Effective Sales Training: What Are the Foundational Elements?

Frank V. Cespedes

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Article | Top Sales Magazine | April 2018

Effective Sales Training: What Are the Foundational Elements?

by Frank V. Cespedes

Abstract

Across industries, turnover in sales positions averages about 25–30% annually. This means that, at many firms, the equivalent of the entire sales force must be replaced and trained every four years or so. No other function has an ongoing talent management task of that magnitude. Yet, in a given year, over a third of firms do not train salespeople at all, and others budget and manage training initiatives in ways that make it difficult to determine cause and effect. This article discusses four components of effective sales training and the implications for sales trainers, sales managers, and senior leaders.

Keywords: Salesforce Management; Training;

Format: Electronic

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Citation:

Cespedes, Frank V. "Effective Sales Training: What Are the Foundational Elements?" Top Sales Magazine (April 2018), 22–23.

About the Author

Frank V. Cespedes

MBA Class of 1973 Senior Lecturer of Business Administration

Entrepreneurial Management

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Article | Top Sales Magazine | September 2018

Assembling the Sales Team

Frank V. Cespedes

Data and analytical tasks have lengthened productivity ramp-up times in many sales contexts, making each hire a bigger sunk cost for a longer time. Most companies adopt two common practices: They hire on the basis of “experience” and/or look at their best reps and try to hire more like them. This article discusses factors that are making sales hiring more complex and why common practices are increasingly counterproductive. It then discusses how two key factors (the impact and performance variability inherent in a company’s sales tasks) vary in different sales models and the hiring implications.

Citation:
Cespedes, Frank V. "Assembling the Sales Team." Top Sales Magazine (September 2018). View Details

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Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | August 2018

IguanaFix

Frank V. Cespedes and Thomas Eisenmann

Citation:
Cespedes, Frank V., and Thomas Eisenmann. "IguanaFix." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 819-029, August 2018. View Details

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Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | August 2018

Magpie: Developing and Using Buyer Personas

Frank V. Cespedes

Teaching Note for HBS No. 818-013. Magpie is a startup with a platform that allows publishers to natively tag the products discussed in their content and thus allows consumers to purchase those products without needing to leave that publisher’s web page. A key aspect of the venture’s business model is to leverage the content and influence of publishers (i.e., those who provide content in the fashion product categories initially targeted by Magpie). The founders have developed four publisher personas and must decide on priorities among these buyer personas and the implications for messaging, media, and other aspects of marketing to each group. “Buying Journey” and “Buyer Persona” are currently popular terms for a perennial requirement of effective marketing: understanding who buys, why, and how among a venture’s potential customer groups. The teaching note discusses the process for creating buying personas in an early-stage venture; the go-to-market implications that flow from focus on a given persona; and the uses, misuses, and inherent limitations of qualitative constructs like Buying Journey and Buyer Persona in allocating resources.

Citation:
Cespedes, Frank V. "Magpie: Developing and Using Buyer Personas." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 819-027, August 2018. View Details

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Effective Sales Training: What Are the Foundational Elements?

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