Rupali Kaul

Graduate Student Research Funding | 2021 - 2022 Academic Year

Assessing the Impact of Relational vs Transactional Selling Approaches: Field Experiment with Small Firms in Latin America

Very little is known about the business impact of sales-function development, especially in small firms which further lack these skills. We conduct a randomized field experiment in order to study the impact of structured selling approaches on a sample of small entrepreneurs across Guatemala, El Salvador, and Columbia. The research speaks to two key points – (1) Overall impact of adoption of a systematized approach to selling on the growth of a firm (profit, sales), (2) Relative impact of adopting a relational sales strategy focusing on customer satisfaction, instead of a transactional strategy focusing on revenue targets. Our study aims at teasing apart the effects of a relational Vs transactional strategy, with clear implications for firm policy.

Rupali Kaul, Graduate School of Business

Rupali Kaul is a PhD student in quantitative marketing. Prior to Stanford, she received her BE in electronics and communication engineering and an MBA. She also gained industry experience by working as a management consultant for couple of years. Kaul's research focuses on the role of marketing related business information in improving outcomes of small-scale retailers. Noting that the majority of small-scale retail business owners and employees are economically disadvantaged and excluded from formal employment, the insights she develops in her work have clear policy implications for poverty alleviation and firm development.

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