Sales are the lifeblood of the business world and therefore an area of fundamental importance for scholarly research. This concise book analyses current thoughts and emerging practices in sales management research. Organisations who are looking to increase revenues and add new customers to their portfolio will find it increasingly difficult to successfully do this without being aware of and adopting the appropriate, adaptive sales processes. Emergent themes such as agile sales management, digital selling, artificial intelligence and trust will be discussed in the book that also embraces the importance of customer relationship management, and how salespeople are aligning their interactions with the marketing function. The text will review recent research to identify how to grow and organise the sales pipeline, manage hybrid sales teams, and the effects of new technologies on selling processes. These discussions will be helpful in highlighting issues and providing some solutions to practitioners who are operating in new environments. This book will be invaluable to sales researchers as it summarises current knowledge about key sales and sales management topics and indicates possible future research directions.

The Oxford Handbook of Strategic Sales and Sales Management is an unrivalled overview by leading academics in the field of sales and marketing management. Sales theory is experiencing a renaissance driven by a number of factors, including building profitable relationships, creating/delivering brand value, strategic customer management, sales and marketing relationships, global selling, and the change from transactional to customer relationship marketing. Escalating sales and selling costs require organisations to be more focused on results and highlight the shifting of resources from marketing to sales. Further the growth in customer power now requires a strategic sales response, and not just a tactical one. The positioning of sales within the organisation, the sales function and sales management are all discussed. The Handbook is not a general sales management text about managing a sales force, but will fill a gap in the existing literature through consolidating the current academic research in the sales area. The Handbook is structured around four key topics. The first section explores the strategic positioning of the sales function within the modern organisation. The second considers sales management and recent developments. The third section examines the sales relationship with the customer and highlights how sales is responding to the modern environment. Finally, the fourth section reviews the internal composition of sales within the organisation. The Handbook will provide a comprehensive introduction to the latest research in sales management, and is suitable for academics, professionals, and those taking professional qualifications in sales and marketing.

This book examines issues and implications of digital and social media marketing for emerging markets. These markets necessitate substantial adaptations of developed theories and approaches employed in the Western world. The book investigates problems specific to emerging markets, while identifying new theoretical constructs and practical applications of digital marketing. It addresses topics such as electronic word of mouth (eWOM), demographic differences in digital marketing, mobile marketing, search engine advertising, among others. A radical increase in both temporal and geographical reach is empowering consumers to exert influence on brands, products, and services. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and digital media are having a significant impact on the way people communicate and fulfil their socio-economic, emotional and material needs. These technologies are also being harnessed by businesses for various purposes including distribution and selling of goods, retailing of consumer services, customer relationship management, and influencing consumer behaviour by employing digital marketing practices. This book considers this, as it examines the practice and research related to digital and social media marketing.

With the recent digital developments within marketing, the alignment between sales and marketing has become increasingly important as it has the potential to improve sales, customer relations, and customer satisfaction. The evolution of technology has also been promoting changes in the sales process, which provides new opportunities and challenges for enterprises at various levels. Sales Management for Improved Organizational Competitiveness and Performance highlights the influences of management, marketing, and technology on sales and presents trends in sales, namely the digital transformation that is taking place in organizations. The book also considers innovative concepts, techniques, and tools in the sales area. Covering a wide range of topics such as digital transformation, sales communication, and social media marketing, this reference work is ideal for managers, marketers, researchers, scholars, practitioners, academicians, instructors, and students.

Managing Innovation: New Technology, New Products, and New Services in a Global Economy, 2nd Edition is devoted to providing a better understanding and better management of all of the causes and consequences of change that have technological implications in and around our global organizations. This text is a unique, original contribution and represents a significant alternative to the collection of chapters written by others. The second edition has new cases with a few classics from the first edition that have been retained in response to reader feedback. The key subjects that are included have been significantly updated and treated in greater depth. The number of chapters has been reduced from 12 to 10 so it is easy to adapt to almost any course or training on the subject in any discipline or to any audience. This exceptionally informative book provides a broad perspective on how technological change can be effectively managed in modern organizations. The text explains the conceptual frameworks supported by new and original case studies for start-up companies like Askmen.com, the complex challenges of managing international technology-based companies like NexPress (a joint venture of Kodak and Heidelberg) in the digital printing industry, and corporate sustainability using innovative new product technologies illustrated by the case of Evinrude’s launch of the E-tec® outboard motor. John E. Ettlie's three decades in the field of innovation as an instructor and researcher bring an exceptional perspective to this subject. His text is unique in its discussion of how technology has transformed the service sector. Few books on technology make the distinction between new offerings in manufacturing and the service sector which is emphasized in this text.

Sales and marketing are two primary business functions that focus on creating satisfied customers. Due to their complementary orientations and objectives, these two functions are ideally positioned for a fruitful, synergetic collaboration. UnfortuÂnately, the practical reality in many companies is far removed from this utopia. Sales and marketing personnel fail to communicate effectively, resulting in misunderstandings, frustration, and sometimes sabotage. Instead of supporting each other in creating superior value for customers, they often fight tiresome internal battles that are a drain on profits, efficiency and customer satisfaction. Improving Sales and Marketing Collaboration offers the first comprehensive perspective on the functioning of sales-marketing interfaces in business to business (B2B) companies. We explore their complementary roles in creating superior value for customers, problems that occur, the underlying causes of these problems, and potential solutions. These solutions are accompanied by a series of tools that managers can use to diagnose their sales-marketing interface and develop appropriate approaches to improve this relationship. Additionally, the book discusses a number of challenges that companies encounter and the impacts on their sales-marketing interfaces. The discussions and tools presented in this book provide managers with a deep underÂstanding of this critical interface, allowing them to apply these insights to improve their sales-marketing interface, which helps them create superior value for customers.