U. of Missouri study: Mix of veteran staff, energetic new workers boost holiday season sales

Researchers at the University of Missouri have found that businesses can successfully attract new customers during the holiday shopping season by using a combination of experienced staff and enthusiastic new employees.

Srinath Gopalakrishna, a University of Missouri professor and chair of the Department of Marketing in the Trulaske College of Business, and his research team, in collaboration with Shelter Insurance, spearheaded the study, according to a news release.

"Prospecting for new customers is a really important element of everything that happens in a business,” Gopalakrishna said in the release. “We hope this helps companies put their salespeople’s efforts to a productive use.”

An objective of the study was to provide businesses with a guide to maximize their ability to find new customers through their sales force and better distribute resources among their sales group. The researchers found that salespeople with less experience had more success attracting new customers, which could be an asset to businesses with less advertising resources, the release stated.

The study also found that more experienced salespeople were better at gaining new customers from advertising, the release pointed out. The findings suggest that businesses should set aside advertising money for more experienced salespeople up to a certain point. 

Researches also found that experienced salespeople were more motivated by incentives, raises and bonuses, which leads to increased new customer acquisitions.

Although the study only focused on contracted insurance agents, Gopalakrishna believes the finding could be applied to other industries too. 

“Most firms understand that finding new customers is important, but this research highlights the role of important moderating factors that play a role in making that process more effective,” he said in the release. 

Andrew Crecelius, an assistant professor in marketing at Iowa State University, and Ashutosh Patil, an assistant professor in marketing at Cleveland State, assisted Gopalakrishna in the publicized titled "Hunting for new customers: Assessing the drivers of effective salesperson prospecting and conversion," which appeared in the Journal of Business Research.