Joël Le Bon, PhD

Joël Le Bon is a Full Professor of Marketing & Sales at the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School and the Co-Founder & Executive Director of The Digital Business Development initiative and program. He also served as the Faculty Director for Leadership in Digital Marketing & Sales Transformation.

Prior to joining Johns Hopkins University, he was on the faculty at the University of Houston Bauer College of Business where he served as Director of Executive Education and Director of Professional Development for the Stephen Stagner Sales Excellence Institute. Dr. Le Bon also worked in France and Singapore as an Associate Professor of Marketing and Department Head at ESSEC Business School. Before becoming a professor, he was a Strategic Account Manager for XEROX Corporation and had sales and sales management roles in the media industry where he won several all-time sales awards.

As a professor, he has earned 26 international research, teaching awards and distinctions, and is the first sales educator to have received all the teaching awards from the major academic marketing associations. Dr. Le Bon's research and executive engagements are in the areas of Digital Transformation, Digital Business Development & Go-To-Market Strategy; Digital Sales & Marketing; Account-Based Marketing & Negotiation; Sales Leadership, Enablement & CRM Technology.

His work has been published in leading journals such as the Harvard Business Review online, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the International Journal of Research in Marketing, the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and Industrial Marketing Management among other academic journals. He is the author of the books “Key Account Management: Strategies to Leverage Information, Technology, and Relationships to Deliver Value to Large Customers”, New York, NY: Business Expert Press (with C. Herman), and “Competitive Intelligence and the Sales Force: How to Gain Market Leadership through Competitive Intelligence”, New York, NY: Business Expert Press.

Dr. Le Bon holds a BA in Management Science, a MSc in Marketing & Strategy, and a PhD in Marketing from Paris Dauphine University. He was a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Pennsylvania State University within the Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM) and is an alumnus of the Kellogg ITP program of Northwestern University. He has worked and lived in Europe, Asia and the United States, and was born in Mauritius Island (Indian Ocean).

Education

• Ph. D, Marketing, Paris Dauphine University
• MSc, Marketing and Strategy, Paris Dauphine University
• BA, Management Science, Paris Dauphine University

Research

Selected publications

• Dugan R., Rangarajan D., Bolander W., Bolman Pullins E., Davis L., Deeter-Schmelz D., Le Bon J., Agnihotri R. (2020), Sales Management, Education, and Scholarship Across Cultures: Early Findings from a Global Study and an Agenda for Future Research, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 40(3), 198-212.
• Le Bon J. (2019), Reinventing and Retooling the Future of Sales Work with AI: A Moral Imperative for Sales Organizations and Educators, in C. Burmeister, AI For Sales: How AI Is Changing Sales, Kindle Direct Publishing.
• Dixon A., Le Bon J., and Wieseke J. (2019), Perspectives on International Collaboration in Sales Research: Introduction to the Special Issue, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 39 (4), 317-318.
• Le Bon J. (2015), Training and Qualification: Developing a Competency Model to Assess Sales Leaders' Equity, in M. Zuech (ed.), Handbook of Human Resources Management, Berlin: Springer Science+Business Media.
• Le Bon J. (2015), Why the Best Salespeople Get So Lucky, Harvard Business Review, HBR.org, April 13, Harvard Business School Publishing.
• Hughes D., Le Bon J., and Rapp A. (2013), Gaining and Leveraging Customer-Based Competitive Intelligence: The Pivotal Role of Social Capital and Salesperson Adaptive Selling Skills, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 41, 91-110.
• Hughes D., Le Bon J., and Malshe A. (2012), The Marketing-Sales Interface at the Interface: Creating Market-Based Capabilities through Organizational Synergy, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 22 (1), 57-72.
• Le Bon J. and Hughes D. (2009), The Dilemma of Outsourced Customer Service and Care: Research Propositions from a Transaction Cost Perspective, Industrial Marketing Management, 38, 4, 391-397.
• Le Bon J. and Merunka D. (2006), The Impact of Individual and Managerial Factors on Salespeople's Contribution to Marketing Intelligence Activities, International Journal of Research in Marketing, 23, 4, 395-408.

Books

• Le Bon J. and Herman C. (2015), Key Account Management: Strategies to Leverage Information, Technology, and Relationships to Deliver Value to Large Customers, New York, NY: Business Expert Press.
• Le Bon J. (2014), Competitive Intelligence and the Sales Force: How to Gain Market Leadership through Competitive Intelligence, New York, NY: Business Expert Press.

Teaching

Current

• Sales Force Management
• Customer Relationship Management
• Marketing Management

Honors and distinctions

• The Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School Dean's Award for Faculty Excellence, 2019, 2020, 2021
• Listed in the Marquis Who’s Who in America, 2018
• Winner, University of Houston University-Wide Teaching Excellence Award, Instructional, 2018
• Listed in the Marquis Who’s Who Albert Nelson Lifetime Achievement Recognition, 2017
• Winner, SMA Society for Marketing Advances Axcess Capon Distinguished Teacher Award, USA, 2017
• Winner, AMS Academy of Marketing Science Lamb-Hair-McDaniel Outstanding Marketing Teacher Award, USA, 2017
• Winner, AMA American Marketing Association Sales Special Interest Group Excellence in Teaching Award, USA, 2016
• Winner, University of Houston University-Wide Group Teaching Excellence Award, 2016
• SMA Society for Marketing Advances Certificate of Excellence in Distinguished Teaching Award, USA, 2015
• Winner, University of Houston Bauer College of Business Wayne & Kathryn E. Payne Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2014
• Best Paper Award, GSSI Conference - Global Sales Sciences Institute, London, UK, 2014
• Irwin/McGraw Hill Steven J. Shaw Overall Conference Best Paper Award, SMA Conference - Society for Marketing Advances, Memphis, USA, 2011
• Best Paper Award, SMA Conference, Sales and Sales Management Track - Society for Marketing Advances, Memphis, USA, 2011
• Best Paper Award, AMA Winter Educators' Conference, Interorganizational Issues Track - American Marketing Association, Tampa, USA, 2009
• Best Paper Award, AMA Summer Educators' Conference, Sales and Sales Management Track - American Marketing Association, San Diego, USA, 2008
• Winner, AMA American Marketing Association Prentice Hall's Solomon-Marshall-Stuart Teaching Award for Innovative Excellence in Marketing Education, USA, 2007 (First winner non-affiliated with an American institution)
• Listed in the Marquis Who’s Who in the World, 2004
• IBM Faculty Award, 2002 (First French winner)
• Winner, AMA American Marketing Association Sales Special Interest Group Best Doctoral Dissertation Award, USA, 2000 (First winner non-affiliated with an American institution)
• Finalist, AFM French Marketing Association - FNEGE Best Doctoral Dissertation Award, France, 2000
• Best Paper Award, AMA Summer Educators’ Conference, Sales Force Management, Personal Selling and Channels of Distribution Track - American Marketing Association, San Francisco, USA, 1999
• The FNEGE French National Foundation for Management Education Research Scholarship, France, 1998
• Best Doctoral Student Paper Award - National Conference in Sales Management, Norfolk, USA, 1998
• Best Dissertation Proposal in Management Award - The Paris University Chancery Scholarship, France, 1993
• Best Dissertation Proposal in Social Sciences Award - The Cetelem Foundation Scholarship, France, 1993

Impact and engagement

Business

• Consulting, Executive Education & Speaking Engagements for 3M, Arthur D. Little, BASF, Dalet, DHL, ENL Group, Essilor, Eiffage, Fedex, Groupama, Hanglas, IBM, Mazars, Mobivia, N3/Accenture, Renault-Nissan, Orange, Rogers, SAP, SBM Bank, Samsung Motors, Schlumberger, SCI, Schneider Electric, Sodexo, Thales, Transporeon, Velogic, Veranda Leisure & Hospitality, Xero

Community

• Co-Chair, 2024 AMS WMC Academy of Marketing Science World Marketing Congress, Mauritius (first AMS WMC held in Africa)
• Member of the Board of Associate Curators, AMS Academy of Marketing Science Sparks, 2023/present 
• Member of the Editorial Review Board, Sales Area, the Journal of Business Research, 2023/present 
• Member of the Editorial Board, the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 2009/present 
• Jury Member, SMA Society for Marketing Advances Axcess Capon Distinguished Teacher Award Competition, 2021/present
• Chair (Elected), American Marketing Association, Sales Special Interest Group, 2020/2022 
• Chief Academic Researcher, Mindset Science, 2019/2022 • Board of Advisors Member, Sales Enablement Society (now Revenue Enablement Society), 2018/2022  
• Chief Academic Researcher & Higher Education Representative, AA-ISP American Association of Inside Sales Professionals, 2017/2022  
• Member & Higher Education Representative, EEF Enterprise Executive Forum, AA-ISP American Association of Inside Sales Professionals, 2017/2022 
• Vice-Chair of the Africa Forum, GSSI Global Sales Science Institute, 2017/2019 
• Vice-Chair for Conference Programming, American Marketing Association Sales Special Interest Group, 2016/2018 
• Co-Chair, 2017 Global Sales Science Institute Conference, Mauritius (first GSSI held in Africa)