The purchasing behavior of the customer of an innovative product and the challenges of adapting sales activities
Abstract
Paper describes the challenges faced by many innovative companies trying to successfully launch new products on the market. According to existing research, which confirms that a large proportion of newly launched products fail commercially, in addition to the basic characteristics of the new product, the purpose of the thesis is to explore how the organisation can successfully contribute to product success mainly through sales activities or more precisely the sales staff who makes the first contact with customers. Their task is even more complex with more innovative products, as this type of sales is different from the usual, and at the same time requires a good understanding of how customers behave and how they think. The sales staff of Slovenian companies has credible experience in this area, and in the conducted research, they gave their views, opinions and experiences on the way of selling innovative products and how it differs from the sale of products that are already known on the market.
A more detailed description of the specifics and challenges of selling an innovative product can be effective for sales staff. It can serve as an explanation of a specific behaviour of customers that they face daily in their work, and as a guide to developing additional sales skills that best contribute to better commercialisation or successful sales of an innovative product.
References
Abbas, M. et al. (2017) ‘The effect of innovation and consumer related factors on consumer resistance to innovation’, 4, p. 1312058. doi: 10.1080/23311975.2017.1312058.
Ahearne, M. et al. (2010) ‘Managing sales force product perceptions and control systems in the success of new product introductions’, Journal of Marketing Research, 47(4), pp. 764–776. doi: 10.1509/jmkr.47.4.764.
Ahearne, M. (2019) ‘Selling New Products: What Really Works’. Marketing Science Institute, 25 November.
Atuahene-Gima, K. (1997) ‘Adoption of new products by the sales force: The construct, research propositions, and managerial implications’, Journal of Product Innovation Management, 14(6), pp. 498–514. doi: 10.1016/s0737-6782(97)00060-x.
Bodlaj, M. (2009) Povezanost med tržno naravnanostjo, inovacijami in uspešnostjo podjetja - konceptualni model in empirična preverba. Doktorska disertacija.
Boleslavsky, R., Cotton, C. S. and Gurnani, H. (2016) ‘Demonstrations and Price Competition in New Product Release’, Management Science, pp. 1–12. doi: 10.1287/mnsc.2016.2449.
Van der Borgh, W. (2012) Selling New Products. doi: 10.6100/IR735420.
Cooper, R. G. (2020) Doing it Right: Winning with New Products, Ivey Business Journal.
Fu, F. Q. et al. (2010) ‘Motivating salespeople to sell new products: The relative influence of attitudes, subjective norms, and self-efficacy’, Journal of Marketing, 74(6), pp. 61–76. doi: 10.1509/jmkg.74.6.61.
Gourville, J. T. (2006) Eager Sellers and Stony Buyers: Understanding the Psychology of New-Product Adoption, Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2006/06/eager-sellers-and-stony-buyers-understanding-the-psychology-of-new-product-adoption (Accessed: 21 September 2021).
Hohenberg, S. and Homburg, C. (2016) ‘Motivating sales reps for innovation selling in different cultures’, Journal of Marketing, 80(2), pp. 101–120. doi: 10.1509/jm.14.0398.
Hoyer, W. D. and MacInnis, D. J. (2007) Consumer Behavior. 4th edition. Houghton Mifflin Company.
Huang, Y. et al. (2020) ‘Selling Innovative Products to Anxious Consumers’, pp. 29–46. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-31733-1_2.
Hultink, E. J. and Atuahene-Gima, K. (2000) ‘Effect of sales force adoption on new product selling performance’, Journal of Product Innovation Management, 17(6), pp. 435–450. doi: 10.1111/1540-5885.1760435.
Johnston, M. W. and Marshall, G. W. (2016) Sales Force Management: Leadership, Innovation, Technology. Twelfth Ed. New York: Routledge by Taylor & Francis Group.
Kauppila, O. P., Rajala, R. and Jyrämä, A. (2010) ‘Antecedents of salespeople’s reluctance to sell radically new products’, Industrial Marketing Management, 39(2), pp. 308–316. doi: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2008.11.003.
Leslie, M. and Holloway, C. A. (2006) The Sales Learning Curve, Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2006/07/the-sales-learning-curve (Accessed: 23 December 2020).
OECD/Eurostat (2005) Oslo Manual: Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Innovation Data, 3rd Edition, The Measurement of Scientific and Technological Activities. 3rd Editio, Communities. 3rd Editio. Paris: OECD. Available at: https://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=6868 (Accessed: 25 January 2021).
Ram, S. and Sheth, J. N. (1989) ‘Consumer Resistance to Innovations: The Marketing Problem and its solutions’, Journal of Consumer Marketing, 6(2), pp. 5–14. doi: 10.1108/EUM0000000002542.
Rogers, E. M. (2003) Diffusion of Innovations. 5th Edition. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Schreier-Fleming, M. (2016) 3 Questions Before You Sell a New Product . Available at: https://www.bestatselling.com/3-questions-to-sell-a-new-product/ (Accessed: 23 May 2021).
Sharma, A. and Sagar, M. (2018) ‘New product selling challenges (key insights in the ICT sector)’, Journal of Indian Business Research, 10(3), pp. 291–319. doi: 10.1108/JIBR-11-2017-0216.
Smith, K. H. et al. (2013) Selling Innovation: A guide to structuring a complete start-up revenue capture process . 1st Edition. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Stanovnik, P. and Kavaš, D. (2019) Inovacijski Management. Maribor.
Steenburgh, T. and Ahearne, M. (2018) ‘How to sell new product’, Harvard Business Review, (December), pp. 92–102.
Tidd, J. and Bessant, J. (2018) Managing innovation : integrating technological, market and organizational change. 6th Editio. Hoboken: Wiley.
Tredgold, G. (2018) 4 Reasons Why You Need To Focus On Innovation, Inc. Available at: https://www.inc.com/gordon-tredgold/4-reasons-why-you-need-to-focus-on-innovation.html (Accessed: 26 January 2021).
Turk, J. (2010) Trženje [Elektronski vir] : gradivo za 1. letnik . Ljubljana: Zavod IRC. Available at: http://www.zavod-irc.si/docs/Skriti_dokumenti/ (Accessed: 23 December 2020).
Weitz, B. A., Sujan, H. and Sujan, M. (1986) ‘Knowledge, Motivation, and Adaptive Behavior: A Framework for Improving Selling Effectiveness’, Journal of Marketing, 50(4), pp. 174–191. doi: 10.1177/002224298605000404.
The authors retain rights under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Authors assign copyright or license the publication rights in their articles, including abstracts, to MIP=JIBM. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and of course MIP=JIBM, to the widest possible readership in electronic format. Authors are themselves responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources.