Using Business Intelligence Tools to Help Manage Costs and Effectiveness of Business-to-Business Inside-Sales Programs

Gessner, Guy; Scott, Richard A.

doi:10.1080/10580530902797623

Cited by 31 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Therefore, we must borrow from call center literature to gain a better understanding of an inside sales agent’s “phone” requirements. From a call center perspective, research has examined relationships between phone operational outcomes and employee satisfaction (Zapf et al , 1999), cost reduction (Gessner and Scott, 2009), employee turnover (Wegge et al , 2006) and enhanced production (Holman et al , 2009). The call center literature has also been tapped to better understand inside sales agents’ operational tasks, given the dearth of relevant research in this area with respect to inside sales (Sleep et al , 2020).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Inside sales agents’ workplaces frequently feature cubicles or open layouts similar to call centers, where inside sales agents handle inbound or outbound calls via various means of communication, including phone, VoIP solutions, video calls and emails. According to Gessner and Scott (2009), the primary difference between inside sales agents and call center service agents is their need to generate revenue. Thus, inside sales agents have phone operational controls that require monitoring.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A new perspective on sales outcome controls: an inside sales perspective

Conde

Prybutok

Thompson

2021

EJM

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Purpose Previous sales control research has limited the definition of outcome controls exclusively to sales outcomes in an outside sales context. In addition to sales outcome controls, inside sales managers use phone operational outcomes to influence inside sales agent performance, supporting the need to expand the broader definition of outcome controls. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to explore the need to bifurcate outcome controls into two distinct variables: sales and phone operational controls. Researchers know little about the application of sales outcome controls beyond sales-only outcomes, which, in turn, limits the definition of outcome controls. Design/methodology/approach Through the utilization of survey, secondary operational data and sales manager’s feedback, this paper demonstrates that the definition of outcome controls needs to be divided into two distinct areas, sales and phone operational controls for inside sales agents, which, in turn, acts collectively to impact an inside sales agent’s job performance and satisfaction. Findings This research demonstrates that inside sales managers depend on both sales and phone operational outcome controls to drive sales agent performance, varying in degrees by industry. Even as inside sales managers focus on creating an employee-centric autonomous motivational work culture, the overarching controlling factors associated with phone operational outcomes dampen an inside sales agent’s performance and job satisfaction. Research limitations/implications To the best of the authors’ knowledge, as the first sales control research to examine an inside sales context, this study provides support to further study sales controls in an inside sales context. This research can be enhanced by examining business-to-consumer inside sales environments, behavior controls, greater sample size and additional work outcomes such as turnover and tenure. Practical implications The findings have important implications because they can help practitioners understand the effect that both sales and phone operational outcomes have on sales agent performance. It also illuminates the need for inside sales managers to be less controlling in their focus on phone operational outcomes, as such a practice has a negative influence on key sales agent job outcomes. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to triangulate multiple data sources to illustrate the need to evaluate both sales and phone operational outcomes as broader components of sales outcome controls. The study of sales controls in a different sales context suggests that sales management controls may differ by sales context, opening the door to extend the vast sales control literature beyond its current context of outside sales.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new perspective on sales outcome controls: an inside sales perspective

Conde

Prybutok

Thompson

2021

EJM

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“…Business intelligence applications are a relatively new class of information system that create, package and present information tailored to the needs of different information consumers (Isik, Jones & Sidorova, 2011). BI applications support a wide variety of use cases, including viewing pre-developed reports, executing ad hoc queries and performing knowledge discovery by interacting with data in real time through sophisticated user interfaces, such as Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) or statistical analysis tools (Gessner & Scott, 2009). Business intelligence applications generally obtain data from a data warehouse (O'Leary, 2011).…”

Section: Related Work Business Intelligencementioning

confidence: 99%

A Hierarchy of Metadata Elements for Business Intelligence Information Resource Retrieval

Foshay

Boyle

Mather

2013

International Journal of Business Intelligence Research

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Effectively managing information resources is an important activity contributing to the competitive advantage of modern organizations. Organizational knowledge workers must be able to search for pertinent information quickly and effectively. This research identifies the relative usefulness of the metadata elements associated with the Dublin Core metadata standard for the effective retrieval of three different information resources – structured business intelligence reports, structured spreadsheet reports, and unstructured reports in formats such as Word and PowerPoint. A survey of knowledge workers was conducted to determine the relative usefulness of the metadata elements for each of the three information resources and to develop a framework outlining where metadata tag requirements differ between such resources. Overall, the study and resulting framework emphasize the need for system developers and database management personnel to be cognizant of the type of information resources being used, and ensure that search metadata elements that are appropriate for these specific resources are in place.

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“…These changes are driven by a number of factors including the need for all areas of the organization to operate more efficiently, changes in customer demands and the use of multiple channels (Piercy, 2006). One response from a sales perspective has been to re-think the way the sales function is structured with one such change being a move towards increased utilization of inside salespeople (Gessner and Scott, 2009). US Census data shows that from 2002 to 2007 the number of firms engaged in call center activities increased from 3344 to 3519 with a corresponding increase in employees from 348,253 to 419,657 and sales from just over $11 billion to just over $14 billion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%