Harvard Business

NOVEMBER 8, 2016

Outbound B2B sales are becoming less and less effective. In fact, a recent survey found that connecting with a prospect now takes 18 or more phone calls, callback rates are below 1%, and only 24% of outbound sales emails are ever opened. B2B salespeople only need to invest 5% to 10% of their time to be successful with social.

B2B 66

B2B Sales Media Guidelines 66

Harvard Business

JUNE 7, 2018

Consider the case of a major industrial goods manufacturer that was struggling with low profit margins, relative both to competitors and to its own historical performance. It traced much of the cause to a mismatch between its sales incentives and pricing strategy. the alternatives and competitive intensity in the industry.

B2B 37

B2B Survey Company Sales 37

Harvard Business

NOVEMBER 20, 2018

I’ve been using the sales funnel for 28 years, my whole career. The flywheel was used by James Watt over 200 years ago in his steam engine, the invention that powered the Industrial Revolution. When I started my career, the most profitable application of force was in sales. clu/Getty Images. It was the right thing to do.

Sales 49

Sales B2C Energy Efficiency 49

Harvard Business

MAY 10, 2018

While there’s less buzz around business-to-business markets, these innovations are changing the game in B2B as well, even in old-line industries selling what might be considered commodity products. For a deep dive into the elements, see our related HBR article “ The B2B Elements of Value ”).

B2B 28

B2B Chemicals Engineering Data 28

Harvard Business

NOVEMBER 23, 2018

In the 2001 recession, total sales for the S&P 500 declined by 9% from its pre-recession peak to its trough 18 months later—almost a year after the recession officially ended. We’ll focus here on what the sales organization should be doing now to prepare for the next recession, with an eye toward using new digital tools.

Sales 39

Sales B2B Tools Software 39

Harvard Business

JUNE 1, 2018

A Fortune 250 B2B company spent a quarter of a million dollars trying to solve the wrong problem. A new product line had failed, and the company believed the problem was either poor product delivery times or lack of effort by the sales force. Over 150 B2B salespeople were involved in the research. This company isn’t alone.

Sales 28

Sales Marketing B2B Case Interview 28

Harvard Business

MARCH 10, 2017

Sales executives with even moderately large, distributed sales forces rely on data to help them understand which activities and behaviors lead to the best outcomes. Refining Sales Team Structure and Roles. At the highest level, Workplace Analytics can provide a factual foundation for decisions on sales structure and roles.

Sales 37

Sales Software Productivity Data 37

Harvard Business

APRIL 26, 2016

For decades, Sales and Academia remained worlds apart and the business world did fine. But Sales is changing, Academia is out of touch, and this is bad for business and the academy. Sales was traditionally seen as a form of service work, with an emphasis primarily on developing moral character.

Sales 28

Sales Education Training Training 28

Prudent Pedal

OCTOBER 8, 2019

Staff ineptness, website deficiencies, social media strategies, misallocated marketing budgets, the absence of brochures, lack of sales and marketing integration, CRM, or cross-selling demands are common complaints. Lacks understanding of the complex B2B buying cycle. I’ve focused on brand problems that were really sales problems.

Marketing 45

Marketing B2B Film Sales 45

Management Consulted

DECEMBER 11, 2016

Though the firm’s background is exclusively in pricing, in more recent years it has been breaking into other practice areas such as strategy, marketing, and sales. In 1996, Simon-Kucher opened an office in Boston and began to put more of a focus on its other three practice areas: strategy, marketing, and sales. Industries.

Interviews 100

Interviews Culture Case Interview Automotive 100

Management Consulted

OCTOBER 3, 2012

I begged my favorite Econ teacher to let me into his Industrial Organization course and fortunately I got a spot. Half of the class was devoted to examining different models and learning the game theory behind strategic decision making; in the remainder of the class, we applied that knowledge and analyzed different industries.

Consulting 204

Consulting Case Interview Interviews Engineering 204

Harvard Business

MARCH 22, 2017

Brocade, a data and network solutions provider, created a “customer first” program by identifying their top 200 customers, who account for 80% of their sales. Brocade’s Net Promoter Score went from 50 (already a best in class score) to 62 (one of the highest B2B scores on record) within 18 months. The results?

Marketing 49

Marketing Agile Fashion Sales 49

Harvard Business

MAY 4, 2016

And he reinforced what he could offer hiring companies — elevating them to the #1 position in their respective industries. He noted his accomplishments in several areas: strategy development and execution, branding and marketing, sales, partnerships, and IP. Résumé story details. 75M to more than $14.5M in four years.

Resumes 28

Resumes Interviews Cover Letters Recruiting 28

LSA Global

APRIL 16, 2021

A Sales Leader’s Dilemma – Top Ways to Grow Revenue There are only so many actions available to a sales leader to profitably grow revenue. The art is identifying, agreeing to, and committing to top ways to grow revenue for you and your sales team. Which sales growth lever should you pull?

Sales 36

Sales B2B Training Training 36

Harvard Business

JUNE 7, 2016

Alex Mohler admits that when he first started as director of client services at Crubiq, a B2B sales company based in Raleigh, North Carolina, he felt like a fish out of water. Most of his prior experience was in the frozen dessert industry. Case Study #1: Focus on the opportunity and set small, achievable goals.

How To 28

How To Case Study Case Studies B2B 28

Harvard Business

DECEMBER 13, 2017

Beyond shipping new features on a regular cadence and keeping the peace between engineering and the design team, the best PMs create products with strong user adoption that have exponential revenue growth and perhaps even disrupt an industry. So, what should you consider if you’re thinking of pursuing a PM role? Core Competencies.

Productivity 28

Productivity Management Engineering Case Interview 28

Harvard Business

DECEMBER 4, 2017

It’s common for leaders of sales teams to focus almost exclusively on short-term tactics and current operations while failing to think and act in a way that supports the longer-term needs of their businesses — and it’s hard to fault them. Splunk , a San Francisco-based B2B software firm, is a case in point.

Sales 28

Sales Case Interview Recruiting Recruitment 28

Harvard Business

DECEMBER 4, 2017

It’s common for leaders of sales teams to focus almost exclusively on short-term tactics and current operations while failing to think and act in a way that supports the longer-term needs of their businesses — and it’s hard to fault them. Splunk , a San Francisco-based B2B software firm, is a case in point.

Sales 28

Sales Case Interview Recruiting Recruitment 28

Tsavo Neal

JANUARY 25, 2018

Now, B2B decision makers are actively looking for consultants online, and your digital presence can be a huge part of how you generate new conversations with buyers. All businesses, regardless of industry, have become what I call O2O businesses—their primary marketing objectives are focused on driving people online to drive them offline.

Consulting 68

Consulting Advertising Case Interview Conference 68

Harvard Business

DECEMBER 23, 2016

Jio is a unit of Reliance Industries Ltd, whose leader, Mukesh Ambani is India’s richest man. This move creates myriad opportunities in India’s financial services industry. Recently, a Fortune 100 consumer product giant shifted its sales promotion strategy in India from coupons in newspapers to offers on mobile devices.

Strategy 28

Strategy Strategy Strategy& Banking 28

Harvard Business

APRIL 20, 2017

billion people, makes the region an exciting expansion opportunity for multinationals across industries. In some cases, product adaptation requires localizing manufacturing in the MEA region; but in many others, it mostly requires changes in how companies work with their sales channel and distribution partners.

Government 32

Government Efficiency Policies Operations 32