Borrell recently posted research about dedicated sales staffs verses those that are integrated into several different channels and from the research, a dedicated staff has a lot of advantages but what about how they sell? Another big question....
"Overall, sales managers seemed pleased with their representatives performance using the consultative approach, with the majority rating their performance good to outstanding. However, there was a clear difference between companies working with dedicated digital AEs and those without: managers with digital AEs reported an excellent to outstanding rank at a rate of 56%, while those without a dedicated digital staff reported that satisfaction level at a rate of 32%.Similarly, managers whose staff included digital AEs were far more likely than those without to rank their staffs understanding of digital products as excellent to outstanding (58% vs. 11%).
46% of local media respondents reported having an online-only AE, down from 60% in 2009. Radio sported the lowest average of digital-only sellers, with just 11% of radio companies employing at least one. Only 2 in 5 local TV stations had at least one online-only AE, although the majority of newspapers (55%) did."