Research Details

Abstract

Over 25 years, we have developed many sales-force and modeling insights through over 2,000 projects with several hundred selling organizations in over 50 countries. Content insights are useful in making sales-force decisions. Examples are that profitability is flat for a wide range of sales-force sizes; phased sales-force growth is rarely optimal; focused strategies dominate scattered strategies; most sales territories (55 percent) are too large or too small; and no compensation plan satisfies everyone. Implementation insights concern model building, use, and implementation, for example, a model's economic value can come from such sources as reduced uncertainty, accuracy, increased speed, objectivity, and stakeholder involvement; theory and practice have different and complementary perspectives; experience and wisdom are sometimes better than models; and models provide insights, while people make decisions.

Type

Article

Author(s)

Prabhakant Sinha, Andris Zoltners

Date Published

2001

Citations

Sinha, Prabhakant, and Andris Zoltners. 2001. Sales-Force Decision Models: Insights from 25 Years of Implementation. Interfaces. 31(3): S8-S44.