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Why Salespeople Fear Pitching Radical Innovation

Bianca Schmitz et al.

MIT Sloan Management Review2026https://doi.org/10.63383/gcvo5996article
FT50AJG 3ABDC A
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

When selling radical innovations, salespeople often worry that they’ll appear incompetent, which undermines their confidence and stalls sales pipelines. New products’ complexity can get in the way of knowledge transfer via traditional training approaches. Companies should instead reframe the salesperson’s role from expert to orchestrator, provide consultation support through expert tandems and fast-response channels, and foster a culture that values curiosity and collaboration over perfection.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.63383/gcvo5996

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@article{bianca2026,
  title        = {{Why Salespeople Fear Pitching Radical Innovation}},
  author       = {Bianca Schmitz et al.},
  journal      = {MIT Sloan Management Review},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.63383/gcvo5996},
}

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Why Salespeople Fear Pitching Radical Innovation

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.