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Wessex News

  • Understanding the Complexities and Characteristics of Sales Managers

    Understanding the Complexities and Characteristics of Sales Managers

    Front-line sales managers (FLSMs) are critical to a sales organization’s success. Yet, in many firms today, the FLSM role is inadequately-resourced, poorly-supported, even under-appreciated.

    Coping with these issues, as well as understanding the characteristics and complexities of the FLSM role, were among the many topics and goals explored at the 2019 Sales Force Productivity Conference last fall in Atlanta. In a presentation entitled “The Changing Role of Front-Line Sales Managers,” Wessex Press Chair, Prof. Noel Capon, gave a first-hand perspective on the importance of the front-line sales management role.

    Professor Capon R.C. Kopf Professor of International Marketing at Columbia Business School. compared the importance of this role to that of a Field General executing the firm’s sales strategy. He also presented the sixfold FLSM Acumen Framework as a means of ensuring that firms appoint the best candidates to these Field General roles and that they are coached to improve their performance.

    Capon is the co-author of Sales Eats First: How customer-motivated sales organizations out-think, out-offer, and out-perform the competition. He also wrote Key Account Management and Planning.

    A follow-up panel discussion further explored the roles FLSMs should play, the important attributes of today’s FLSMs, and how the role is poised to change.

    Some 200 sales and management professionals attended the conference. During Exhibition and Networking hours, conference attendees were able to connect with the sponsors, who set up booths with information about their companies.

    “Our participation at events like the Sales Force ProductivityConference shows that Wessex Press is at the cutting edge of sales management and the discourse around it. We’re bringing new intellectual content to both students and executives.”

  • Top Innovator Takes Axcess Capon Teaching Innovation Competition Honors

    Top Innovator Takes Axcess Capon Teaching Innovation Competition Honors
    “This award is different from others because the winners are determined at the conference – not ahead of time – and the finalists must present their ideas to a judging panel at the event.”

    Some of the nation’s top marketing educators participated in the prestigious Axcess Capon Teaching Innovation Competition at the Marketing Management Association’s (MMA) Fall Educators’ Conference last September in Santa Fe, NM. The annual competition, which is sponsored by Wessex Press, recognizes outstanding innovations in marketing education.

    2019 winner Brooke Reavey, from Dominican University, received the top prize for “Give ME the Money! Teaching Personal Branding Through Scholarship Applications.” The other top finalists included Tristan Cui and Dewi Tojib, Monash University, for “Inspiring Entrepreneurship through an Authentic Assessment with Gamified Mechanics for the Consumer Behavior Course,” and Elizabeth Minton, University of Wyoming for “Teaching Market Research Using the Outdoors.”

    The winning entry was selected by a panel of MMA board members from the three finalists who presented their innovations at the conference. The top innovation received a $1,000 prize, while the remaining two finalists each received $250 prizes.

    “This award is different from others because the winners are determined at the conference – not ahead of time – and the finalists must present their ideas to a judging panel at the event,” said Alisa Matlovsky, Wessex Press Production Manager.

    The first award was presented in 2011. Originally named after the Wessex subsidiary, Axcess Capon, the award will henceforth be called the “Wessex Press Teaching Innovation Award.”

    The competition is open to all marketing instructors—full- and part-time, including doctoral students—from all types of academic institutions. The innovation, in its current form, must not have been previously published or recognized as a teaching competition winner. Participants must submit written proposals in May, prior to the conference in September.

    The conference attracts more than 250 marketing educators from around the country. “This is a very productive conference for us,” Matlovsky said. “We have a big presence there. We introduce educators to our titles, and the award competition really emphasizes our commitment to innovation in marketing.”

    This year’s conference will be held in Providence, RI from Sept. 23–25. To find out more about the MMA conference and about submitting proposals for the Teaching Innovation award, click here.