If your salespeople aren't sure who their boss is--the district manager? the regional manager? the customer?--it could be a sign that your company's sales force controls are working at cross-purposes and that your sales function is in trouble

Although companies devote considerable time and money to managing their sales forces, few focus much thought on how the structure of the sales force needs to change over the life cycle of a product or a business

Anyone in sales will tell you that social networks are critical. The more contacts you have, the more leads you'll generate and, ultimately, the more sales you'll make. But that's a vast oversimplification