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Frank Cespedes

About Frank Cespedes

Frank Cespedes teaches at Harvard Business School and for 12 years was Managing Partner at a professional services firm. He has worked with many companies on go-to-market and strategy issues, and has been a Board member at consumer goods, industrial products, and services firms. He has written for numerous publications, and is the author most recently of Aligning Strategy and Sales (Harvard Business Review Press) which was cited as "the best sales book of the year" (Strategy + Business), "a must read" (Gartner), and "perhaps the best sales book ever" (Forbes).

3 Secrets to Scaling Your Business

23 September 2015 by Frank Cespedes

It’s tough to start a business that gets traction with paying customers. Data indicate that less than half of US start-ups survive beyond three years. But it’s much harder to grow. Even for businesses that attract venture funding, fewer than 6% achieve more than $10 million in revenues and fewer than 2% more than $50 million. The increase… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Business Development

Assembling the Sales Team

20 October 2018 by Frank Cespedes

Assembling the right sales team has always been crucial. As the old saying goes, “You hire your problems.” But recruitment and selection are now even more important. Data and analytical tasks have lengthened productivity ramp-up times in many sales contexts. Each hire then represents a bigger sunk cost for a longer time. As baby boomers… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Decision Making, Employee Experience Management, Leadership, Leadership Skills, Recruitment & Retention

Being a Manager

19 May 2019 by Frank Cespedes

In a previous article in Top Sales Magazine (February 2019), I discussed why you cannot just excel at sales to be a good sales manager. The message was that moving from doer to manager is a crucial transition, and developing the required capabilities is a joint responsibility of the individual and the organization. Market changes… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Sales Management, Starting in Sales Management

Effective Sales Training: What Are the Foundational Elements?

9 May 2018 by Frank Cespedes

Someone once told me that many companies maintain their equipment better than their people. If so, they get what they don’t maintain. This is especially true in sales. Across industries, turnover in sales averages about 25-30% annually. This means that, at many firms, the equivalent of the entire sales force must be replaced and trained… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Sales, Sales Training

Four Ways to Build a Productive Sales Culture

23 July 2015 by Frank Cespedes

All businesses face opportunity costs. In the case of a sales organization, money, time, and effort allocated to accounts A and B are resources not available for accounts C, D, and so on. That reality drives the distinction between effectiveness (optimization by doing the right things) and efficiency (doing things right) that Peter Drucker and… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Sales Culture, Sales Management

Getting Your Money’s Worth: Improving Sales Compensation

8 May 2017 by Frank Cespedes

In a previous article (“Rethinking Sales Compensation,” February 2017), I examined three common but false assumptions about money, motivation, and management in sales compensation practices. The message was that the purpose of any sales comp plan is to motivate the sales force to achieve the firm’s goals. There’s no such thing as effective selling if… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Sales Compensation, Sales Management

Reframing Value in a Crisis

28 July 2020 by Frank Cespedes

Reframing is the process of moving buyers from their current perspective(s) to one that motivates a different response. The current crisis makes this capability more important than ever. Cascading bankruptcies, higher debt loads, and uncertainty about future waves of infection mean a tightening of budgets, resistance to change, and more situations where prospects prolong purchasing… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Leadership, Leadership Skills, Sales, Sales Trends

Rethinking Sales Compensation

15 March 2017 by Frank Cespedes

Compensation is probably the most discussed aspect of sales and the biggest chunk of the $900 billion that U.S. companies alone spend on selling. An estimated 85% of companies use incentive plans which, on average, account for about 40% of total sales compensation. Yet, in a survey of 700 firms, a whopping 20% reported that… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Motivational Management, Sales Management

Sales Leadership During and After the Crisis

26 June 2020 by Frank Cespedes

Even in good times, life in a sales organization is filled with short-term deadlines and pressures: sales per quarter, sales per rep, did she or didn’t she meet quota. As a sales manager once said to me, “In this job, if you don’t survive the short term, you don’t need to worry about the long… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Customer Experience, Customer Retention, Leadership, Organizational Development

Sales Managers Must Manage

4 March 2019 by Frank Cespedes

Probably the most common complaint I’ve heard throughout my career from C-level executives about their sales colleagues concerns the latter’s ability to manage, not sell. As one senior executive puts it, “I want sales executives: people with one eye on a sales number [and] another eye on serving a market, making customers successful, and representing… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Sales Management

Sales Methodologies and Selling

14 December 2019 by Frank Cespedes

Sales methodologies play an important role. A common approach in a sales force allows for consistency, dissemination of best practices, acceleration of learning, and it helps the firm to scale because management then has common metrics to monitor and evaluate. Hence, the allure to sales leaders of methodologies that purport to provide “the playbook …. Read More

Filed Under: Article, Sales, Sales Trends

The Dialogue That Rarely Happens

8 March 2016 by Frank Cespedes

In any organization, influence is bestowed as well as earned. It requires relevant expertise and results, but also being recognized by others as adding value.  Sales managers are no exception to the rule. In many firms, Sales is still treated as a mysterious black box—essential for meeting quarterly revenue targets, but hermetically sealed off from… Read More

Filed Under: Article, Leadership, Sales Strategy

The Myths Behind Pushy Salespeople

28 February 2015 by Frank Cespedes

Sales talent has less to do with personality and relationship building than most realize. What does it take to be a good salesperson? There’s a wide range of responses. Most reflect what you’d expect to find in the Boy Scout Handbook, with commonly cited traits like modesty, listening, curiosity, achievement orientation, and lack of discouragement. In pop… Read More

Filed Under: Article, General Sales, Relationship Selling

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