Tom Steenburgh on Selling New Products, Part 1

Tom Steenburgh, the Richard S. Reynolds Professor and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development at the Darden School of Business, and Mike Ahearne, Professor of Marketing at the University of Houston and Research Director at the Sales Excellence Institute, are sales researchers and co-founders of the Thought Leadership on the Sales Profession conference. They share recent research findings on “How to Sell New Products” in the current issue of the Harvard Business Review. CSO Insights caught up with Tom Steenburgh to learn more. This is Part 1 of a two-part interview.
 
Q: The article title is: “How to Sell New Products.” What makes new products a different kind of sale?
TS: The biggest difference is the amount of change that’s required at the customer site. Introducing a new product usually means that things are going to change for the customer, in one way or another. It could be just in the buying