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Byline: James B. Treece In these days of new-vehicle margin compression, a successful used-vehicle department is critical to a dealership's financial results. The ratio of used- to new-vehicle retail sales [...]

A study to determine the effect of cross-functional cooperation among sales, marketing, and research and development (R&D) on new product development (NPD) across multiple stages of the NPD process is presented. Multiple-informant data from 424 sales, marketing and R&D managers and from project leaders of 106 NPD projects were used to test the hypotheses.

A Bayesian statistical model is presented to examine the effects of feature advertisements to market share and sales of products. Findings show that gaze duration on such advertisements affects product sales. Implications of attention data on marketing design and efficiency are discussed.

Things have evolved significantly from the time when many of us started our financial services marketing careers. Three decades back, some of our greatest worries involved making certain there were [...]

For years, rocket scientists were stumped by the challenge of powering a rocket with enough thrust to escape Earth's gravitational pull. The answer came through efficiencies that changed the ratio [...]

The impact of research and development activities of competitors, suppliers and customers on the performance measures of company such as labor productivity and sales is analyzed.

Are you aggressive enough for sales? On the other hand, are you too aggressive? It would seem that sales--like lots of other things--is a function of balance and consistency. However, […]

Fiction Massive marketing campaigns are the order of the day this autumn, with competition for the reader's attention at a fever pitch. There's the launch of Headline's two-year marketing blitz [...]

The aggregate planning model supposedly shows how manufacturers cope with seasonally biased sales. Unfortunately, industry has failed to embrace any of the sophisticated algorithms that were developed to solve the corresponding resources allocation problem. This paper reveals why such methods have proven so unattractive. Aggregate planning is a chimera. In practice, planners construct the master production schedule directly, in line with a preferred production strategy. A 'chase' plan is the most popular choice. When this option proves infeasible, management plumps for another predetermined strategy. The resultant stockpiling brings certain financial risks. However, companies take various measures to reduce their exposure. Keywords: Aggregate planning; Seasonal sales; Strategy; Case studies

Over the last several decades, advertising effects on sales have been studied without appropriately taking into consideration competitors' advertising activities. As a result, advertisers often instinctively match competitors' spending proportionately [...]

This article examines the contribution of direct mail advertising to average weekly unit sales of a national fast food franchisee. Two different types of direct mail advertising are used, both [...]

A growing body of evidence shows an influence of moral philosophies on ethical decision-making. Despite the importance of ethical considerations in sales force selection, the influence of sales managers' ethical evaluations on hiring practices has received scant attention. This study examines sales managers' ideological orientations, ethical evaluations of hypothetical salespeople portrayed in scenarios, and the effect of such evaluations on the intent to hire salespeople. Results of a cluster analysis highlight that four ideology-based segments of sales managers exist, with absolutists dominating the 268 sales executives surveyed. Furthermore, it was found that ideological relativism influences managers' judgments of ethical behavior and hiring intentions, but idealism did not play a role. In turn, ethical judgments of justness, fairness, moral rightness, and acceptability influence hiring intentions., A Sales Manager receives an expense report from his top seller that included the cost of a two-day alcohol bender with a prospect, complete with extravagant dinners, prostitutes, and marijuana. [...]

This study examines how sales managers evaluate the severity of problems facing their sales units. Attribution literature is utilized to understand how managers may misjudge the severity of these problems. Interviews were used to identify typical sales problems and to develop measures of performance. A subsequent survey measured problems and performance among a sample of 160 sales distributors. Univariate analysis reveals that managers assess uncontrollable problems as more severe. In contrast, bivariate analysis reveals that more controllable problems have a greater negative impact on performance. Managers appear to exhibit a bias that limits their ability to accurately evaluate sales problems., W.E. Deming contended that employees want to perform their jobs well but that work-related barriers often prevent them from doing so. Consequently, Deming encouraged managers to seek out and remove [...]

WHEN I FIRST JOINED the framing business more than 25 years ago, I had to advertise in the Yellow Pages directory. It was a necessary evil for anyone in a [...]

With effusive CEO testimonials and countless articles and books describing how companies have transformed themselves into tightly focused, totally energized commerce machines, it would seem change should be easy. Let's […]

Abstract This article presents an introductory-level discussion of the practical mechanics of analyzing comparable sales data. A more detailed presentation of the application of some of the specific technical elements [...]

This study investigates the psychometric properties of the adaptive selling scale (ADAPTS) developed by Spiro and Weitz (1990). A multiple industry sample of 1042 salespeople is employed, which provides the ability to more fully explore the dimensions of adaptive selling within a diverse cross-section of sales situations. An assessment utilizing confirmatory factor analysis suggests a shortened version of the scale consisting of five items that represent four of the facets originally proposed by Spiro and Weitz (1990). Based on its psychometric properties and measurement efficiency for business applications, this scale (labeled ADAPTS-SV, for shortened version) is recommended for future applications where appropriate., Introduction In the extant literature, adaptive selling as measured by Spiro and Weitz' (1990) ADAPTS scale typically has been treated as a unidimensional construct. In their reexamination of the scale, [...]

This paper investigates claims that firm-specific effects in advertising-sales models can be attributed to a positive correlation between advertising and product quality. Using a standard Koyck transformation on an unbalanced [...]

In this article, the authors examine how the stage of product life cycle in which a brand enters affects its sales through brand growth and market response, after controlling for the order-of-entry effect and time in market. The authors develop a dynamic brand sales model in which brand growth and market response parameters vary by stage of life cycle entry, namely, by pioneers, growth-stage entrants, and mature-stage entrants. The authors estimate the model using data on 29 brands from six pharmaceutical markets. The results reveal advantages associated with entering during the growth stage. Growth-stage entrants reach their asymptotic sales level faster than pioneers or mature-stage entrants, are not hurt by competitor diffusion, and enjoy a higher response to perceived product quality than pioneers and mature-stage entrants. Pioneers reach their asymptotic sales levels more slowly than later entrants, and pioneer sales, unlike later entrants' sales, are hurt by competitor diffusion over time. On the positive side for pioneers, buyers are most responsive to marketing spending by pioneers. Mature-stage entrants are most disadvantaged; they grow more slowly than growth-stage entrants, have lower response to product quality than growth-stage entrants, and have the lowest response to marketing spending. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Trade credit promote industrial transactions. Companies that offer credit facilities to their customers not only provide benefits to the latter, but also gain opportunities for themselves to develop credit offerings that influence price competitiveness and/or differentiation. The distribution of the credit burden along industrial channels and its impact on channel performance are examined. It is found that the overall level of channel sales and, therefore, the profitability of both customers and suppliers depend on the generosity of credit terms. Analysis of data drawn from a sample of industrial distributors show that relatively ungenerous credit facilities may seriously undermine channel sales.

What were formerly considered 'alternate' sales channels for PCs and software are alternate no longer. As software pricing follows the downward spiral of PCs, mass market outlets are nibbling--in some […]

Sambos Restaurant Chain is an example of a company that experienced substantial sales growth but which fostered inflexibility in its financial structure by failing to balance equity-capital investment with sales growth. Sambos enjoyed years of expansion but the firm became overburdened with debt service as a result of a decline in sales after 1978 and went bankrupt in 1982. Companies experiencing sales growth must plan for their resources and external financial needs: the primary element in financing growth is raising new equity. Where equity is limited and management desires to control debt ratios, it may have to limit sales growth. A sustainable growth model is presented which is designed to estimate the maximum amount of sales growth that can be handled without exceeding targeted debt ratios.

Despite a poor year, with shipments slipping by 4.1%, the USA machinery sector was still estimated to be worth a staggering $4.804bn by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute in 2001, [...]

At 6 feet 5 and 295 pounds, salesman Andy Staten stood out this summer on the showroom floor at C. Wimberley Ford in tiny Dowagiac, Mich. But he's making an [...]

Timing is essential to your sales success. In fact, it is the one single factor that makes the difference in a lot of things. It is the difference between having […]

The Pareto Principle--that 80 per cent of effects come from 20 per cent of causes--is not lost on the channel. It's generally said that 80 per cent of indirect sales [...]

Surely the time has come to throw the idea that there are any 'norms' in the travel industry out of the window? Over the past few years we have become [...]