This research by Daisuke Miyakawa of Waseda University, Yuki Yanagioka of Tokyo Shoko Research, and Hirotaka Yazawa and Shinji Yukimoto of Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing empirically analyzes the impact of prospect information provided by inside sales on contract success rates in corporate lease sales activities.
Key Points
1. Research Background and Objectives
- Target Business: Sales activities in corporate lease contracts
- Problem Awareness: Optimizing the role division between field sales (face-to-face sales) and inside sales (telemarketing)
- Research Purpose: To verify whether the use of prospect information explored by telemarketing staff contributes to improving contract success rates, focusing on causal relationships
- Analytical Method: Adopted the contraction technique proposed by Kleinberg et al. (QJE 2018)
2. Data Used and Analysis Scope
- Data Provider: SMFL (Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing), Japan's largest leasing company
- Data Content:
- Lease sales activity performance data
- Prospect lists
- Sales activity success/failure records
- Analysis Features: Large-scale empirical analysis using actual corporate data
- Causal Inference: Focus on identifying causal relationships rather than simple correlations
3. Main Analysis Results
- Differences in Effects by Customer Class:
- Customers with weak tendency for field sales to make independent contact: Inside sales information provision significantly improves contract success rates
- Customers with strong tendency for field sales to make independent contact: No improvement effect from inside sales information provision
- Conditional Dependence of Information Value: Confirmed that the value of information production through different methods varies according to customer characteristics
- Empirical Evidence: Provides quantitative basis for optimal allocation of sales resources
4. Practical Implications
- Implications for Sales Strategy:
- Importance of differentiating sales channels according to customer segments
- Uniform approaches to all customers are inefficient
- Importance of Data Utilization: Proper use of data directly leads to improved corporate performance
- Sales Efficiency Improvement: Demonstrates methods for more effective allocation of limited sales resources
- Role of Inside Sales: Empirically proves the importance of information provision functions for specific customer segments
This research demonstrates the effectiveness of data-driven approaches in sales activities and presents an effective collaborative model between field sales and inside sales.