Enhancing Sales Force Productivity Conference brings top researchers to Mizzou

The Trulaske College of Business hosted the sixth annual Enhancing Sales Force Productivity Conference, which brought together members of the international marketing research community for two days of insightful talks and networking. The theme of this year's conference is "Sale Force Management at the Cusp of the Fourth Industrial Revolution," which refers to the use of artificial intelligence and analytics in raising sales force productivity. The conference featured 18 research presentations from scholars in the US and Europe as well as a keynote address from David Ehrlich, President & CEO, Aktana, the CEO of a Silicon Valley firm at the cutting edge of machine learning applications in Sales Management.

The quality, quantity, deployment and motivation of sales force efforts significantly affect both the top and bottom lines of many companies in industries where personal selling plays a critical role. The Enhancing Sales Force Productivity Conference gave researchers the opportunity to submit their abstracts and present on a variety of important topics within the marketing and sales spheres.

“It’s wonderful that we are, again, proudly hosting this conference,” said Murali Mantrala, the Sam M. Walton Distinguished Professor of Marketing and Department of Marketing chair. “Mizzou was the first host for this conference, and in its sixth year, the knowledge sharing continues to thrive among a growing and diverse community of global marketing researchers.”

Conference co-chairs included Mantrala and Srinath Gopalakrishna, the David and Judy O'Neal MBA Professor and Professor of Marketing at Mizzou. They were joined by the University of Muenster’s Manfred Krafft (Germany) and the University of Kansas’s Kissan Joseph.