Perspectives on international collaboration in sales research

Abstract

International research collaboration and co-authorship among scholars is always encouraged, yet it comes with its share of difficulties. While globalization brings its own challenges in sales, this special issue focuses on the challenges of fostering international collaboration in sales research. Such perspective is important in today’s academic context for three main reasons. First, international collaboration in research forces scholars to take an international perspective on research problems and thus consider fields of study that may transcend cultural boundaries. Second, with international research collaboration indubitably comes broader exchanges of ideas. Having a breadth of perspectives is at the very essence of scholastic work. Third, international research collaborations can drive intellectual communities to embrace important global challenges confronting modern sales organizations.     

Levels of analysis and sources of data in sales research: a multilevel-multisource review

Sales researchers are increasingly adopting a multilevel-multisource (MLMS) approach to answer many key questions involving sales managers, salespeople and customers. MLMS research involves the acquisition and analysis of data collected from two or more sources pertaining to multiple hierarchical levels and presents a number of opportunities and challenges for sales researchers to consider. The authors highlight the benefits and the drawbacks of MLMS research and describe various approaches for implementing an MLMS collection and analysis. Additionally, a review of the MLMS studies conducted in the sales domain is provided which summarizes and delineates relationships tested in the extant literature. Based on this review, the authors advance a number of underdeveloped areas of research where MLMS approaches can be applied to further the understanding of the dynamic conditions that typify sales research.     

A qualitative study of leader behaviors perceived to enable salesperson performance

Abstract

This study builds on and extends previous sales leadership research by exploring sales professionals’ perceptions of effective leadership behaviors. Semistructured interviews with both sales leaders and salespeople working in a global enterprise software company were examined through a qualitative analysis. Results indicated that participants believed sales leadership played an important role in influencing sales performance. When asked to describe specific sales leader behaviors that best enable salesperson performance, sales professionals – both sales leaders and salespeople – overwhelmingly referenced coaching, followed by collaborating, championing, and customer engaging. We define and describe these four key sales leader behaviors and identify four potential mediating variables (trust, confidence, optimism, and resilience), from which emerges a conceptual framework of sales leader behaviors perceived to enable salesperson performance. We examine these four key sales leader behaviors and mediators in the broader context of leadership theory, particularly transformational, servant, authentic, and adaptive leadership theories. The key contribution of this study is the identification of a set of leader behaviors that are likely to be especially effective in modern sales organizations given that they originated from the perceptions of sales professionals themselves.     

It is all in good humor? Examining the impact of salesperson evaluations of leader humor on salesperson job satisfaction and job stress

Abstract

Salesperson job stress and job satisfaction have been identified as critical factors affecting job performance. Academic research suggests that sales managers can influence salesperson job stress and job satisfaction. Interestingly, a review of the sales literature finds very little research on the impact of sales leader humor usage on the stress and satisfaction of salespeople. Consequently, we explore how salespeople’s evaluation of their manager’s use of humor influences their individual levels of job stress and satisfaction. We investigate both the positive and negative roles of humor by analyzing the impact of salesperson evaluations of their managers’ use of affiliative and aggressive humor on their job stress and job satisfaction. Furthermore, we examine the mechanism by which these evaluations affect salesperson stress and satisfaction by identifying two critical mediating variables – social loneliness and willingness to cooperate. Using a sample of 299 professional salespeople, we empirically test this process model to find that affiliative humor usage by sales managers, as evaluated by salespeople, reduces social loneliness and stress for salespeople while also increasing followers’ acceptance of cooperation. Evaluations of aggressive humor, on the other hand, increase stress levels among salespeople. Both social loneliness and acceptance of cooperation, in turn, significantly affect job satisfaction.     

Macro sales force research

The call for more macro sales force research where the sales force as a whole is the unit of analysis, which was raised in “The Strategic Role of the Sales Force,” is revisited in this article. Technology, consolidation, government policies, the evolution of organizational strategy are dramatically changing the role of the sales force and the daily lives of salespeople. Yet, it is estimated that no more than 5%, and probably less, of sales and sales management research examines these developments. To shine a light on this, a case study of a health-care company that has changed its strategic focus from a product to a solutions provider is presented. Changes in the role of the sales force are examined within the five sales force capabilities identified in the “The Strategic Role” article. Research questions are raised about sales force capabilities.     

Elaboration on potential outcomes (EPO) and the consultative salesperson: investigating effects on attributions and performance

Past work has found that salespeople make very different attributions when describing successful versus unsuccessful sales. In this article, we explore the influence of elaboration on potential outcomes (EPO), a relatively new individual-specific personality construct that has not been previously examined in the sales context. We show that salespeople's predisposition to engage in predecision elaboration on the potential outcomes of their sales activities across the sales cycle has an important impact on their selling attributions and on their performance, even after accounting for the effects of self-efficacy and trait competitiveness, two other person-specific variables that have been heavily examined in past research. Juxtaposing survey responses with objective sales performance data from 301 salespeople drawn from two sales organizations, the results show that EPO and the more heavily examined variables help to systematically explain salespeople's attributions for success but are only weakly linked to attributions for failure. Moreover, the results show that EPO itself explains a modest, but nevertheless promising, portion of variance in sales performance.     

Alcohol Abuse in the Sales Force

Abstract

Much of the literature on the problem of alcohol abuse in the nation and in the work place implies that salespeople should be particularly susceptible to problem drinking. Most discussion of alcohol abuse by salespeople has been anecdotal and speculative in nature, however, and little empirical research has been reported to support the anecdotes and speculations. This study examines the problem of sales force alcohol abuse and reports the findings of a nationwide survey of field sales managers concerning the extent of this problem in the nation's sales forces, the methods of dealing with alcohol-abusing salespeople, and factors related to problem drinking in the sales force. Implications for sales managers, sales management educators and trainers, and researchers in the field of sales and sales management are also discussed.     

Developing Sales Force Relationalism: The Role of Distributive and Procedural Justice

Sales force justice perceptions can play an important role in the development of relational norms or relationalism; however, little research has explored the linkages between justice and the development of sales force relationalism. The relational justice model—that is, neutrality, trust, and respect—was tested with regard to direct effects on sales force perceptions of distributive and procedural justice, and in, subsequently, manager–sales force relationalism. The findings, from a sample of business-to-business salespeople, support the hypothesized relationships between the constructs in the relational model and distributive and procedural justice. Neutrality, trust, and respect significantly and positively affect both distributive and procedural justice, which directly affects the development of sales force relationalism. The results have implications for sales force management and future research endeavors.     

A within-person theoretical perspective in sales research: outlining recommendations for adoption and consideration of boundary conditions

Abstract

In the sales literature it is standard practice for researchers to collect cross-sectional data from multiple salespeople, and to compare those salespeople on the data obtained. This between-person approach is suitable for research aiming to draw conclusions between salespeople. However, many salesperson processes are dynamic and vary within salespeople over time, requiring datasets with repeated-measures. This article highlights the need to adopt a within-person theoretical perspective in sales research. Critically, the article shows how our present understanding of boundary conditions may change depending on whether a between-person or within-person level of analysis is adopted. Using examples from the sales literature, we show how the practical implications from between-persons research designs do not necessarily generalize to the within-person level. Further, we explain the methodological and analytical considerations that researchers must account for when undertaking within-person research. Furthermore, the article provides decision criteria that help to identify when within-person analysis should be conducted, outlining analysis tools that are capable of correctly estimating within-person effects without bias. Examples of how within-person research can enhance theory within future sales research, and how within-person research may influence management implications are also discussed. Finally, potential remedies to within-person research barriers are given.     

Drivers and outcomes of salespersons’ value opportunity recognition competence in solution selling

Abstract

In B2B markets, firms seek to provide customer solutions instead of merely selling goods or services. As boundary-spanners, salespeople are pivotal for implementing this strategic shift. Yet, extant literature provides limited insights into salesperson’s resources and competencies required for customer solutions, particularly in the early phases of solution selling. This research focuses on salesperson’s value opportunity recognition competence (VOR), which is a central requirement for salespeople to be able to navigate the early phases of solution selling. Analyzing large-scale, multi-level data of 799 salespeople and their respective sales managers in 29 sales organizations, the authors investigate the role of different salesperson resources and work environment characteristics for strengthening their VOR. The authors find that salespeople need both customer and technical knowledge, but customer knowledge is more important. Salespeople also can substitute individual technical knowledge with strong internal relations, but strong customer relations are no substitute for individual knowledge about customers’ business models and processes. Formalization turned out to be a double-edged sword in the context of VOR development, while transformational leadership has positive effects only. The findings bear concrete implications for improving the selection, training, and work environment of solution salespeople.     

Selling & Sales Management in Action: The Importance of Various Motivational Factors to College Students Interested in Sales Positions

Sales professionals in the computer industry have had to confront a fundamental shift in the definition and source of value within their marketplace. From an emphasis on hardware, vendors and customers are now looking to software and systems for the next advancements in technology and productivity. As the sources of value within the industry have changed, so have the requirements for sales success. No longer able to rely on their traditional and “proven” approach to selling, salespeople have had to learn new competencies. Based on studies of the sales organizations of six computer companies, this article explores how—and why—computer salespeople must adopt a new sales orientation and expand their behavioral repertoire.     

Salesperson time perspectives and customer willingness to pay more: roles of intraorganizational employee navigation,customer satisfaction,and firm innovation climate

This research aims to fill a critical gap in the sales literature by proposing a relationship-based model of customer willingness to pay more, involving salesperson time perspectives (i.e., long-term perspective and short-term perspective), intraorganizational employee navigation, and customer satisfaction with the salesperson. We also examine the moderating role of firm innovation climate. Multisource survey data were collected from 204 salespeople in a business-to-business sales context along with external ratings from customers of these salespeople three months later. The findings indicate that both long- and short-term perspectives have positive effects on intraorganizational employee navigation and customer satisfaction, which, in turn, positively affect customer willingness to pay more. In addition, short-term perspective has a stronger impact than long-term perspective on intraorganizational employee navigation. Further, the effect of long-term perspective on customer satisfaction is strengthened by the innovation climate of the firm, whereas the effect of short-term perspective on customer satisfaction is weakened by it.     

JPSSM since the beginning: intellectual cornerstones,knowledge structure,and thematic developments

Bibliometric analyses are applied to 35,975 citations from 721 articles published in the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, spanning the journal’s first 35 years of existence (1980–2015). For each of three time periods (1980s, 1990s, and 2000s), the sales literature’s most influential article publications are objectively identified. Multidimensional scaling is then used to identify key intellectual themes across time. Based on the citation data, historical developments in the literature regarding (1) relationship marketing, (2) sales force technology, (3) sales force control systems, and (4) salesperson role stress are traced and briefly explored in some article-level depth. Co-citation trends and recently influential papers are used to identify opportunities for future research. Altogether, this paper presents a first-of-its-kind view of sales literature’s intellectual cornerstones, knowledge structure, and thematic developments over 35 years.     

Salesperson Ethical Decision Making: The Impact of Sales Leadership and Sales Management Control Strategy

Enhancing the moral behavior of salespeople is increasingly important, but difficult, in today’s fast-paced and complex selling environment. Sales organizations need to emphasize ethical codes of conduct, but must also address the potential impact of all sales management decisions on the ethical behavior of salespeople. We expand the focus on ethical codes to include an interpersonal dimension of sales organization ethical climate and the cognitive moral development of salespeople. Relationships among sales leadership and sales management control strategy, the structural and interpersonal dimensions of sales organization ethical climate, salesperson cognitive moral development, and salesperson moral judgment are discussed and specific propositions presented. These propositions suggest specific directions for future sales ethics research and have key implications for sales organizations.     

A Classification of Industrial Buyers: Implications for Sales Training

Abstract

Organizational buyer behavior literature, although abundant, tends to provide little help to sales practitioners in the way of identifying what kinds of buyers salespeople might encounter. This information should be especially useful in preparing sales personnel to call on prospects—they could tailor their sales call strategy to the kind of customer they call on. Little published research, however, has explored the kinds of industrial buyers. This paper (a) reports the results of a study that examined industrial buyer types, and (b) discusses sales training implications of dealing with each kind of buyer identified in the investigation.     

Generating and sharing of market intelligence in sales teams: an economic social network perspective

In this research, we take a multimethod approach to shed light on the potential costs to sales teams that generate and share market intelligence (MI). First, we introduce an analytical model to propose the respective levels of effort that sales managers, experts, and team members spend generating and sharing MI. To test our propositions, we utilize social network data from 40 independent, business-to-business (B2B) sales teams, representing 287 salespeople. Interestingly, our results support the premise that team members become dependent (reduce MI efforts) when their sales manager or team expert shares MI among the team. We term this a “sharing tax” that sales managers and team experts pay when they share MI. Consequently, sales managers demonstrate greater MI-generation efforts the more they share MI. We also find that experts who share more (less) also show greater (lesser) MI-generation efforts, but only for teams where sales managers share low (high) levels of MI. In summary, our research innovatively conducts an empirical test of the Nash Equilibrium pattern of sales team effort to show that two critical team members, the sales manager and expert, are at a disadvantage when they share valuable MI.     

Fostering collaborative mind-sets among customers: a transformative learning approach

To succeed and grow, companies must win new customers. However, selling innovative solutions to prospective business customers remains challenging. We seek to explore how salespeople create, early in the sales process, collaborative customer mind-sets to accommodate learning and adoption of new solutions. By applying transformative learning theory and analyzing authentic video-recorded business-to-business (B2B) initial sales meetings, we are able to determine the microlevel processes and mechanisms taking place in transformative sales dialogue. In this article, we outline seven interactional activities occurring in reflective dialogue cycles, a key means by which salespeople create new customer mind-sets. Reflective dialogue cycles form a spiral-shaped process requiring completion to achieve a shared new understanding favorable to adopting new approaches. Through our analysis, we demonstrate the value of transformative learning theory in better understanding sales interactions. Along with theoretical contributions, our results may help managers and salespeople better develop new business customers.     

Does Intraorganizational Network Embeddedness Improve Salespeople’s Effectiveness? A Task Contingency Perspective

Using a two-phase research methodology, this study investigates the relationship between salespeople’s intraorganizational network embeddedness and their sales effectiveness. Following the findings of the exploratory research, we first distinguish salespeople’s intraorganizational networks on the basis of their content—work versus social networks—and their tie activation frequency. Next, we focus on three main sales tasks, opportunity-identification, solution-creation, and closing the deal, and uncover that overcoming the challenges of each sales task requires mobilizing particular intraorganizational resources. We show that work and social networks give access to different sets of resources, and we develop a contingency model that explains which networks and network ties are likely to be more instrumental for salespeople’s effectiveness at each sales task. In the second phase of the research, we test the contingency model using a sociometric method. The results indicate that for effectiveness in opportunity-identification, social as opposed to work networks are most instrumental. For effectiveness in solution-creation, work rather than social networks are more critical. And for closing the deal, both work networks and social networks are important. Furthermore, salespeople who have frequently activated network ties are consistently more effective than salespeople who may have many ties but who activate them less frequently.