Salesperson reaction to management lead generation programs: The paradox investigated

Spiralling sales costs have caused researchers to explore several determinants of sales performance in order to make salespeople more productive. One avenue for raising productivity that is being pursued by companies is management lead generation programs. Management-generated leads are product- and service-related inquiries directed to the organization by potential customers as a result of exposure to different marketing communications aimed at them by the company, e.g., trade shows, advertisements in print media/public broadcast, telemarketing, direct mail, sales seminars, and product demonstrations. Lead generation programs are undertaken by organizations to help salespeople target better prospects, and consequently generate more sales with less effort, increase productivity, and yield more time to contact new prospects. Hence, it is expected that salespeople will greet leads with great enthusiasm. However, many companies are surprised to find their salespeople not following up on the generated leads. The above paradox, whereby salespeople treat leads with apathy despite postulated salesperson benefits of lead pursuit, is a major managerial dilemma, which has short term implications in terms of enormous wastage of management resources, and serious long term implications resulting from prospect dissatisfaction when salespeople fail to contact them. This demonstrates a need to study the management-lead follow-up phenomenon to get insights into the causes of the resistance of many salespeople to lead follow-up. This requires an understanding of what determines management-lead follow-up and whether salespeople actually gain from lead follow-up. This dissertation examines the paradox (zealous management, apathetic salespeople) by conducting a cross-industry field study to understand which salespeople are more likely to respond favorably to management leads, what are the critical influences on lead follow-up, and what is the impact of lead pursuit on salesperson performance. Data collected from a variety of firms and analyzed using Tobit, indicate that contrary to the traditional beliefs of management and trade press, salespeople predominantly act logically in their lead follow-up behavior. Further, investigation of the relationship between management-lead pursuit and salesperson performance, using OLS, shows positive relationship with a salesperson\u27s prospect conversion rate and new business performance