Customer behavior and adoption · Objective sales-funnel data analyzed with negative-binomial and beta regression models. The study estimates drivers of prospecting efficacy (leads) and conversion efficacy (customers) using motivation-opportunity-ability variables, advertising support, extrinsic rewards, and salesperson experience.
Hunting for new customers: Assessing the drivers of effective salesperson prospecting and conversion
Srinath Gopalakrishna, Andrew T. Crecelius, Ashutosh Patil (2022). Hunting for new customers: Assessing the drivers of effective salesperson prospecting and conversion. Journal of Business Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.05.008
Plain-English take
Prospecting and conversion have an implicit trade-off with a sweet spot maximizing acquisition. More-experienced salespeople acquired fewer new customers; advertising support and extrinsic rewards improved conversion more for experienced reps.
How much weight to give this
2/5 Evidence needs cautious interpretation
The 1–5 evidence-check score is a practical reading aid, not a formal peer review or a probability that a conclusion is true. It combines design strength (2 points), sample reporting (1), comparison/control clarity (1), and how much of the paper could be checked (1). Access affects how confidently this directory can assess a study, not the study's underlying quality. Blinding is reported separately because it is not relevant to every design.
Objective sales-funnel data analyzed with negative-binomial and beta regression models. The study estimates drivers of prospecting efficacy (leads) and conversion efficacy (customers) using motivation-opportunity-ability variables, advertising support, extrinsic rewards, and salesperson experience.
Objective prospecting/conversion performance data from multiple divisions of one firm; the authors describe the setting as entrepreneurial selling where salespeople acquire customers.
Check comparison conditions and analysis in the paper.
Publisher record checked; full-text methods were not verified.
Double-blind? Blinding details were not established from the checked publisher page.
Research question
What the authors investigated
What does hunting for new customers: assessing the drivers of effective salesperson prospecting and conversion show about customer behavior or marketing outcomes?
Design
Objective sales-funnel data analyzed with negative-binomial and beta regression models. The study estimates drivers of prospecting efficacy (leads) and conversion efficacy (customers) using motivation-opportunity-ability variables, advertising support, extrinsic rewards, and salesperson experience.
Sample and setting
Objective prospecting/conversion performance data from multiple divisions of one firm; the authors describe the setting as entrepreneurial selling where salespeople acquire customers.
Reported result
What the study found
Prospecting and conversion have an implicit trade-off with a sweet spot maximizing acquisition. More-experienced salespeople acquired fewer new customers; advertising support and extrinsic rewards improved conversion more for experienced reps.
This is a paraphrase of the source. Check the original paper for definitions, estimates, statistical uncertainty and analysis details.
Scope and transfer
Limitations to keep in view
Authors state that obtaining data from multiple divisions limited the study to a single firm, limiting generalizability; they recommend testing other entrepreneurial selling contexts. Full-text methods and correction history were not independently checked.
Possible founder application
Use this paper as evidence about hunting for new customers: assessing the drivers of effective salesperson prospecting and conversion in the stated context; compare its population, treatment and outcome with your own decision.
Evidence access
Publisher page; full-text availability varies and was not established.
Candidate study metadata and reported evidence were cross-checked against a direct publisher-page retrieval; the full article was not independently reviewed.
If only an abstract or metadata was available, the profile is limited to claims supported there. A paper's paywall does not change its evidentiary status, but it limits what we can substantiate from accessible text.