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Ian Zhao

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Senior Manager, The Alexander Group

40 points

Ian Zhao is the Senior Manager at the Alexander Group and a founding member of the Sales Benchmarking Practice. He created innovative analytical frameworks and research instruments that enabled rapid growth of benchmarking program as a differentiator of AGI’s ...

Ian Zhao is the Senior Manager at the Alexander Group and a founding member of the Sales Benchmarking Practice. He created innovative analytical frameworks and research instruments that enabled rapid growth of benchmarking program as a differentiator of AGI’s consulting services.

Ian also leads benchmarking-related engagements for business clients in software, telecom equipment, medical devices, and business services industries.

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April 18, 2011

Ian Zhao and 6 other people answered this question

What are the top factors driving this new shift from field sales to inside sales?

Gary, where did you get the "studies of the cost of a sale 10 year ago?" I am very curious about those studies. more

Sales Management

April 11, 2011

Ian Zhao and 7 other people answered this question

Are your sales forecasts accurate? What's the top thing you do to improve forecast accuracy?

Not sure I can pinpoint one thing. To improve forecasting accuracy, you need to:
- implement good CRM data entry practices
- choose the right forecasting model(s)
- re-caliber the model every 2-3 years
I only can speak for mid-to-large sized companies. Their approaches tend ... more

Forecast Accuracy

Pipeline Management

April 1, 2011

Ian Zhao and 14 other people answered this question

Is Twitter really useful? Has it really helped you achieve your professional goals?

The litmus test is "are my potential customers using Twitter?" If you are targeting a young crowd or in 2-3 years Twitter users will be your customers (think Obama's campaign), you should get on it. For my company, our customers are VP of Sales for ... more

Social Media Marketing

March 29, 2011

Ian Zhao and 6 other people answered this question

Rank by importance - then why for #1 and #3: cost reduction, revenue growth, or margin improvement

Actually, I think the most important is #2, revenue growth. Think about it... If you reduce the cost to 0, most likely your revenue is 0 as well. At that time no matter how high the margin is, the company is not in a good ... more

General Management

Business Advice

March 26, 2011

Ian Zhao and 8 other people answered this question

As a leader in your company, what are three things you do to influence others to follow you?

1. Tell them what are the goals.
2. Tell them how we can achieve those goals
3. Ask them what I can help them along the way. more

General Management

Leadership and Management Development

March 19, 2011

Ian Zhao and 7 other people answered this question

What non-monetary incentives does your company offer?

I have seen companies printing gold stars on top sales representatives' business cards. It costs less than $50, but the encouragement could last more than a year. more

Human Resources

Compensation & Benefits

Compensation & Rewards

Jan. 29, 2011

Ian Zhao answered this question

How will Larry Page replacing Eric Schmidt as CEO affect Google?

Possibly more new products and more focused on core business. As long as Schmidt is still around, this is a good thing for Google. more

General Management

Human Resources

Jan. 19, 2011

Ian Zhao and 18 other people answered this question

What are some alternatives to Jigsaw for getting business contacts and information?

Contact Information

Jan. 18, 2011

Ian Zhao and 7 other people answered this question

What is the future of open source business intelligence?

The jury is still out. Although the software is free with open source platforms, the development costs still need to be recovered somewhere somehow, mostly in implementation. That may put a higher floor for the minimum project size, which does not dobe well for small ... more

Information Technology

Business Intelligence

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Business Intelligence

General Management

Information Technology

Sales Analytics

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