Product Innovativeness,Customer Newness,and New Product Performance: A Time-Lagged Examination of the Impact of Salesperson Selling Intentions on New Product Performance

In this time-lagged study, we illuminate the role of the sales force in new product introductions by examining the impact of salespeople’s selling intentions on new product performance. Survey responses from 439 salespeople selling one product and 362 salespeople selling a second product suggest that salespeople’s selling intention is a key mediating variable. In particular, product innovativeness has a positive impact and customer newness has a negative impact on new product performance. However, both variables work indirectly through salespeople’s intention to sell new products. We conclude with managerial implications of our fi ndings and directions for future research.     

Gender Differences in Attitudes Toward Women as Sales Managers in the People's Republic of China

The present study promulgates a research stream in the area of understanding women's position in the management of the Chinese sales force. The study investigates attitudes toward women as sales managers held by Chinese salespeople. Male salespeople consistently rated the female sales managers lower than did female salespeople on three sets of attitude items. This finding indicates the presence of male resistance to women in sales management positions.     

Marketing Control and Sales Force Customer Orientation

This study is predicated on the premise that internal sales force control mechanisms are strategic and operational forces that directly affect the behaviors of the sales force and their accompanying orientation toward customers. Sales managers represent a very different component of the sales force than salespeople. Their motivations, interests, role, and methods of operations all represent different approaches than those embraced by their coworkers: salespeople. Yet, although sales managers operate under an outcome-based control system and can be expected, to some degree, to be motivated by selfinterest (Oliver and Anderson 1994), upper management expects managers to be directed by organizational needs. However, in a results-oriented environment, the foundation of many compensation systems, sales quotas can focus sellers and managers in a direction inconsistent with customer-oriented selling (particularly if this behavior is deemed necessary to achieve quota). Based on this premise, this study examines the influence of sales managers’ quotas on their response to salespeople’s unethical behavior and its resulting effect on the customer orientation of the sales force. To fully explore this condition, this study also examines the role of an important formal process control, the ethical climate (e.g., rules and regulations), in influencing customer orientation. Providing important implications to sales organizations, results indicat that sales quotas can negatively affect sales force customer orientation via their effect on sales managers’ responses to salespeople’s selling behaviors. Interestingly, however, the company’s ethical climate was found to positively influence sales force customer orientation.     

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.     

Microcomputer Applications: “Statistics: For the Rest of Us”

Training accurately predicted sales forces' performance nearly 50% of the time in a national research study of paper and plastics merchant wholesalers' sales force effectiveness. The top performing sales forces front-load the length of training for new salespeople and broaden its methods, sources, and contents. Managerial recommendations are to: (a) reallocate training budgets that balance new and experienced salespersons' training, (b) re-focus on training content to balance strategy-oriented training with knowledge and interpersonal communication skill areas of training content, (c) diversify training sources and methods for new salespersons' training, and (d) involve suppliers and customers in merchant sales force training.     

Managing Salesperson Motivation in a Territory Realignment

Although typically undertaken to improve aggregate sales force performance, the realignment of sales territories can be quite de-motivational to individual salespersons. Findings of two studies reported here demonstrate that salesperson motivation and performance can be positively influenced by the managerial actions taken during the implementation phase of a territory realignment. Actions based on expectancy theory were found to be more effective for salespeople whose territory realignment increased sales potential, and justice-based actions were more effective for salespersons experiencing a reduction in territory potential.     

The Role of Self-Regulation Training in Developing the Motivation Management Capabilities of Salespeople

Time management, goal setting, goal attainment strategies, prioritization techniques! These are some of the self-regulation skills that today’s sales organizations are attempting to develop in a sales force through self-regulation training. This study empirically investigates self-regulation training and how it can facilitate salesperson performance. Findings suggest that self-regulatory training can enhance salesperson self-regulation capabilities, decrease role ambiguity, and thereby aid sales performance. Furthermore, our findings suggest that the value of self-regulation training may not be uniform across all sales trainees. Specifically, self-regulation training may be more beneficial to salespeople after they have developed a level of mastery over fundamental core selling capabilities.     

Sales Management’s Influence on Employment and Training in Developing an Ethical Sales Force

Because it is believed sales performance can be enhanced through ethical behaviors, increasingly, emphasis is being placed on understanding unethical behaviors among key customer-contact employees and the environment in which these sales professionals engage clients. In this context, understanding how the direct supervision of the sales force (sales managers) can shape the ethical behavior of salespeople may be a critical controllable key to understanding unethical sales behaviors that offers upper management strategic opportunities to enrich customer relationships. In this framework of understanding unethical sales behaviors, 240 sales managers were surveyed to determine their impact on unethical sales behaviors. The results indicate that although the overall ethical climate influences ethical attitudes of sales managers, importantly, these managerial attitudes impact ethical training and hiring evaluations of the sales force. Further, the positive relationship found between the ethical attitudes of sales managers and their hiring evaluation criteria affects unethical sales force behaviors. Detailed implications of the results are presented in the study.     

Sales Technologies,Sales Force Management,and Online Infomediaries

An information intermediary (or infomediary) is an online firm that plays an important role in the information component of a transaction but not in the logistics component. Infomediary sales channels in which leads that originate online are converted to sales by an offline sales force are particularly important in areas such as automobile retailing, real estate, insurance, mortgages, and many other contexts. This research examines the role of sales technologies and the organization of the sales force in creating value for infomediary sales channels, formally examining channel outcomes using an analytical model and empirically examining channel outcomes using a survey of 678 automobile dealerships. The analyses indicate that adoption of sales technologies for lead management and channel-specific salespeople influence leads purchased (from infomediaries) and infomediary channel sales for the retailer. These findings integrate important technologies from outside the organization (infomediaries) and technologies and management structures inside the organization (sales technologies for lead management and channel-specific salespeople) into an understanding of retailer use of infomediary channels. These findings also suggest that it is in the best interest of infomediaries to offer sales technology and services to retailers, bundling information products with technologies for channel management.     

Increasing Sales Productivity by Getting Salespeople To Work Smarter

Recent research indicates that sales productivity can be substantially improved if salespeople place more emphasis on an aspect of working smarter, i.e., practice adaptive selling. This paper suggests ten approaches that sales managers can use to improve sales performance by encouraging and assisting their salespeople to practice adaptive selling.     

Psychological ethical climate,leader–member exchange and commitment to superior customer value: influencing salespeople’s unethical intent and sales performance

In today’s competitive environment, salespeople are challenged with creating customer value in an ethical manner while meeting performance goals. Sales supervisors play a critical role in ensuring that this challenge is met. This research examines the roles of psychological ethical climate and leader–member exchange (LMX) in encouraging salespeople’s commitment to providing superior customer value, reducing their unethical intentions and improving sales performance. Results indicate that business-to-business salespeople’s psychological ethical climate perceptions influence their perceived relationship with their sales supervisor (i.e. LMX relationship) as well as their commitment to providing superior customer value. LMX also directly influences commitment to providing superior customer value, which in turn affects salespeople’s unethical intent and quota performance. Theoretical and managerial implications based on the study’s findings are provided, as well as directions for future research.     

Role Ambiguity,Role Conflict,and Performance: Empirical Evidence of an Inverted‑U Relationship

The traditional view of the relationship between role stressors (role ambiguity and role confict) and performance is contrasted with a perspective that has received relatively little attention. Some sales force scholars have suggested that the relationship between role stressors and job outcomes might mirror the inverted-U relationship between actual felt stress and performance (e.g., Yerkes–Dodson’s law, activation theory). The empirical evidence they reported is inconclusive: the hypothesis with respect to performance is not supported. Nevertheless, many sales force management textbooks maintain that an inverted-U relationship exists. Based on a survey of 1,290 salespeople, the present research demonstrates that an inverted-U relationship, similar to that posited by Yerkes–Dodson’s law, is indeed plausible. Furthermore, this relationship appears to be moderated by organizational tenure and proactive tendencies.     

Selling and Sales Management in Action Examining the Bases Utilized for Evaluating Salespeoples' Performance

Evaluating salespeoples' performance is an important task for sales managers. However, little is known about what bases are used by sales managers to evaluate the performance of their salespeople. A study was conducted to determine the bases actually used by sales managers and the results were compared with a study conducted in 1983. Findings indicate more emphasis on profit and cost control, a continued reliance on qualitative measures, and a wide variety of bases being utilized to evaluate the performance of salespeople. Furthermore, the stability of results, across a wide variety of respondent job titles as well as business types and sizes, indicates a good deal of generalizability to other firms.     

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.     

The Impact of Realistic Job Previews and Perceptions of Training on Sales Force Performance and Continuance Commitment: A Longitudinal Test

This study uses a an adaptation of the Dubinsky et al. (1986) socialization framework to test the impact of realistic job previews and perceptions of training on sales force performance and continuance commitment. Seven hundred sixty-two insurance salespeople in 54 companies were surveyed four times over a two-year period. The findings indicate that the socialization of new recruits should be focused on two parallel tracks: factors that primarily influence performance and those that primarily influence turnover.     

Moral Philosophy,Ethical Evaluations,and Sales Manager Hiring Intentions

A growing body of evidence shows an influence of moral philosophies on ethical decision-making. Despite the importance of ethical considerations in sales force selection, the influence of sales managers’ ethical evaluations on hiring practices has received scant attention. This study examines sales managers’ ideological orientations, ethical evaluations of hypothetical salespeople portrayed in scenarios, and the effect of such evaluations on the intent to hire salespeople. Results of a cluster analysis highlight that four ideology-based segments of sales managers exist, with absolutists dominating the 268 sales executives surveyed. Furthermore, it was found that ideological relativism influences managers’ judgments of ethical behavior and hiring intentions, but idealism did not play a role. In turn, ethical judgments of justness, fairness, moral rightness, and acceptability influence hiring intentions.     

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.     

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.     

Sales Force Activities and Marketing Strategies in Industrial Firms: Relationships and Implications

This study explores the role of the sales force in formulating and executing marketing strategies. Specifically, the relationships between sales force activities such as providing information about customer needs, hiring and training salespeople, and assessing new market segments and four marketing strategies (market penetration, product development, market development, diversification) are examined. Results indicate that the use of sales force activities is related to a firm's strategic choices, and that the relationships vary by firm size and type of offering.