Research
In academics and business, there is little substantial and reliable research conducted on the state of the sales organization on an ongoing basis which can be used by educators and practitioners to provide benchmarks in their programs.
The Center for Sales Leadership faculty has developed a repository of ongoing research into the attitudes and behaviors of a broad range of target respondents:
Business Surveys
The Center conducts the “Benchmarks in Sales Productivity” biennially, which allows organizations to understand current business practices and identify key benchmarking information on a national basis.
Student & Alumni Surveys
The Center monitors DePaul students and alumni at various points in their journey to a sales career – entering the business college, during matriculation through classes focused on sales careers, upon graduating from the program and throughout their sales career.
Partner Surveys
The Center conducts custom designed surveys periodically targeted at specific areas, custom-designed based on our partner’s needs, conducted by faculty in the program, and delivering drive value-related decisions.
Business Research
In academics and business, there is little substantial and reliable research conducted on the state of the sales organization on an ongoing basis which can be used by educators and practitioners to provide benchmarks in their programs. The Center for Sales Leadership faculty has developed a repository of ongoing research into the attitudes and behaviors of a broad range of target respondents.
2011 - 2012 Sales Effectiveness Research
For the full Benchmarks in Sales Productiveity 2011-2012 report click here. For the 2011-2012 Sales Effectiveness Presentation click here.
Key findings of our 2011-2012 survey include:
- Average salesforce is 61% male and 61% Caucasian
- Cost of Hire averages $29,159
- Investment to break even averages $36,290
- Turnover (27.2%) cost averages $49,508
- 73% of firms compensate on base plus commission systems
- Average compensation of top performers is $188,800
- Only half of firms provide leadership training
- Training fails when behaviors not reinforced and tie to benefit
2008 Sales Effectiveness Research
For the full Benchmarks in Sales Productivity 2008 report click here.
Key findings in our 2008 survey include:
- Average sales force is 69% male and 76% Caucasian
- Cost of Hire averages $27,700
- Investment to break even averages $43,000
- Turnover (22%) cost averages $35,000
- 75% of firms compensate on base plus commission systems
- Average compensation of top performers is $101,900
- Only half of firms provide leadership training
- Training fails when behaviors not reinforced and tie to benefit
Academic Research
From around the world: Australia, Hong Kong, England, South Africa, the United States, and, Dubai—the world’s leading business communication professors meet each year to share their Favorite Assignment at the Association for Business Communications’ Annual International Conference.
Since 2009, the best ideas from each year’s My Favorite Assignment conference session have been published in Business Communications Quarterly.
DePaul’s Center for Sales Leadership’s Director of Curriculum, D. Joel Whalen, is the Chair at the ABC Conference’s My Favorite Assignment Session, and, the lead author of the journal article.
This collection of classroom assignments, exercises, demonstrations, teaching techniques, and materials is offered to give teachers tools they need to guide their students through these Favorite Assignments.
My Favorite Assignment: Selections from the ABC 2012 Annual Convention
My Favorite Assignment: Selections from the ABC 2011 Annual Convention
My Favorite Assignment: Selections from the ABC 2010 Annual Convention
My Favorite Assignment: Selections from the ABC 2009 Annual Convention
My Favorite Assignment: Selections from the ABC 2008 Annual Convention
Business Communication Quarterly - September 2012
These 12 authors' Favorite Assignments were featured in the September 2012 Business Communication Quarterly article, "Selections From the ABC 2011 Annual Convention, Montreal, Canada"
- Dealing with Donny—Ken Andersen
- Behavioral Interview Research and Role Play Assignment—Gloria Campbell
- The Visual Essay: Understanding the Persuasive Power of Images—Cheri Crenshaw
- Bad News Assignment: Denying Request for Promotion, Coaching for Improvement—Geoffrey A. Cross
- “Let the speaker beware…”—Anne Grinols
- Social Media Consulting—Amy Newman
- Professional Communication and Service in a Non-Profit Organization—Lorelei Ortiz
- Applying financial analysis and ethical concepts to companies litigated by the SEC—Ed Paulson
- The Sales Pitch—Melinda L. Phillabaum
- How’s Business?—Elizabeth Powell
- “I’d Like My Life Back”: BP, Aristotle, and Negative Messages with Integrity—Ryan Sloan
From around the world: Australia, Hong Kong, England, South Africa, the United States, and, Dubai—the world’s leading business communication professors meet each year to share their Favorite Assignment at the Association for Business Communications’ Annual International Conference.
Since 2009, the best ideas from each year’s My Favorite Assignment conference session have been published in Business Communications Quarterly.
DePaul’s Center for Sales Leadership’s Director of Curriculum, D. Joel Whalen, is the Chair at the ABC Conference’s My Favorite Assignment Session, and, the lead author of the journal article.
This collection of classroom assignments, exercises, demonstrations, teaching techniques, and materials is offered to give teachers tools they need to guide their students through these Favorite Assignments.
ABC Web Publications
Interested readers can see more stimulating and thought-creating Favorite Assignments presented at the 2011 Association for Business Communication Conference in Montreal, Canada by these leading educators :
- Individual Communication Development Plan (ICDP)—John Krajicek
- Intercultural Communications Interview Assignment—Nancy Hicks
- Get me Sushi—memo with footnotes—Junhua Wang
- Poster Presentations as a tool to teach Business Communication—Swapna Koshy
- The Infamous Statement of Problem—or Please Dr. Luck, Just Let me Fail this Thing and get on with my life—Susan Luck
- Individual Exercise, written communication, technology and software skills—Dana K. McCann
Business Communication Quarterly - September 2011
These eight authors' Favorite Assignments were featured in the September 2011 Business Communication Quarterly article, "Selections From the ABC 2010 Annual Convention, Chicago, IL"
- Abram Anders
- Debra Burleson
- Valerie Goby & Catherine Nickerson
- Anne B. Grinols
- Susan Hall
- Renee King
- Kathy Vance
You can consider a variety of learning objectives from team building to persuasion, application of electronic media to face-to-face communication, and much more. Some Favorite Assignments take a full semester to complete; others can be done within a single class. Each assignment reflects the individual author’s passion for active learning that stimulates practical skill-building, judgment, and communication skills.
If you'd like to learn more about these Favorite Assignments, the authors have provided support material to assist you in your evaluation. Just click on the author's name to see their Favorite Assignment's teacher support material.
Business Communication Quarterly - September 2010
“My Favorite Assignment: From the ABC 2009 Annual Convention, Portsmouth, Virginia.” D. Joel Whalen, Column Editor, Business Communication Quarterly, Volume 73. Number 3. September 2010.
Select authors of the September 2010 Business Communication Quarterly article, “My Favorite Assignment” session at the 2009 ABC annual convention in Portsmouth, VA” contributed pedagogical and resource materials to help you apply their Favorite Assignments.
You may download these materials, below.
Out Of The Book & Into The Business World
Dorinda Clippinger
Moore School Of Business, University Of South Carolina
Download materials
Final Team Assessment
Deborah Britt Roebuck
Kennesaw State University
Download materials
On-Line Planning Exercise For Persuasive Not For Profit Proposal
Gretchen N. Vik
San Diego Sate University
Download materials
Communication Consultant Project
Holly Littlefield
University Of Minnesota
Download materials
This article captured the essence of the “My Favorite Assignment” session at the 2009 ABC annual convention in Portsmouth, VA. Featured were over a dozen teachers sharing pedagogical innovations in a fast-paced, four-minute format.
Business Communication Quarterly - September 2009
My Favorite Assignment: Selections from the ABC 2008 Annual Convention, Lake Tahoe, Nevada
D. Joel Whalen, Column Editor
The 2008 My Favorite Assignment session at the ABC Conference in Lake Tahoe offered a rich variety of learning objectives and innovative teaching methods serving different target learners.
Additional materials may be viewed and downloaded from the following articles:
Student Communication Consultants To Not-For-Profit Organization
Phyllis Bunn
Delta State University
Download materials
The Great Barter
Mathukutty M. Monippally
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
Download materials
Persuasive Business Presentation
Paula R. Wood
Fayetteville State University
Download materials
In the Business Communication Quarterly article, the reader may review the following information for each My Favorite Assignment:
- Overview of the assignment
- Target learners
- Learning objectives
- Time to complete the assignment
- Materials, equipment and special considerations
- Evaluating outcomes/grading
- Instructions for downloading more information (for selected assignments)
- Author biography and contact information
Sales Education Landscape Research
DePaul University’s Center for Sales Leadership conducts a biennial survey of the existence, content and scope of sales education programs in universities and colleges in the United States to determine individual and overall progress towards excellence in the education area across a variety of sales education programs.
The objectives of the survey are to investigate and analyze the ongoing status of educational programs in sales and sales management at the university and college level. The survey seeks to evaluate and compare the respective programs to encourage best practices among the limited number of universities and colleges who provide education in sales and sales management.
Check out our new interactive map displaying a portion of the survey results!
Get the entire 2011-2012 Universities and Colleges Sales Education Landscape Report here and a copy of the the presentaton here.
If you are a university who would like to update their sales program’s information, please contact Janna Cenko at [email protected].
Partner Research
Three major studies have been completed since 2005:
- Buyer Seller Interaction
- Inside Sales – Inside Sales Support
- Channel Selling & Marketing Strategy
Buyer Seller Interaction Study Highlights
Over 120 companies participated in this study.
We interviewed buyers and sellers in several distribution channels.
What we learned was surprising:
- Companies spend twice as much training people than recruiting them
- Sellers think that their people are well trained… buyers think that sellers don’t listen to them
- Over 85% of selling companies use a salary plus commission or bonus structure, customers think the root cause of dissatisfaction with service that account reps provide is their compensation structure
- 90% of manufacturers believe they have partnerships with key accounts yet only 5% of customers believe that partnerships exist!
Inside Sales Study Highlights
We investigated inside sales and inside sales support efforts on behalf of one of major partners
We interviewed senior management of 21 divisions of the company as well as 2 agencies.
We learned that there are 3 major opportunities where inside sales support has proven to financially beneficial in supporting the sales efforts for the company:
- Vacant territory coverage – More cost effective and more productive in reducing lost sales. Minimizes lost sales from sales people from adjacent territories forced to cover vacant territory.
- Combination sales coverage plans are very effective in maximizing volume and minimizing cost particularly where inside sales is responsible for geographically disparate territories, and
- Inside sales (promotion) support has improved sales for many field sales operations by increasing customer touches and service satisfaction.
Channel Selling & Marketing Strategy Study Highlights
In this study we investigated and secured insight regarding channel management changes from 15 of America’s premier grocery manufacturers concerning the following facts:
- America’s consumer base is changing dramatically. In the next 10 years we will witness real changes in: racial composition, ethnic diversity, and age distribution.
- These changes will change the shopping behavior and appetites of millions of Americans affecting: where they shop, what products they buy, what quantities they purchase, and how those products purchased will be consumed.
- We will also be far better informed of these new purchase dynamics with research that is more accurate and collected more expeditiously.
Alumni Research
The Center for Sales Leadership conducts a survey of all Sales Leadership Program alumni to their evaluation of the program, their job search process, current job position, career progression, compensation, propensity to change employers. The survey focuses on all alumni who have graduated from the program with a sales minor.