Taking an alternate route: redesigning sales management control systems for new product selling

Matsuoka, Kohsuke; Ishii, Hiromune; Zhu, Ying; Kawaguchi, Asumi Article Taking an alternate route: redesigning sales management control systems for new product selling Cogent Business & Management Provided in Cooperation with: Taylor & Francis Group Suggested Citation: Matsuoka, Kohsuke; Ishii, Hiromune; Zhu, Ying; Kawaguchi, Asumi (2024) : Taking an alternate route: redesigning sales management control systems for new product selling, Cogent Business & Management, ISSN 2331-1975, Taylor & Francis, Abingdon, Vol. 11, Iss. 1, pp. 1-17, https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2419496 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/326642 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. 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If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Cogent Business & Management ISSN: 2331-1975 (Online) Journal homepage: www.tandfonline.com/journals/oabm20 Taking an alternate route: redesigning sales management control systems for new product selling Kohsuke Matsuoka, Hiromune Ishii, Ying Zhu & Asumi Kawaguchi To cite this article: Kohsuke Matsuoka, Hiromune Ishii, Ying Zhu & Asumi Kawaguchi (2024) Taking an alternate route: redesigning sales management control systems for new product selling, Cogent Business & Management, 11:1, 2419496, DOI: 10.1080/23311975.2024.2419496 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2419496 © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Published online: 01 Nov 2024. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 1224 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=oabm20 Marketing | research article Cogent Business & ManageMent 2024, VoL. 11, no. 1, 2419496 Taking an alternate route: redesigning sales management control systems for new product selling kohsuke Matsuokaa , hiromune ishiib, Ying Zhuc and asumi kawaguchid atohoku gakuin university, sendai, Japan; bgraduate school of Management of technology, nippon institute of technology, tokyo, Japan; caustralian Centre for asian Business, the university of south australia, adelaide, australia; dsC2 Co., Ltd., tokyo, Japan ABSTRACT salespeople play a critical role in new product selling. Owing to the time lag between sales efforts and accounting outcomes, salespeople under budget pressure created by outcome-based control systems may engage in myopic revenue management by prioritizing the selling of existing products. While increasing sales efforts through activity-based control systems has been considered effective in alleviating this problem, opponents argue that it results in micromanagement and undermines new product selling. recognizing these issues, this study conducted an empirical analysis using repeatedly measured objective data from an electronic component trading company in Japan to examine the feasibility of a sales management control system redesign. the analysis revealed that sales effort quantity had a negative effect on sales quotas but was positively related to revenue mileposts, such as project generation and closing. Furthermore, the effects of sales effort quantity on revenue mileposts weaken as sales effort quality increases. the results imply that outcome-based control systems are more effective for smart workers with high sales effort quality and activity-based control systems are more effective for hard workers with low sales effort quality. Introduction “the ongoing project for new product selling has realized limited revenue during the current accounting period due to the nature of the products, which often require extensive performance testing at the client’s end. i continue to pursue outcome-oriented negotiations, expecting an increase in revenue in the upcoming accounting cycle.” (comment made by one salesperson in our sample) this comment was provided by a salesperson of an electronic component supplier to explain to the upper management the reasons for not meeting the sales quota to the upper management. salespeople are constantly under pressure to meet their sales quotas. however, the sales cycle for new products does not align with the accounting cycle, with a time lag between sales and revenue realization, which is associated with the evaluation of salespeople’s performance (kerr & Marcos-cuevas, 2022). in addition, new product selling is more challenging than existing product selling and takes more effort and time (atuahene-gima, 1997); therefore, making pursuing new product selling difficult for salespeople to achieve their sales quotas. therefore, salespeople may consider new products as efforts that do not yield proportional rewards and may engage in counterproductive sales behaviors by allocating more resources to selling existing products rather than new products (atuahene-gima, 1997). shifting sales efforts from new to existing products in this manner affects future revenue (i.e. depending on new product sales) for the current revenue (i.e. depending on existing product sales) and myopic marketing management, © 2024 the author(s). Published by informa uK Limited, trading as taylor & Francis group CONTACT Kohsuke Matsuoka [email protected] tohoku gakuin university, 1-3-1 tcushitoi, aoba-ku, sendai 980-8511, Miyagi, Japan this article has been corrected with minor changes. these changes do not impact the academic content of the article. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2024.2419496 this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. the terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. ARTICLE HISTORY received 3 March 2024 revised 17 september 2024 accepted 16 October 2024 KEYWORDS sales management control systems; new product selling; myopic revenue management; revenue milepost; sales effort quantity; sales effort quality SUBJECTS sales; Marketing; accounting 2 k. MatsUOka etal. specifically known as myopic revenue management (M. J. ahearne et al., 2016; chapman & steenburgh, 2011; srinivasan & ramani, 2019). sales management control systems (sMcss), which measure salespeople’s outcome-, activity-, and capability-based performance (challagalla & shervani, 1996), should be redesigned to motivate salespeople adequately for selling new product. this study addresses three research gaps in the field of sMcss for selling new products. First, there is a conflicting argument regarding the role of outcomeand activity-based control in new product selling. Previous research has not reached a consensus on whether outcomeor activity-based control is more effective in new product selling. atuahene-gima (1997) argues that new product selling can be promoted through activity-based control because new products require much more sales effort than existing products. in contrast, M. ahearne et al. (2010) suggest that outcome-based control is effective in new product selling because salespeople can adapt their selling based on the detailed knowledge of the market and customers. We aim to disentangle such conflicting arguments by demonstrating that the relationship between sales effort quantity (i.e. hard selling) and outcomes is moderated by sales effort quality (i.e. smart selling). specifically, we show that the relationship between sales effort quantity and the outcomes (i.e. project generation, project closure, and future sales quotas) is weaker for salespeople with high quality of smart selling but stronger for salespeople with low quality of hard selling, indicating that outcome-based control is effective for the former, while activity-based control is effective for the latter. second, in the context of new product selling, accounting performance metrics, such as sales quotas, may not be appropriate dependent variables when examining the relationship between behavior and outcomes. in B2B settings, the sales cycle is a time-consuming process (M. ahearne et al., 2012), often extending beyond the accounting cycle (kerr & Marcos-cuevas, 2022). to address this timing issue, previous research has used sales quotas in future accounting cycles as dependent variables (M.ahearne etal., 2010). as an alternative, we propose using intermediate outcomes or revenue milestones that are highly likely to be achieved within the current accounting cycle as dependent variables (glover & ijiri, 2002; Matsuoka, 2020). revenue milestones involve information related to pre-revenue stages, such as the generation and closing of projects for new product selling, with revenue realized only when the product is delivered after passing through these milestones. this study verifies whether current sales efforts for new product selling are reflected in current revenue milestones and future sales quotas. Finally, this study employs objective data related to behaviors (i.e. sales effort quantity and sales effort quality) and outcomes measured by sMcss rather than subjective data (i.e. salespeople’s perceptions of control systems). Objective data, particularly those collected through repeated measurements at the salesperson level, provide unbiased, verifiable, and highly compelling measures of salesperson performance (Plouffe etal., 2016). repeated measurements of objective data at the salesperson level are useful for revealing within-salesperson relationships among performance measures, as opposed to between-salesperson relationships (Bolander etal., 2021). however, the use of objective data in the context of sales performance is limited compared with that of subjective data (kerr & Marcos-cuevas, 2022), and repeated measurements of objective data have rarely been utilized in most cases (Plouffe et al., 2016). Despite the longstanding academic interest in sales performance (Verbeke et al., 2011), its “measurement” remains an unexplored research frontier (hall & lee, 2019). therefore, as this study examines the relationship between the performance measures of outcome-, activity-, and capability-based control systems using repeated measurements of objective data, the results contribute valuable insights to the field of sales management research. Figure 1 summarizes the hypotheses of this study. For hypothesis testing, we select a small-to medium-sized trading company in Japan that primarily deals with electronic components, including semiconductors. however, the company has its own manufacturing facilities and engages in the sale of in-house developed components. For this enterprise, regardless of whether the products are supplier-made or in-house, new product selling is the key to retaining and increasing revenue. this is because high-tech components, such as semiconductors, have technical lifecycles; therefore, suppliers must offer new products that match the improved performance of the upgraded devices to ensure that customers continue to adopt their products. hence, we believe that the results of this study can be generalized to B2B companies that must maintain customer relationships through new product selling. cOgent BUsiness & ManageMent 3 Theory and hypotheses Types of SMCSs and performance sMcss align salespeople with organizational goals (Darmon & Martin, 2011; Malek etal., 2018). although the conceptual framework encompasses both formal and informal aspects of sMcss (Malek etal., 2022; Ohiomah et al., 2019), this study focuses on formal sMcss. literature divides formal sMcss into the following three categories: outcome, activity, and capability control systems (challagalla & shervani, 1996; katsikeas et al., 2018; Ohiomah et al., 2019). although there is another sMcs category, the input control system (Jaworski, 1988), we focus on the outcome, activity, and capability control systems for two reasons. First, the objects of input control systems are not controllable by salespeople because they involve resource allocation, such as selection criteria, recruitment and training programs, manpower allotments, and strategic plans, before the start of sales activities (Jaworski, 1988). second, only a few exceptional studies (kim & tiwana, 2016; tienken et al., 2023) have addressed input control systems (Malek et al., 2018). Outcome-based control systems use outcome performance measures, such as revenues and sales quotas, to evaluate and reward salespeople (Bolander et al., 2021). Outcome-based control systems are not relevant in achieving outcomes. thus, sales managers with outcome-based control systems do not directly monitor sales behavior (anderson & Oliver, 1987). Furthermore, outcome-based control systems have a higher proportion of variable pay (atuahene-gima, 1997). Behavior-based control systems, which are composed of activity-based and capability-based control systems, have garnered interest in contrast to outcome-based control systems (e.g. amenuvor et al., 2023; Park etal., 2023; Vieira etal., 2022). the primary focus of behavior-based control systems is on the sales effort required to achieve the desired results. Behavior-based control systems prioritize methods for achieving results over the results themselves. thus, sales managers with behavior-based control systems actively direct and monitor sales behavior (anderson & Oliver, 1987). Furthermore, under behavior-based control systems, the proportion of fixed pay tends to be higher (atuahene-gima, 1997). Performance related to sales efforts includes activity and conversion performances (Bolander et al., 2021). activity performance is associated with the quantity of sales efforts, involving activities such as calls made for lead generation and meetings with prospects. thus, activity performance measures are used in activity-based control systems. conversely, conversion performance is related to the quality of sales efforts and serves as a comparative indicator between activities and outcomes such as success rates. since capable salespeople with skills and abilities such as presentation, negotiation, interpersonal communication, planning, and so on (challagalla & shervani, 1996), can efficiently progress through the Figure 1. Research model. 4 k. MatsUOka etal. sales funnel, conversion performance measures reflect the results of the use of capability-based control systems. in other words, activity performance reflects how hard salespeople work, whereas conversion performance indicates how smartly they work. Effect of sales effort quantity on current sales quotas Marketing literature has explained that, owing to pressure from capital markets, companies manage their earnings by reducing marketing expenses and implementing revenue management strategies, such as price promotions (e.g. chapman & steenburgh, 2011; Mizik & Jacobson, 2007 Mizik, 2010). these studies consider myopic marketing as actions taken by ceOs and cFOs responsible for company profits toward the marketing department (M. J. ahearne et al., 2016; srinivasan & ramani, 2019). therefore, strengthening the internal power of marketing departments is considered effective in curbing myopic marketing. While prior research addresses the pressure from capital markets on companies, this study focuses on budget pressures from management to managers and from managers to frontline employees (Merchant, 1990). the mechanism of myopic revenue management lies in responsibility accounting systems, which create budgetary pressure on managers and employees in a manner similar to how capital markets exert pressure on top management. responsibility accounting systems break down budgeted profits into accounting figures such as revenue, manufacturing costs, selling or marketing expenses, and research and development expenses, and allocate them as targets for various internal departments. in this context, the sales department is considered a revenue center because it is difficult to establish a linear relationship between selling expenses and revenue (anthony etal., 2014). as a revenue center, the sales department is responsible for maximizing revenue within the budgeted selling expense range. Budget pressure placed on the sales department in the form of revenue targets is enforced on individual salespeople through outcome-based control systems (Jaworski & Macinnis, 1989). thus, outcome-based control systems are closely linked to organizational responsibility accounting systems (Merchant & Van der stede, 2017). By achieving the sales quotas imposed on them, individual salespeople enable the sales department to meet revenue targets, ultimately exceeding the company’s break-even point and maintaining or strengthening financial health. however, as management responds to capital market pressure, salespeople may also be tempted to engage in myopic revenue management in response to budget pressure. Outcome-based control systems induce myopic revenue management by strongly motivating salespeople to attain goals through financial incentives linked to sales quotas, without questioning the means of achieving those results (atuahene-gima, 1997). some salespeople may prioritize current revenue over future revenue to avoid periods of low income, even if it affects potential sales from selling new products. the preference for existing products over new products is due to the extensive sales effort required and the time it takes to realize the associated financial outcomes. For example, when selling a new product to an unfamiliar, new customer, it necessitates strenuous communications. regardless of whether the customer is new, new products require customers to test performance, delaying the purchase decision. even if customers adopt product knowledge due to the efforts of salespeople, their purchasing decision occurs subsequently (endres et al., 2024). as a result, selling new products demands greater effort and the accounting outcomes tend to materialize in future accounting cycles rather than the cycle in which the sales efforts were made. therefore, increasing sales efforts for new products may not contribute to current sales quotas. in fact, such efforts could even hinder current sales quotas, because allocating substantial sales resources to new product selling impedes selling existing products, which are more likely to yield immediate revenue. as a result, in situations with budget pressures, salespeople will in all probability focus their efforts on selling established products rather than new ones to achieve their sales quotas, which are usually measured as total sales or gross profit the salespeople attained. consequently, salespeople can achieve current sales quotas by reducing sales effort quantity toward new product selling. this can be hypothesized as follows: h1: sales effort quantity for new product selling negatively influences current total sales quota. cOgent BUsiness & ManageMent 5 Effects of sales effort quantity on new product selling activity-based control systems can be utilized to mitigate the skewed allocation of sales efforts toward established products because they are detached from the responsibility accounting system that generates budget pressures. Under activity-based control systems, the proportion of variable pay linked to sales quotas is lower, whereas that linked to fixed pay is higher. consequently, salespeople are more likely to exert efforts toward strategic tasks that may not yield immediate results (atuahene-gima, 1997). For example, if the activity-based control system emphasizes the quantity of sales effort for new product selling (e.g. the number of customer visits), then salespeople are more likely to engage in relationship-building activities that do not yield immediate sales but contribute to long-term projects for new product selling. in an activity-based control system, the quantity of sales effort before outcomes is measured as activity performance (homburg etal., 2019). efforts in the context of new product selling refer to “the amount of time, activity, or persistence of the salesperson selling the focal new product” (atuahene-gima & Michael, 1998, 906). the lengthy process involved in achieving outcomes requires various types of sales efforts, which include the number of phone calls made for lead generation, expended labor hours, and meetings conducted to convert prospects. these efforts for new product selling effectuate two revenue mileposts. the first milepost occurs at the generation stage of new product selling projects, when communication begins between salespeople and customers with the assumption of new product adoption. to generate new product selling projects, salespeople need to establish contact not only with existing customers but also with customers who have no current business dealings with them and with entirely new sales leads. the second milestone is the successful closing of new product selling projects. Between project generation and closure, customers may request product explanations, quotations, and product customization. to accommodate these diverse customer requirements, salespeople must exert considerable effort to steer projects toward success. Previous research has demonstrated that sales effort quantity leads to improved salesperson performance. For example, a study by Ohiomah et al. (2019) have shown that the use of lead management systems increases the number of calls, which in turn intensifies follow-up efforts and impacts sales performance (Ohiomah et al., 2019). additionally, there are research findings indicating that activity control (lessassy, 2023) and activity-based incentive systems (rao et al., 2021) can enhance performance. also, some research has revealed that salespeople with ambidexterity, who not only provide customer service but also engage in sales activities concurrently, achieve higher sales performance (e.g. ahmad, liu, akhtar, etal., 2022; ahmad, liu, irfan, etal., 2022). M. ahearne etal. (2010) demonstrated that increasing sales efforts enhances customers’ perceptions of products, which ultimately leads to the future sales of new products. given that new product sales involve two stages, project generation and contract closure, the following two hypotheses are proposed: h2: sales effort quantity positively influences the number of newly generated projects for new product selling. h3: sales effort quantity positively influences the number of successfully closed projects for new product selling. Once the projects are successfully closed, contracts for new products are established. as sales efforts continue until contracts are signed, there is little time lag when sales efforts are linked to the number of generated and successfully closed projects. however, sales efforts significantly decrease after new product contracts are signed. after contracts are signed, salespeople are required to deliver products by deadline and provide support when needed. nevertheless, under the generally accepted accounting principles, revenue is basically recognized when products are delivered. in business-to-business transactions, sales cycles tend to be longer (homburg etal., 2019), which delays the realization of current sales efforts into revenue. therefore, current sales efforts are reflected in accounting-based performance (e.g. sales quota) in future accounting cycles because of the mismatch between sales and accounting cycles (kerr & Marcos-cuevas, 2022). some previous studies have revealed that current sales efforts influence future sales revenue (M. ahearne etal., 2010; kumar etal., 2008). Based on this reasoning, we derive the following hypothesis: h4: sales effort quantity positively influences future total sales quotas. 6 k. MatsUOka etal. Moderation effects of sales effort quality on new product selling activity-based control systems tend to micromanage salespeople, potentially leading to negative outcomes. For instance, salespeople under the influence of an activity-based control system may experience stress, low self-esteem, or distrust managers because of close monitoring of their actions. however, atuahene-gima (1997) argues that this issue does not apply in the context of new product selling. this is because salespeople typically have minimal contact with top management, and, through an activity-based control system, they become aware that top management is interested in and supportive of new product selling. in contrast, M. ahearne et al. (2010) claim that activity-based control systems inhibit new product selling. they conduct a survey targeting salespeople in the women’s healthcare division of a pharmaceutical company and find that salespeople who perceived an activity-based control system are more likely to elicit efforts toward new product selling than those who did not. however, they also revealed that salespeople’s perception of an activity-based control system weakens the impact of new product selling efforts on the achievement rate of sales quotas mediated by customer product awareness. M. ahearne et al. (2010) explain this by stating that activity-based control systems reward salespeople based solely on their actions, leading them to increase their approaches to prospects without utilizing their market knowledge and promoting new products unrelated to customer needs. instead, the salespeople’s perception of an outcome-based control system that does not focus on the sales process itself is found to be more effective in enhancing sales efforts to sell new products. M. ahearne etal. (2010) conclude that an outcome-based control system influences people to work smarter, while an activity-based control system influences people to work harder. a similar finding has been demonstrated in the context of inside sales. Based on self-determination theory, conde et al. (2021) revealed that outcome-based control enhanced the autonomous motivation of telemarketers, thereby improving job performance, but these relationships were weakened by phone operational outcome control (i.e. activity-based control), such as call time. their argument aligns with the assertion made by Bolander et al. (2021) that activity performance relates to the level of sales efforts, indicating how hard salespeople work, whereas conversion performance relates to the quality of sales efforts, indicating how smartly they work. this study proposes that conflicting claims regarding the effectiveness of activity-based control systems in new product selling can be organized based on the quality of sales efforts. the core of M. ahearne et al. (2010) rationale is the adaptive selling capabilities of salespeople. salespeople with adaptive selling capabilities fit well with outcome-based control systems that provide flexibility in the sales process. therefore, salespeople with a high sales effort quality can achieve better outcomes with a low sales effort quantity. however, salespeople lacking adaptive selling capabilities cannot select the most suitable products for promising customers. these salespeople have low sales effort quality and need to increase their sales efforts to achieve outcomes. Previous studies have demonstrated that the abilities of salespeople can lead to the purchase of new products through the adoption of customers’ new product knowledge (endres etal., 2024). additionally, technical and salesmanship skills have been found to enhance sales performance (Ohiomah etal., 2019). research has used proxies of sales capabilities, such as sales experience and education (Fujii, 2024), and age and/or tenure (Park et al., 2023; Vieira et al., 2022). Furthermore, rather than measuring capabities directly, some studies have focused on verifying the effects of capability-based control, finding that it can reduce salespeople’s turnover intentions (Bande et al., 2021) and increase work engagement and creative performance (hu et al., 2024). however, other research has shown that capability-based control is unrelated to operational performance (conde etal., 2023). according to epler etal. (2023), ability control enables adaptive selling, and Miao et al. (2022) have demonstrated that adaptive selling enhances sales performance. nonetheless, none of these studies have addressed how the quality of sales effort moderates the relationship between the quantity of sales effort and salesperson performance. the effects of sales effort quality are realized when the effort is actually exerted. high-capability salespeople achieve results with less effort, whereas low-capability salespeople need to exert more effort to achieve the same results. therefore, this study proposes the following hypothesis. h5: the effect of sales effort quantity on the number of newly generated projects for new product selling is lower for salespeople with higher sales effort quality. cOgent BUsiness & ManageMent 7 h6: the effect of sales effort quantity on the number of successfully closed projects for new product selling is lower for salespeople with higher sales effort quality. h7: the effect of sales effort quantity on future sales quotas is lower for salespeople with higher sales effort quality. Data and analysis model Research site and data collection the research site is a Japanese electrical part supplier. the company mainly distributes other manufacturers’ products but also develops in-house products and customizes electrical parts according to customers’ requests. Moreover, the company has a manufacturing function because it holds some electrical part makers as subsidiaries. salespeople respond flexibly to individual customer needs by customizing and combining internal and external products. sales capabilities supported by development, customization, and manufacturing function are the company’s critical strength. the company, whose products have a technical lifecycle, emphasizes new product selling because customers who purchase new products are more retainable. additionally, selling a new product is a major means of acquiring new customers who are likely to continue purchasing the product during its lifecycle. the company defines new products as those launched within 3 years. the company evaluates salespeople’s performance twice a year. in other words, the budgetary period for performance evaluation of salespeople is 6 months. the collected data covered eight periods from april 2016 to March 2020 (48 months/6 months per period). the number of salespeople was 11, except for sales managers. although 11 people were the targets initially, some of them temporarily left or retired from the company during these eight periods. thus, the final number of samples was reduced to 75. two datasets were created for this study. the first dataset analyzed the effects of sales efforts level and quality level on project generation and closure. seventy-six samples from this dataset were included in the analysis. the second dataset examined the impact of sales quantity and quality on future sales quotas. Owing to the time lag between the independent and dependent variables, the number of samples was reduced by a single period. thus, 69 samples were analyzed. to collect data on salesperson performance, we consulted the records of the activity control system and outcome control system operated by the company. the data were anonymized so that salespeople could not be identified. We provided feedback to the salespeople on the results of the analysis. Moreover, we explained to the salespeople that the results of the analysis would be used in our study. We informed them that their data had been anonymized and that the statistical analysis presented in the study would be highly averaged. then, we requested their consent to use their performance data for research purposes. approval to conduct research based on this procedure was obtained from the human subjects research review committee at tohoku gakuin University. the approval number is 2023-029. consent was obtained in written form from the participants. the first author delivered a 2-hour presentation about the purpose and results of the analysis. additionally, the first, second, and last authors further explained that participants’ confidentiality would be fully protected, as the results would be disclosed only in a highly aggregated form after statistical analysis. We also emphasized that participants could withdraw from the survey at any time and that declining to participate would not result in any social losses. Measures in this study, all variables used for hypothesis testing were objective secondary data regularly measured by the focal company’s internal systems, rather than subjective primary data measured by researchers. Figure 2 summarizes how objective salesperson performance was repeatedly measured. Current sales quota and future sales quota a Japanese electrical parts supplier measures its sales quota based on a year-to-year comparison of sales. current sales quota refers to the quantum of sales recorded in the present accounting cycle, and future sales quota pertains to the sales figure in the next accounting cycle. 14 k. MatsUOka etal. Limitations and future research directions this study’s contributions are substantial; however, it has some limitations. First, hypotheses 4 and 7 were not supported. there are various uncertainties between current activities and future revenues. Unraveling these factors is an interesting challenge for future research. second, it used a dataset from smalland medium-sized enterprises; therefore, the sample size was small. however, as shown by hultink and atuahene-gima (2000), meaningful results can be obtained even from a small number of samples. increasing the sample size should not be solely for the purpose of achieving statistical significance; more data can lead to more stable estimations. third, it focused on smalland medium-sized enterprises in Japan dealing mainly with semiconductors; however, the results may vary for different sectors and contexts. research using secondary data is still in its early stages and it will be necessary to conduct more research utilizing secondary data in the future. Finally, it addressed only parts of the sMcss, the outcome-, activity-, and capability-based control systems, without addressing others such as input control systems related to sales resource acquisition (kim & tiwana, 2016; tienken et al., 2023) or informal control systems (Malek et al., 2022). it is challenging to cover all dimensions in one study; however, examining how these factors interact with other control systems in the context of new product selling is a promising topic for future research. Authors’ contributions conception and design: k. Matsuoka, h. ishii, and Y. Zhu. acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of the data: k. Matsuoka, h. ishii, and a. kawaguchi. Drafting the paper: k. Matsuoka and Y. Zhu. reviewing the paper critically for intellectual content: all authors. the final approval of the version to be published: all authors. agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work: all authors. Disclosure statement the second and last authors are the ceO and cFO of the research site company, respectively. Funding this work was supported by JsPs kakenhi grant number JP20k02015. About the authors Kohsuke Matsuoka is from tohoku gakuin University, sendai, Miyagi, Japan. Hiromune Ishii is from graduate school of Management of technology, nippon institute of technology, tokyo, Japan. Ying Zhu is from australian center for asian Business, the University of south australia, adelaide, australia. Asumi Kawaguchi is from sc2 co., ltd., tokyo, Japan. ORCID kohsuke Matsuoka http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3486-3632 Ying Zhu http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9611-287X Data availability statement the salespeople of this study did not give written consent for their data to be shared publicly, so due to the sensitive nature of the research supporting data is not available. References ahearne, M., rapp, a., hughes, D. e., & Jindal, r. (2010). 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