation in New Product Launch: A Longitudinal Study

The success of a new product launch critically depends on an engaged and dedicated sales force. Salespeople who are involved in a new product launch must overcome significant uncertainty associated with the new product's performance, which can affect success expectations and, in turn, sales effort for the new product. Moreover, success expectations may drop in the first few months of the launch period, due to initial negative market feedback or general decline in sales force enthusiasm. Diminished expectations may start a vicious circle effect where lower success expectations for the new product lead to lower sales effort that, in turn, leads to lower performance, which further lowers expectations, and so on. Based on insights from attribution‐expectancy theory, this study investigates two distinct mechanisms to counteract the potential downward spiral in success expectations and sales effort devoted to a new product. Specifically, this research examines the role of financial incentives and salespersons' long‐term orientation in creating and maintaining high new product success expectations and sales effort during a new product launch. To investigate how the effect of these factors changes over time, success expectations and sales effort are examined across two critical points in time: the start of a new product launch and at completion of the first sales cycle. To test the model empirically, the North American sales force (n = 129) of a business unit of a global firm is surveyed longitudinally during the launch of a new line of industrial products. The data are analyzed using a partial least squares model. The results show that initial success expectations have a significant effect on sales effort later in the launch, and that this relationship is mediated by success expectations later in the launch. Success expectations and sales effort early in the launch are also shown to impact the perceived attractiveness of the financial incentives offered, but this does not translate into higher success expectations or sales effort at the end of the launch. In contrast, the long‐term orientation of salespersons is key to maintaining higher success expectations and sales effort at the end of the launch.     

What service transition? Rethinking established assumptions about manufacturers' service-led growth strategies

Both academics and practitioners emphasize the importance for product firms of implementing service-led growth strategies. The service transition concept is well established, namely a unidirectional repositioning along a product-service continuum—from basic, product-oriented services towards more customized, process-oriented ones—ultimately leading to the provision of solutions. We challenge this service transition assumption and develop alternative ones regarding how product firms should pursue service-led growth. Using ‘problematization methodology’, and drawing on findings from thirteen system suppliers, we identify three service-led growth trajectories: (1) becoming an availability provider, which is the focus of most transition literature; (2) becoming a performance provider, which resembles project-based sales and implies an even greater differentiation of what customers are offered; and, (3) becoming an ‘industrializer’, which is about standardizing previously customized solutions to promote repeatability and scalability. Based on our critical inquiry, we develop two alternative assumptions: (a) firms need to constantly balance business expansion and standardization activities; and (b) manage the co-existence of different system supplier roles. Finally, we consider the implications for implementing service-led growth strategies of the alternative assumptions.     

Examining salesperson versus sales manager evaluation of customer opportunities: A psychological momentum perspective on optimism,confidence, and overconfidence

Making correct decisions regarding the merit of sales opportunities, as well as deciding which opportunities to pursue and which to abandon, is one of the most critical tasks sales managers and salespeople grapple with. These frontline assessments typically become sales forecasts that are used to allocate resources within the firm. Assessments of future sales, however, are often inaccurate and little is known about how salespeople and sales managers make decisions about sales opportunities, or if they differ in their ability to (correctly) assess the merits of such opportunities. To address this research gap, we explore several decision-making biases – namely optimism, confidence, and overconfidence – through the lenses of both Psychological Momentum (PM) and Strategic Reference Point (SRP) theory. Analysis of rich CRM data from a Fortune 500 medical products company, across three studies, demonstrates notable differences between salespeople and sales managers concerning decision-making biases that influence their evaluations of sales opportunities.     

Developing viable farmers markets in rural communities: An investigation of vendor performance using objective and subjective valuations

Farmers markets are drawing increasing attention by consumers as a local source of fresh foods; by producers as an alternative marketing opportunity to improve farm sales; and by policy makers concerned about the limited availability of affordable, nutritious foods in low-income, sparsely-populated rural areas. Using unique data collected from customers, vendors, and markets in a rural region of New York State, we develop an empirical model of subjective and objective measures of vendor performance to identify important factors for improved market sustainability. The empirical results suggest four inter-related planning recommendations when considering market and public policy interventions: (1) establishing larger, centrally located markets with public sector contributions, (2) targeting variety in products and vendors, (3) prioritizing attention to marketing and promotion, and (4) reducing cost burdens to underserved, low-income residents. As rural areas are spatially unique, future research across a variety of rural communities and regions will be important to the further development of sound initiatives aimed at improving market performance and access to healthy foods.     

Do not miss the boat to outside-in open innovation: Enable your employees

In a highly competitive business environment, firms are increasingly opening up to external partners and gathering their knowledge to improve internal innovation processes. Although researchers have found that outside-in open innovation (OI) has a multitude of positive outcomes (e.g., improved innovation performance), few have studied its antecedents, and especially the “softer” ones. Thus, this study aims to empirically examine three “softer” drivers of outside-in OI (i.e., entrepreneurial culture, OI support, and OI enablement), based on a cross-industry sample of 104 firms. The results show that the relationship between entrepreneurial culture and outside-in OI is fully and positively mediated by OI enablement, whereas the mediating role of OI support in such relationship is not significant. This implies that entrepreneurial culture is unlikely to increase the level of outside-in OI, unless firms enable their employees, through systematic training and the deployment of teams, to effectively gather relevant knowledge from external partners.     

Exciting,boring, and nonexistent skylines: Vertical building gaps in global perspective

Despite the widespread prevalence and economic importance of tall buildings, little is known about how their patterns vary across space and time. We aim to quantify differences across major world regions over time (1950–2020). To do so, we exploit novel data on the location, height (above 55 m), and year of construction of nearly all tall buildings in the world. We propose a new methodology to estimate the extent to which some world regions build up more than others given similar economic and geographic conditions, city size distributions, and other features. Our analyses reveal that many skylines may visually appear more prominent than they really are once one includes all tall buildings and core controls, which alters how regions are ranked in terms of tall building stocks. Using results by city size, centrality, height of buildings, and building function, we classify world regions into different groups, finding that tall building stocks are likely driven by boring skylines of residential high-rises, and to a lesser extent exciting skylines of skyscrapers and office towers. Finally, land-use regulations and preferences, not historical preservation nor dispersed ownership, may account for most observed differences.     

MULTIPROJECT STRATEGY AND SALES GROWTH: THE BENEFITS OF RAPID DESIGN TRANSFER IN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

This paper explores the impact on sales growth of different product development strategies, especially an approach that focuses on the coordination of multiple projects that overlap in time and share critical components. The data for our analysis comes from the automobile industry, although the principles we discuss should apply to any industry where firms compete with multiple product lines and where the sharing of components among more than one distinct product is both possible and desirable. Some firms compete by trying to develop ‘hit’ products in isolation, with little or no reuse of components or coordination with other products. Another way to compete is to leverage a firm’s investment in new technologies across as many new products as possible as quickly as possible, while the technologies are still relatively new. This paper proposes a typology that captures this effect by categorizing product development strategies into four types: new design, rapid (or concurrent) design transfer, sequential design transfer, and design modification. An analysis of 210 projects from the automobile industry between 1980 and 1991 indicates that firms utilizing the rapid design transfer strategy—quickly leveraging new platform components across multiple projects–increased sales more than when they or their competitors did not use this strategy. The study’s results suggest that not only the sharing of technology among multiple projects but also the speed of technology leveraging are important to sales growth. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Realizing the potential of the small farmer

In the isolated villages of hilly regions in Nepal it is not uncommon to find farming families that exist on as little as £10 a year, measuring their output at average prices. Nepalese farmers, like their counterparts the world over, are what the ‘world poverty problem’ is largely all about. Millions of farming families are barely surviving from one year to the next. Development programmes, if they have affected them at all, have largely failed them. Often the poorer farmers are dependent on richer people in their villages; often they are unsure of their rights. Frequently they are neglected by extension staff; often they are suspicious not only of strangers but of each other.     

Mechanism choice and the buy-it-now auction: A structural model of competing buyers and sellers

A striking feature of many online sales platforms is the coexistence of multiple sales mechanisms. Items on eBay, for instance, are frequently offered through auctions, posted prices, and buy-it-now auctions. In this article, I study how this mechanism multiplicity influences the welfare of buyers and sellers. I specify and estimate a structural model of mechanism choice in online markets, in which I consider both sides of the market: On the demand side, buyers' choices among available listings are equilibrium outcomes of an entry game. On the supply side, sellers make equilibrium decisions when choosing sales mechanisms and prices. I estimate this model using data from sales of baseball tickets on eBay and calculate consumer and seller rents in three markets: the actual market with all three sales mechanisms and two counterfactual markets with auctions and fixed prices or only fixed-price listings, respectively. I find that the addition of auctions to fixed-price markets hurts sellers and risk-averse buyers but benefits risk-neutral buyers. Additionally, the consumer surplus increases when buy-it-now auctions are offered but the seller surplus is reduced further. I discuss the intuition for the cause of this result.