MIT Sloan School of Management's Juanjuan Zhang and three coresearchers explored the relationship between genetics and sales performance. They studied 117 salespeople at an Asian telemarketing company over the course of 13 months. They cross-referenced employee DNA with performance metrics, such as revenue produced, the ability to identify selling opportunities, and effort. The conclusion: The employees with superior sales performance were genetically different from the rest of the group.

The "Moral Complexity in Leadership" series of cases and teaching notes help business instructors harness the power of fiction to prepare students for the moral and ethical dilemmas they will face throughout their careers. Meaningful fiction challenges students intellectually and emotionally; it reveals the inner worlds of human players and enables learning that can be difficult to access through case studies, commentary, or reporting. Through literature, students will wrestle with the kinds of problems they will face as leaders looking to make courageous decisions aligned with their moral codes. The works in this series represent a wide range of settings, viewpoints, and cultural frameworks; the characters are complex and contradictory, and the systems within which they operate (whether family, organizational, or cultural) influence them in varied ways. They have been taught to executive, full- and part-time MBA student audiences for many years. The series aims to increase students' understanding of moral frameworks and enhance their skills in facilitating and participating in healthy and productive dialogue about complex and provocative issues. In this installment of the series, "Moral Distress and Rationalizations," students will examine Allan Gurganus's "Blessed Assurance," about a 59-year-old man named Jerry who narrates this novella by looking back on a part-time job he held when he was 19 years old, a role that still plagues him with guilt 40 years later. Working for Windlass Funerary Eventualities, Inc., his assignment was to collect weekly funeral insurance premium payments from elderly, impoverished Black people in the fictional small town of Falls, North Carolina. Windlass's practices were predatory: Customers were required to make payments every week or forfeit all compensation for their loved ones' funeral expenses, no matter how many hundreds or even thousands of dollars they had already paid. Jerry tells readers he needed the job to pay for college business courses and to help his parents, who suffered from "brown lung" (byssinosis) after working in a cotton mill for 30 years. Jerry tells the story because he still "feels bad about what went on," and his wife says, "Telling somebody might help." Moral Complexity in Leadership students have consistently found Gurganus's novella deeply resonant. Jerry's complicity in an unethical system over which he has little power and his tortured decision-making and rationalizations about whether to continue or to quit echo situations many students face. Even for those who have not yet encountered such situations, the story likely will be relevant soon.

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, Boeing and Airbus, the leading manufacturers of large commercial aircraft, were locked in a battle for market share that drove down prices for their new planes. At about the same time, the two industry heavyweights began developing new aircraft families to address their projected future market needs. Large commercial aircraft (generally defined as those carrying more than 100 passengers) were among the world's most complex and expensive manufactured products. A wide-body jet comprising millions of parts and nearly 200 miles of wires and tubing could be priced at $300 million or more. Design and manufacturing took up to ten years, from initial research to a finished product. The process required large numbers of highly trained and specialized workers. It also took large amounts of capital; recent aircraft programs were estimated to cost more than $13 billion. Manufacturers had to invest in extensive and highly specialized facilities and equipment and commit to high attendant fixed costs. To maximize their development investment, manufacturers created aircraft "families" that used the same airframe or body as a platform for multiple models. Within each family were aircraft that varied in numerous dimensions, the most important of which were passenger capacity and flight range--critical determinants of the airline's strategy. In October 2007, the Airbus superjumbo A380 made its first flight. The A380 carried more passengers than any other plane in history and had as a solution to increased congestion at global mega-hub airports. Four years later, the Boeing 787, a smaller long-range aircraft, was launched to serve secondary cities in a point-to-point network. When these planes made their inaugural flights, the global environment had significantly changed from when they were first planned. China and other emerging Asian economies were growing rapidly, spawning immediate and long-term demand for more aircraft. At the same time, changes to the market for air travel had created opportunities for new products. These opportunities had not gone unnoticed by potential new entrants, which were positioning themselves to compete against the market leaders. The case provides students with an opportunity to analyze the profit potential of the global aircraft manufacturing industry in 2002 and 2011. Students can also identify the actions of participants that weakened or intensified the pressure on profits within the industry.

This case deals with the marketing and sales functions of an educational organisation. The case is set within the Executive Education department of the Nagopian School of Foreign Trade (NSFT), a hypothetical private university located in Southeast Asia. This group is tasked with running for-profit training programmes for would-be participants. The university president has instructed Rakesh Sharma, the newly appointed head of Executive Education to turn around the financial fortunes of the unit. However, he has also stated that he would not get any more promotional budget, nor headcount. NSFT offers three types of Executive Education Programmes: Public Short Programmes, Custom Programmes, and Diploma Programmes. The students are given some revenue and cost information from the past performance of the Executive Education unit and are expected to give recommendations for how to improve its financial performance. The case provides information on the sales force size, the number of hours it takes to sell a typical short course programme, the advertising expenditure for each type of programme (and the per programme expenditures for each individual short-programme, and the number of attendees of short programme offering). Sharma must make decisions about the product portfolio, sales force allocation, and promotional expenditures that will best impact his financial performance.

Value-based selling efforts often fizzle after an initial push because companies fail to see beyond the numbers when calculating the economic impact of product or service benefits. While quantifying evidence of benefits is at the heart of value-based selling, it's not enough. Companies can follow a five-step process that builds commitment to joint value creation with their customers and develops a deep mutual understanding of what it can offer and what benefits are meaningful to customers.

More than a century ago the merchant John Wanamaker wryly complained, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is, I don't know which half." In this article the authors present a solution to Wanamaker's famous quandary. Drawing on a large database supplied by the World Advertising Research Centre to empirically identify what kinds of brand advertising are most effective-both for attracting new customers and for converting them into loyal repeaters-they show that the key to successful brand building is offering a memorable, valuable, and deliverable promise to the customer. What's more, a well-designed customer promise not only translates directly into sales but also provides an effective framework around which to organize a company's activities.

The average U.S. household contains a trove of potentially reusable goods worth roughly $4,500. That's a lot of trapped value, and companies are at last getting serious about accessing it-by developing new resale capabilities. Resale has been with us for a very long time, of course-at yard sales, on used-car lots, in classified ads. But the magnitude of the market is changing, boosted by Gen Z consumers and a growing demand for sustainability. Some major brands, including Apple, Nike, Rolex, and Walmart, are moving into the market. And GlobalData estimates that the total resale market in the United States is around $175 billion. In this article, Robertson, a former dean of the Wharton School, focuses on the potential benefits of resale and helps leaders think about whether resale makes sense for their brands. Drawing on interviews with executives who work at companies that are actively pursuing resale and at third-party platforms that have become important partners in the resale ecosystem, he offers five guidelines for resale success: (1) design friction-free processes, (2) work with a third-party platform, (3) transition to the Gen Z consumer, (4) integrate brand-loyalty initiatives, and (5) build an integrated portfolio.

As "doer-sellers," professional services partners are responsible for not just delivering services but also the entire business-development process. As "rainmakers," they must build awareness of their expertise in the market to generate demand, identify and close new client business, deliver the work to the client, and then renew and expand the relationship over time. But there is a growing problem with this long-standing practice: Clients are much less loyal to firms and partners than they once were. Competition for business among professional services firms is intensifying, which has cast in sharp relief the troubling gap in the ability of high performers and core performers to bring in work. In this article, the authors identify five statistically determined profiles that professional services partners fall into, only one of which is correlated with positive performance, and they lay out the three key behaviors of a successful business-development approach: (1) building connected networks of colleagues and clients, (2) creating value through collaboration, and (3) committing to a proactive and consistent business-development routine.

"This case follows the decision-making process of Erik Wolfe, senior product marketing manager at Sound Agriculture, an agriculture technology company, to develop a go-to-market strategy for a new product. Founded in 2013 and financed through venture capital, Sound Agriculture was generating revenue by 2020 thanks to the success of its flagship product, the foliar spray SOURCE. It is now April 2022 and Sound Agriculture needs to quickly explore options for continuous revenue growth to hedge against a potentially slower venture capital investment pace. An initial feasibility study identified a viable opportunity in entering the turfgrass market with a SOURCE-inspired derivative product. The study suggested that a 5% share of the golf course market was obtainable within five years. Wolfe has a timeline and high-level strategy but faces many challenges including: Defining the target market and developing a product name, logo and packaging; projecting future financial scenarios based on assumptions; aligning Sound Agriculture's sustainability mission with the golf course market. Students will use a supplemental MS Excel worksheet (that accompanies the case) to guide them in preparing and analyzing financial data to support their marketing strategy decisions."

"This case follows the decision-making process of Erik Wolfe, senior product marketing manager at Sound Agriculture, an agriculture technology company, to develop a go-to-market strategy for a new product. Founded in 2013 and financed through venture capital, Sound Agriculture was generating revenue by 2020 thanks to the success of its flagship product, the foliar spray SOURCE. It is now April 2022 and Sound Agriculture needs to quickly explore options for continuous revenue growth to hedge against a potentially slower venture capital investment pace. An initial feasibility study identified a viable opportunity in entering the turfgrass market with a SOURCE-inspired derivative product. The study suggested that a 5% share of the golf course market was obtainable within five years. Wolfe has a timeline and high-level strategy but faces many challenges including: Defining the target market and developing a product name, logo and packaging; projecting future financial scenarios based on assumptions; aligning Sound Agriculture's sustainability mission with the golf course market. Students will use a supplemental MS Excel worksheet (that accompanies the case) to guide them in preparing and analyzing financial data to support their marketing strategy decisions."

Researchers from the University of Missouri studied the auto insurance industry to learn more about what drives sales success. The analysis showed that experienced reps found fewer prospective customers than novices did. But that didn't necessarily hurt their overall performance, because they excelled at conversion. Advertising boosted both prospecting and conversion efficacy but was most beneficial among experienced reps. And the success of managerial levers to enhance both kinds of efficacy depended in part on reps' level of experience. In this article, the researchers offer several recommendations for sales managers looking to bolster their reps' productivity.

This case explores the founding story of German enterprise software company Celonis and its early attempts to globally scale and expand into the complex U.S. enterprise software market. After achieving success co-selling with a single ERP partner with dominant market share in Europe, Celonis' founders and sales teams must learn to test and adopt different go-to-market motions and forms of incentive alignment in the larger and more strategically complex North American software market.

Cara Nicoletti was an emerging food entrepreneur that had recently launched her first product, a sustainably sourced, vegetable-infused meat sausage. Brooklyn, New York City-based Seemore Meats & Veggies had seen promising signs of success in local markets and pockets of the west coast, such as Los Angeles, California. Customers overwhelmingly approved of the product, and bought them by the case. Nicoletti was ready to scale her operation. However, she encountered challenges meeting the mounting demand for her products nationwide. She had already managed to enter a crowded industry dominated by industry giants Tyson Foods, JBS USA, and many others. Faced with the challenge of costly delivery expenses in her direct-to-consumer business (DTC), Nicoletti needed to decide whether she should, remain a digital DTC brand or shift to a multi-channel sales strategy that could include any combination of options such as grocery store, private label, or food service partners. Shrinking cash reserves left from her Seed Round expansion made the problem more pressing. Nicoletti needed to prove to investors that she could effectively scale, which would allow her to campaign for the funds to expand her product offering and sales operation.

This case provides an overview of a sales transformation in the industrial automation division at Belden, a hardware manufacturer. While Belden historically sold products such as cables, wires, and other networking devices, EVP of Industrial Automation Ashish Chand recognized that IT vendors were threatening to enter the hardware market. Thus, Chand initiated Enhanced Solutions Delivery (ESD), which pivoted Belden from selling products to selling solutions to optimize customers' networks. ESD required Belden to change its sales cycle, its approach to hiring, pricing model, and compensation structure. The case explores how Belden's leadership team implemented these changes, and how Belden navigated its changing relationship with channel partners and distribution partners.

Many salespeople today are struggling; only 57% of them make their annual quotas, surveys show. One problem is that buying processes have evolved faster than selling processes, and buyers today can access a wide range of online resources that let them evaluate products before even meeting a salesperson. AI tools can help organizations close the gap, but most don't know how to use them effectively. In this article the authors describe how sales AI has been a real game changer at a few companies. They also provide a self-assessment tool, the Sales Success Matrix, that will show sales leaders where to start or improve their AI journeys. The matrix has two dimensions: relationship level (which runs from transactional vendor on the low end to trusted co-creator at the top) and process level (which runs from ad hoc to customized). At the lower levels of both relationships and processes, simple AI that decreases costs and improves efficiency works best. In the mid levels, advanced AI increases sales effectiveness by analyzing opportunities and customer needs. At the highest level, cutting-edge technologies help firms generate deep insights about customers. No matter where a firm falls on the matrix, AI can help it boost sales. And the sooner and more broadly it applies AI tools, the better they work.

Companies can reap great benefits from digitalizing their sales organizations--that is, using technology, data, and analytics to improve the sales process. Done well, digitalization increases customer engagement, boosts the skills and performance of salespeople, and supports a more customer-focused business model. But digitalization initiatives are often plagued by slow progress, poor adoption, or low sustained impact. This article discusses why that happens and recommends five actions to increase the odds of success: (1) Put a "boundary spanner"--someone with both sales and technical experience--in charge, and secure an executive sponsor; (2) build in accountability by establishing the business case, setting key performance indicators, and creating a governance framework; (3) deploy a functionally diverse team; (4) implement an agile approach; and (5) foster change in salespeople's mindsets as well as in the sales process.

After launching a successful hot cloud storage company, Founder and CEO David Friend is ready to scale the venture rapidly. Wasabi Technologies had focused primarily on direct sales, but an opportunity to pivot to channel sales was on the horizon. The company's major competitors-Amazon, Google, and Microsoft-all sold their cloud storage products through multiple channels, and Friend feared that direct sales could never provide the momentum Wasabi Technologies needed to compete. However, channel sales would include changing its sales, marketing, and staffing strategies dramatically-effectively veering the company away from its already successful course. Was channel sales the right play for the burgeoning cloud storage provider? If so, how should Friend go about it?

The triple fit canvas is a sales framework designed to facilitate collaborative value creation between sellers and buyers. Inspired by the Blue Ocean Strategy canvas developed by Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne and the business model canvas developed by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, the triple fit canvas is both a diagnostic and an action framework. It extends a limited, product-centric view to a broader, customer-centric perspective. It shifts the focus from selling existing products and services to helping create new ones. In this article the author details the key components of the triple fit canvas and describes how companies such as BMW, Konica Minolta, and GAP have benefited from it.

The sales of various drug products for AstraZeneca, a multinational pharmaceutical company, have been greatly impacted by the volume-based procurement resulting from the medical reform in China. Meanwhile, the Covid-19 epidemic has catapulted the internet pharmaceutical industry into rapid development. When crises are intermingled with opportunities, AstraZeneca attempted to establish Yiliyili.com, an internet medical service platform, by leveraging its offline resources. Chen Hua, the CEO of Yiliyili.com, has 14 years of experience in pharmaceutical e-commerce and has set up an innovative "doctors-to-pharmaceuticals" model in contrast to the mainstream that runs otherwise. This model was created through collaboration with doctors from contracted offline hospitals who were engaged online. The goal was to establish a stable and active group of doctor users while providing them with empowerment and supporting services. The objective was to replicate existing doctor-patient relationships in an online setting. Meanwhile, it has extended services in physical medical and pharmaceutical products to value-additive services such as case management and compliance-related services for patients. It has also extended the provision of prescription drugs other than essential drugs at non-public offline hospitals according to patients' needs to enhance its marketing abilities for such drugs. Furthermore, it has used its marketing capacity for prescription drugs to establish cooperation with other medical appliance manufacturers to form an integrated marketing platform through which it could average down its fixed costs for maintaining a huge marketing team while better-utilizing marketing capacities. Can Yiliyili.com gain a competitive edge over its traditional competitors by implementing a service-heavy strategy and utilizing its offline strengths to outperform its online advantages? Will it be able to establish itself as a top-notch provider of exceptional and cost-effective

The amount of product and service information available to B2B customers--reports, blogs, display ads, email marketing, and more--has become overwhelming, leading to indecision and a sharply reduced likelihood of making a substantive purchase. The best reps have turned this conundrum into a prime selling opportunity. Above all else, they help buyers make sense of the information they've encountered. Their approach is a form of sensemaking, and it encompasses three broad activities. Sensemaking sellers connect customers with relevant resources, curating the information they share for utility and clarity and including only what will help customers proceed with confidence. They clarify information, helping customers feel that they've asked the right questions, understood competing perspectives, and accounted for potential contingencies. And they collaborate on customer learning, Socratically guiding buyers on a purchase journey rather than telling them what to do. A lack of self-confidence impedes big deals more often than a lack of confidence in a particular vendor does. Sensemaking sellers boost customers' self-confidence, enabling buyers to take bold, decisive action with assurance and peace of mind.