New product development: using the salesforce to identify opportunities

Abstract

The development process for new products is critically dependent on customer‐generated new product ideas. Although several conduits exist for identifying and communicating these ideas, by far the most productive one is the organization’s salesforce. While the integral role of salespeople as the linkage between buyers and sellers is generally acknowledged by many researchers, little empirical evidence exists which explores this role. This paper explores the role of the salesforce as an information source in the opportunity identification phase of the new product development process. It presents results of an empirical study of 223 sales managers concerning actual use and effectiveness of the salesforce as a source of new product ideas and proposes specific recommendations concerning improved utilization of the salesforce as a source of new product ideas generated from customers.