B2B growth and sales · Empirical executive survey
Sales force obsolescence: Perceptions from sales and marketing executives of individual, organizational, and environmental factors
E JONES (2004). Sales force obsolescence: Perceptions from sales and marketing executives of individual, organizational, and environmental factors. Industrial Marketing Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0019-8501(03)00115-9.
Plain-English take
Identifies individual, organizational, and environmental factors executives associate with sales-force obsolescence. For your marketing: Use as a mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your own deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
How much weight to give this
2.5/5 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.
Empirical executive survey
Sales and marketing executives assessing sales-force obsolescence
Judged from the publisher-described design and comparison; inspect the paper for complete analysis.
Publisher page and abstract were retrieved directly; full text was not assumed open.
Double-blind? Blinding was not established from the retrieved publisher record.
Research question
What the authors investigated
Which factors do executives perceive as driving sales-force obsolescence?
Design
Empirical executive survey
Sample and setting
Sales and marketing executives assessing sales-force obsolescence
Reported result
What the study found
Identifies individual, organizational, and environmental factors executives associate with sales-force obsolescence.
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
Executive perceptions are not longitudinal evidence of actual obsolescence or performance.
Possible founder application
Use as a mechanism or sales-process design reference. Validate the relationship in your own deal size, buying committee and sales cycle.
Evidence access
Publisher record and abstract retrieved; consult the linked paper for full methods and tables.
Publisher DOI landing page identifies the exact title, authors, journal record and empirical-design sections/abstract: https://doi.org/10.1016/s0019-8501(03)00115-9 Direct publisher-page retrieval was recorded on 2026-10-09; this profile uses the publisher abstract/metadata and does not claim independent review of unavailable full text.
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.