On a recent plane ride from Los Angeles I happened to be seated next to a Senior Vice President of Sales returning from her company’s annual sales meeting. The article I was reading on sales
force effectiveness caught her attention and prompted a conversation that centered on a common theme Huthwaite often hears from senior level managers. 

By Dave Horton, Huthwaite

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Today, customers get most of their product and application information from the Internet—meaning that selling is tougher for sales professionals, who must now add value to each customer's business and must work with the selling firm to achieve mutual goals.  Throw into the mix the need to assess customer strategy, create customized solutions and build synergistic relationships and that takes a special kind of business acumen. 

By Raymond Green (with Geoffrey James)

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Sales training, as we know it, is on its deathbed. In search of higher revenues, greater gross margins, increased market share, higher closing ratios and improved customer retention, companies have spent billions of dollars for sales and customer service training, often without achieving a satisfactory, long-term return on their investment.

By  Conrad Elnes

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Don't Just Train.  Train and Certify

Tim Murray, The Sales Board

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Adding Demand Creation to your existing Demand Capture Sales Process

By LaVon Koerner, Revenue Storm, 2008

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Strategic systems rarely arrive on the scene complete; they evolve, usually from less ambitious tactical systems when users demand more information than a purely tactical system can deliver. A case in point is salesforce automation (SFA).

A Beagle Research Group, LLC white paper, sponsored by Business Objects

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That training budgets are slashed during economic downturns is hardly news to anyone. During the recession that the US experienced in the early 2000’s, even companies that traditionally place a high
priority on investment in human capital were forced to re-examine their strategies.

By Linda Richardson

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Today's business environment is more competitive than ever. Companies are spending a significant amount of time and money in an effort to differentiate themselves from their competition and win more business.

The Sales Performance Group, a division of FranklinCovey

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“Most SMB’s lack the necessary resources to hire full-time developers or report writers, and with crystalreports.com, you don’t need to. As a business user, I automated meaningful BI in a matter of days.” Scott Cohenford, Senior Analyst, RapidAdvance.

A Business Objects White Paper

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SugarCRM is becoming a disruptive force in the small enterprise Customer Relationship Management (CRM) market.  Its commercial open source model, CRM appliance option, low price, and strong set of CRM features are impacting more traditional methods of CRM delivery and the perception of CRM value among small enterprises. Despite its small size compared to other vendors, SugarCRM scored highest in the Product Index of our evaluation, due to its broad features and extremely flexible deployment options.

Info-Tech Research Group, July 2007

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I grew up in abject poverty in Atoka, Tennessee – a small country town of 113 people. Our house had no electricity, running water, or indoor plumbing. At age seven, I began working in the cotton fields to help support my family. By the age of 17, I had been severely beaten 200-300 times by my father– sometimes within a breath of my life. That’s the horrible beginning of a journey that had a marvelous and rewarding culmination…from everyday want to phenomenal wealth.

By Michael Hendren

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Four days of tennis camp provided me with a better backhand, a stronger serve, and a bit more knowledge about the strategy of the game. But it also taught me a lot about training and development.

For the uninitiated, tennis camp is intensive tennis training that can range in length from two days to several weeks. Participants vary in skill level, from beginners to advanced players. The groups are large, and there are many staff people-- mostly college students. Most of the lessons are in group situations, but players receive private lessons as well.

By Eric R. Barton, The Baron Group, Published by ASTD

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What do great sales organizations and great professional sports teams have in common? Why do some sales professionals, as well as individual athletes, perform at a level superior to their peers?

By Bill Kowalski, Integrity System®

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Coaching can have great impact on career success, but first it has to happen. Managers need to slow down and focus on the varying developmental needs of their people in order to produce the results they want. Managers need to build an environment where trust and belief that people can and will do their jobs is a priority, and where management spends more time developing and growing people vs. doing the jobs of everyone.

Dennis Grieco - Richardson, November 2006

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All of the training in the world cannot "fix" the larger issue at stake for most organizations - that there is simply little to no reinforcement of that training through effective, ongoing coaching. And what is coaching after all? In most companies today, it is a dirty word because of several myths that have grown over time.

Dennis Grieco - Richardson, October 2006

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The broad purpose of any training program is to change attitudes, behaviors or skills in a way that positively impacts business results. Evaluating the effectiveness of a sales training program in order to understand whether it meets its objectives is critical so that you can measure the program’s contribution to the bottom line. In these days of corporate
streamlining and re-engineering, training budgets are being held under intense scrutiny.

Tim Sullivan, Seibel MultiChannel Services, September 2000

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"Back-to-school" - not words sales people might expect to hear in a professional selling environment. Yet many adult learners attending professional sales training programs fall back into familiar learning patterns from their school days. This white paper investigates how instructional designers and trainers can develop and deliver effective sales training programs that recognize the needs of adult learners.

Stephen J. Bistritz, Ed.D - Siebel eBusines/MultiChannel Services

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The power of eLearning as a vehicle for learning and skill development is unparalleled. eLearning provides access to learning that in other circumstances might be totally inaccessible. eLearning has the potential to be the educational equalizer - fast, up-to-date, and effective. In addition, it provides immediate access and does not take users away from their clients or desks for large blocks of time. But even though eLearning satisfies many needs of today's learners, it still is not meeting everyone's expectations. Why isn't eLearning achieving its extraordinary potential?

Linda Richardson - Richardson

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It is an all-too-common story: A top-flight salesperson is promoted to sales manager. The organization soon discovers, however, that the skills and perspectives that made this person a top salesperson are not contributing to success as a sales manager, and may in fact be contributing to the lack of success.

Wilson Learning Worldwide, August 2006

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People hear the word "negotiation" and automatically think of the end of the sales process. Not so, says the author of this provocative article, who shows that salespeople who start negotiation much earlier, achieve better deals and relationships.

Anne Stuart - Miller-Heiman, July 2006

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New competitive realities continue to produce shock waves that topple corporate giants, but they also give rise to revolutionary winners. These best-in-class companies are forging entirely new strategies in an age of mass disruption, through fresh economic models, mergers and acquisitions and e-commerce.

Wilson Learning Worldwide

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Companies are radically altering their sales organizations - or attempting to. Today, companies are implementing processes and technology in the hope of creating effective, efficient, predictable sales forces.

Dave Roberts - Siebel eBusines/MultiChannel Services

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