Eli Jones

The Changing Environment of Selling and Sales Management

New developments and trends in selling and sales management are creating demands and opportunities that require adaptation and new approaches on the part of both sales organizations and academic researchers. This paper summarizes critical dimensions of change in the environment that affect the practice of selling and sales management and introduces the papers that follow in this Anniversary Special Issue of JPSSM.

The Attenuating Effect of Role Overload on Relationships Linking Self-Efficacy and Goal Level to Work Performance

The reported research examines the moderating effects of role overload on the antecedents and consequences of self-efficacy and personal goal level in a longitudinal study conducted in an industrial selling context. The results indicate that role overload moderates the antecedent effect of perceived organizational resources on self-efficacy beliefs. They also show that role overload moderates the direct effects of both self-efficacy and goal level on performance, such that these relationships are positive when role overload is low but not significant when role overload is high. Further, the results reveal a pattern of moderated mediation, in which goal level mediates the indirect effect of self-efficacy on performance when role overload is low but not when it is high. Implications for theory and managerial practice are discussed.

Key Accounts and Team Selling: A Review, Framework, and Research Agenda

As sales organizations increase their reliance on sales teams, they must learn how organizational and interpersonal relationships influence sales teams, how sales teams play a learning role for organizations, and what makes sales teams effective. Presenting a model of interrelationships among members of the selling firm and between the selling and buying firms, we identify five key team selling relationships between (1) members of the same team, (2) members of different teams within the firm, (3) the selling team and the buying center, (4) the selling team and other groups in the selling firm, and (5) the selling team and the firm’s strategy. This model leads to a conceptual framework highlighting relationship drivers, factors, and outcomes instrumental to team selling success. After presenting propositions for future research, theoretical and methodological suggestions are included to facilitate research in this area. We conclude with perspectives on the future of research and practice in key accounts and team selling.

Factors Leading to Sales Force Automation Use: A Longitudinal Analysis

Motivating the sales force to adopt and use sales force automation (SFA) technology remains an issue. If salespeople are not committed to the selling organizations technology strategies, customer alliances are hindered. Survey data were collected from a national sales force before and after the introduction of an SFA application. The results of this study indicate that salesperson attitudes (Perceived Usefulness, Attitude Toward the New System, and Compatibility) have an impact on intention to use new SFA systems prior to implementation. However, Personal Innovativeness, Attitude Toward the New System, and Facilitating Conditions have more of an effect on infusion of new SFA systems.

Motivating Salespeople to Sell New Products: The Relative Influence of Attitudes, Subjective Norms, and Self-Efficacy

This research explores the relative influence of salespeoples attitudes toward selling a new product, perceptions of subjective norms, and self-efficacy on the development of selling intentions and, ultimately, the success of a new product launch. The longitudinal study employs a nonlinear growth curve model that leverages survey data from industrial salespeople and objective performance records of their daily sales during the first several months in the market of two new products: a new-to-market product and a line extension. By examining salesperson-level variance on new product performance, the authors suggest that managers should focus on increasing salesperson self-efficacy and positive attitudes toward selling the product to build selling intentions and quickly grow new product performance. They also suggest that sales managers should resist the temptation to rely on normative pressure during a new product introduction. Not only are subjective norms less effective in building selling intentions, but they also diminish the positive impact of attitudes and self-efficacy on salesperson intentions and constrain the positive relationships between intentions and performance and self-efficacy and performance.

Organizational Readiness for Change, Individual Fear of Change, and Sales Manager Performance: An Empirical Investigation

Sales organizations are experiencing a period of increasing change in the marketplace. Consequently, firms must strive to develop and implement successful change initiatives. Previous research has had limited success in explaining the factors that are associated with successful versus unsuccessful change initiatives. This study examines perceptions of an organization’s readiness for change and individual fear of change as they relate to individual performance. Three hundred and fortythree sales managers from several industries participated in this study. A significant positive association was found between a sales manager’s perception of his or her organization’s readiness for change and his or her own job performance. When taking into consideration a sales manager’s fear of change, the aforementioned relationship between perceived organizational readiness for change and sales manager job performance is enhanced. Implications for academicians and practitioners are provided along with directions for future research.

The role of environmental turbulence, readiness for change, and salesperson learning in the success of sales force change

Todays sales forces are under pressure to change or risk becoming extinct. Changes in the business marketplace have accelerated the need for salespeople to learn continuously. The purpose of this paper is to examine readiness for change in a sales force context. Change is presumed to be initiated in response to some galvanizing event in the business environment. Business turbulence requires recognition of the need for change by members of the sales organization. We discuss the sales forces perceptions of a sales organizations readiness for change and propose that these perceptions impact the organizations change success. Furthermore, an organizations culture, climate, and policies are proposed as key drivers of an organizations readiness for change. Sales force perceptions of organizational readiness for change are then posited to be related to several measures of change success. The paper concludes with a call for more research on salespersons learning orientation and sales organizational readiness for change as keys to sales performance.

Organizational and individual learning in the sales force: an agenda for sales research

Abstract In todays marketplace, change is a given, and learning is a critical component to the success of change initiatives. In recent years, marketing scholars have proposed that learning is a key to creating a sustainable competitive advantage and enhancing business performance. This article addresses the issue of learning and attempts to establish learning as a legitimate variable for study as it relates to sales force management. To that end, the authors have endeavored to provide, through the positing of propositions, a research agenda for the examination of learning in a sales force context. The authors provide a review of the pertinent literature on individual and organizational learning. Included in the presentation is a discussion of change success measures that go beyond the traditional measure of sales force success—sales volume. In the article, propositions relating various organizational and individual variables to organizational and individual salesperson learning are presented.

Key Account Management: Adding Elements of Account Fit to an Integrative Theoretical Framework

A growing scholarly interest in key account management highlights the need for a framework to use in the study of these accounts. This study combines theory from relationship marketing, personal selling, and organizational-level resource allocation studies to build an integrative theoretical framework explaining both relational and performance aspects of key accounts. In building this integrative model, a qualitative study of key account managers revealed that “fit” between the buying and selling company is of great importance. This concept of fit, which has largely been ignored in key account studies, is added as both an antecedent and a moderator in the integrative model.

Creating a partnership‐oriented, knowledge creation culture in strategic sales alliances: a conceptual framework

Learning is at the crux of strategic alliance success today. The notion that alliances produce synergy implicitly means that alliance partners and employees must learn from the new environment created by the joining of two or more companies. Often, the sales force is overlooked in academic research concerning alliances. This is unfortunate, because the sales force is the “eyes and ears” for the alliance partners and can facilitate the learning process. Proposes a conceptual framework that captures learning at the interorganizational and individual salesperson levels. The research adds to the growing interest in organizational learning and strategic alliances, and it creates the groundwork for an interorganizational learning theory concerning the blending of two or more sales organizations.