The First Customer to Believe in the Product: Identifying Key Variables for Salesforce Success in New Product and Innovation Commercialization

The commercialization of innovative new products remains a significant obstacle in B2B environments, and the salesforce plays a vital role in this respect. This paper reviews the research literature from 1973 to 2022 to examine variables and their effects on two redundant aspects: Variables with an impact on (1) the proactive selling behavior of salespeople during new and innovative product commercialization and variables with an impact on (2) the selling performance of new and innovative products as perceived by the salesforce. Along with 20 sales experts, we evaluated 118 variables of 50 key studies. We revealed that the salesforce’s belief in the product value is most impactful for later success, closely aligned and followed by the product’s perceived value. The innovativeness of creative salespersons, superior products, and in-depth product knowledge, gained through high-quality training, further influences both examined aspects as well as the entire innovation value stream. We further identified research opportunities tailored to the managerial needs delineated in the literature. This will support the optimization of innovation management activities aimed at successfully establishing innovations on their B2B markets. Finally, we found that inconsistent terminology for new products can undermine innovation management by blurring the distinction between incremental and radical innovations.