Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School and author of Sales Management That Works, Aligning Strategy and Sales, as well as other books and articles.
By Frank V. Cespedes & Jared Hamilton Alfred P. Sloan, GM’s CEO from the 1920s to the 1940s, and the architect of the U.S. auto distribution system, summed up the car buyer’s challenge well: “The automobile…is a highly complex mechanical product. It represents a...
The Dialogue That Rarely Happens Frank V. Cespedes Originally published in Top Sales magazine (February, 2016) In any organization, influence is bestowed as well...
By Frank V. Cespedes and Jacco van der Kooij You see Pareto’s Principle applied to sales all the time — the top 20% of a sales force produces 80% of a company’s revenues and margins — and it’s applicable in a variety of sectors. In B2B contexts, for example, rep...
By Frank V. Cespedes and Steve Thompson When formulating a strategy, markets and segments are important categories to consider. But a market never buys anything. Only customers buy. To borrow a telecom industry metaphor, a deal with a customer is the “last mile” in...
By Frank Cespedes and Daniel Weinfurter Many firms talk about talent management, but few deal systematically with a basic fact: average annual turnover in sales is 25 to 30%. This means that the equivalent of the entire sales organization must be hired and trained...
By Frank Cespedes & Tiffani Bova Selling has always been more about the buyer than the seller. So any effective sales model must adapt to changing buying protocols, not ignore or resist them. This is a big transition for firms whose marketing, sales-training and...
International business consultant Frank Cespedes explains how you can build your platform, drive effective sales, and increase the growth potential of your business. I've learned so much from my mistakes, as well as the mistakes and wisdom of my peers. In business,...
When we published the first Top 50 Influencers list back in 2012, it was an original and unique idea, which had never been seen before. Since then many have followed suit with their own lists. Does this render the exercise as pointless? No, we don’t think so. Anything...
My sincere thank-you to DrivingSales and Paul Moran for his response, “Does Social Media Sell? A Harvard Professor Says No,” to my HBR.org article, “Is Social Media Actually Helping Your Company’s Bottom Line?” Paul says I am taking “a shallow perspective” on this...
This week Likeable Radio embraces the new, with our first ever Meerkat session - fueled by host Dave Kerpen's passion for the new streaming video app. This week's guest is Frank Cespedes, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School who has consulted businesses around...
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