Where Are All The Salespeople Going? HBS Examines
The rise of e-commerce and precipice decline in the overall number of person-to-person sales didn’t require the insight of an ardent futurist.
With the monumental ascent of companies like Amazon and Alibaba, consumers steering away from the help of sales people was, perhaps, obvious. But the reality of why wasn’t simply because of modern convenience, finds Harvard Business Review.
The publication cites a 2015 report from research firm Forrester, which argued that by 2020 nearly “one million” people could lose their sales jobs. The damning figure is in direct contrast to the rise of what Harvard calls “social selling.” The term simply refers to salespeople utilizing specialized content and digital communication as a major part of their sales approach, which has helped build significantly stronger sales data, but comes with the cost of losing traditional sales techniques. Which would eliminate future jobs in the field.
“Social selling makes sense for achieving quota and revenue objectives for multiple reasons,” write authors Laurence Minsky and Keith A. Quesenberry. “First, three out of four B2B buyers rely on social media to engage with peers about buying decisions. In a recent B2B buyers survey, 53 percent of the respondents reported that social media plays a role in assessing tools and technologies, and when making a final selection.”
“In addition, more than three-quarters (82 percent) of the B2B buyers said the winning vendor’s social content had a significant impact on their buying decision,” they continue. “A LinkedIn survey found that B2B buyers are five times more likely to engage with a sales rep who provides new insights about their business or industry. Another survey showed that 72 percent of the B2B salespeople who use social media report that they outperformed their sales peers, and more than half of them indicated they closed deals as a direct result of social media.”
The success, ultimately, may be predicated on bringing forms of traditional sales techniques, social selling and the utilization of progressive communication tools.
“What’s more, sales and marketing can collaborate on information to ensure that their efforts are aligned and to identify common goals and metrics that both teams can support. Since sales pride themselves on their one-on-one relationships with customers, they can discuss with marketing customer successes and concerns, changing customer needs, customer questions and industry updates.”
Read the entire HBS report here.
Bigbelly’s Belly Gets Bigger, says Harvard
Harvard Business School published an article on its blog about a daring new “strategy pivot” currently being undertaken by Needham, Massachusetts-based Bigbelly—proprietor of those sleek, self-compacting, solar-powered waste stations you see all across the Eastern Seaboard.
Continue reading…
Harvard Offers New Executive Education Program
Harvard Business School will now be offering a new executive education program titled, Senior Executive Leadership Program- India. The program will focus on the growing economy of India and the skills and knowledge that senior executives will need to be successful in the global environment. The program is taught across a series of modules in Boston at the Harvard campus as well as in Mumbai. The program will run from July 2016 to June 2017. Students will participate in online learning components through the HBX Live Virtual Classroom in between the modules.
The program’s curriculum will help executives to expand their leadership skills. Program participants meet in four modules- two in Boston and two in Mumbai. The first modules, held in Boston will focus on how leaders must look at their business critically and how create a solid business strategy in a global business environment. Students will cover strategy, leadership, innovation and globalization. In the second module, held at the Taj Lands End in Mumbai, will focus on competing in a global environment, how to create customer value and competitive advantages.
HBS Draws More Women, Adds Six Points to GMAT Median
This post has been republished in its entirety from original source clearadmit.com.
When it released its preliminary class profile in June, Harvard Business School (HBS) was expecting its incoming class to be 41 percent female, a record for the school. In August, with students preparing to move in on campus, things look even better.
HBS DRAWS MORE WOMEN THAN PRELIMINARY PROFILE SUGGESTED
Dee Leopold, HBS managing director of admissions and financial aid, posted the final Class of 2017 profile on her Direct from the Director blog today, revealing that women will in fact make up 42 percent of the class, a two point increase over last year. While this still trails Kellogg and Wharton—each reported earlier this month that 43 percent of their incoming classes will be women—it puts HBS ahead of last year’s leader of the pack, UC Berkeley’s Haas School, which this year slipped to 41 percent, from a high of 43 last year. Continue reading…
Harvard Students Give Advice for International Students
Harvard Business School MBA students Esme O’Neill-Dean and Ibraheem Fahal recently shared some advice for international students who are looking to apply for the MBA program at Harvard. The two students shared several pieces of advice for applying to the MBA program at the Harvard Business School as an international applicant. Harvard welcomes students from all different nationalities and prides itself on its diverse group of students enrolled in its programs.
Out of the 936 students enrolled in the Full-Time MBA program, 324 of those students are considered international students in the class of 2016. Out of those 324 students, there are 64 different countries represented. Fourteen percent of international students in the class of 2016 are from Asia, 9 percent from Europe, 3 percent from Central and South America and 1 percent is from Africa.
Harvard Business School Aims to Become “Go-To Place” on Gender Issues
The following post has been republished in its entirety from original source clearadmit.com.
Harvard Business School (HBS) wants to help the world understand gender-related matters as never before—so yesterday it launched a brand-new Gender Initiative designed to promote gender equity in the business world and society as a whole.
“Harvard Business School and its faculty have been leaders in defining the roles and functions of business, as well as effective business practice,” Dean Nitin Nohria said in a statement. “With the launch of this initiative, we want to have a similar and lasting impact on the way the world understands and acts upon gender-related matters.” Continue reading…
