Intelligent Use of Emotions in Personal Selling: A Study into the Effect of Emotional Intelligence on the Performance of Sales Executives

School of Management Studies, Cochin University of Science and Technology

The personal selling and sales management ethics research : managerial implications and research directions from a comprehensive review of the empirical literature

Research into ethics in personal selling and sales management has increased substantially over the preceding decade by investigating complex dimensions of ethical decision-making in greater depth and with more analytical sophistication. This review of the recent conceptual and empirical literature provides insight into the extent and the direction of this knowledge, recommends managerial action, and discusses areas for future exploration. Future direction is also provided through research propositions. The type of sales practitioner investigated, the main variables examined, and the key findings are summarized in an Appendix.

Personal selling of high-technology products:the solutions-selling imperative

Traditional focus on the study of high-technology firms and products has practically ignored the importance and potential contributions of the sales force, especially in business-to-business marketing. This article suggests that traditional sales force strategies associated with high-technology products have been supply driven (i.e., driven by the strategies of the marketing firm). We suggest that in order to enhance the success of high-technology products and services, firms need to be more demand driven in their sales structures (i.e., driven by the strategies of the buying firm). We suggest that it is imperative that high-technology firms adopt “solution selling” to enhance high-technology adoption as well as enhance competitiveness. We describe this change in focus and draw out its various managerial and academic implications.

Revolution in sales:The impact of social media and related technology on the selling environment

Over the years several articles have tracked the impact of technology on various aspects of the sales domain. However, the advent of social media and technologies related to social media has gone largely unnoticed in the literature. This article first provides brief attention to changing aspects of technology within the sales environment, leading to the identification of social media as a dominant new selling tool. A qualitative approach (focus groups) is employed to explore the breadth of current technology usage by sales managers and salespeople. Analysis of the data, collected in the United States and the United Kingdom, reveals six major themes: connectivity, relationships, selling tools, generational, global, and sales/marketing interface. Results provide evidence of a revolution in the buyer-seller relationship that includes some unanticipated consequences both for sales organization performance and needed future research contributions.

International selling and sales management:sales force research beyond geographic boundaries

An introduction is presented for this issue which includes the articles "Internationalizing Sales Research: Current Status, Opportunities and Challenges" by Nikolaos G. Panagopoulos and colleagues, "Cultural Intelligence in Cross-Cultural Selling: Propositions and Directions for Future Research" by John D. Hansen and colleagues, and "A New Conceptual Framework of Sales Force Control Systems" by Ren Y. Darmon and Xavier C. Martin

Tracking and updating academic research in selling and sales management:a decade later

This study examines the state of academic research in selling and sales management (S&SM) from the years 2003-7, ten years after the data collected by Moncrief, Marshall, and Watkins (2000). Sales articles are reviewed that appeared in 19 marketing journals and evidence is provided on the state of the S&SM discipline by comparing the number of authors, authorships, and publications versus a comparable five-year period a decade ago. Of interest are the universities that produce and employ faculty in S&SM and to identify those schools and geographic regions that are publishing the majority of articles. Publication distribution trends across journals are also examined. A dramatic increase in non-U.S. authors and authorships is noted versus the prior study. Overall, the findings indicate that, perhaps contrary to some popular misconceptions, the state of S&SM research is healthy, vibrant, and evolving.

Individuals in a mass market environment: Australian bequest donors seek better communication from charities

Swelling social need and competing calls on government funds have heightened the philanthropic dollar’s value. Yet, Australia is not regarded as having a robust giving culture: while 86% of adults give, a mere 16% plan their giving with those who do donating four times as much as spontaneous givers (Giving Australia, 2005). Traditionally, the prime planned giving example is a charitable bequest, a revenue stream not prevalent here (Baker, 2007). In fact, Baker’s Victorian probate data shows under 5% of estates provide a charitable bequest and just over 1% of estate assets is bequeathed. The UK, in contrast, sources 30% and the US 10% of charitable income through bequests (NCVO, 2004; Sargeant, Wymer and Hilton,2006). Australian charities could boost bequest giving. Understanding the donor market, which has or may remember them in their will is critical. This paper reports donor perceptions of Australian charities’ bequest communication/ marketing. The data forms part of a wider study of Australian donors’ bequest attitudes and behaviour. Charities spend heavily on bequest promotion, from advertising to personal selling to public relations and promotion. Infrastructure funds are scarce so guidance on what works for donors is important. Guy and Patton (1988) made their classic call for a nonprofit marketing perspective and identify the need for charities to better understand the motivations and behaviour of their supporters. In similar vein, this study aims to improve the way nonprofits and givers interact; and ultimately, enhance the giving experience and thus multiply planned giving participation. Academically, it offers insights to Australian bequest motivations and attitudes not studied empirically before.

Strategic Sales Process Adaptation: Relationship Orientation of the Sales Process in a Business-to-Business Context

Although previous research has recognised adaptation as a central aspect in relationships, the adaptation of the sales process to the buying process has not been studied. Furthermore, the linking of relationship orientation as mindset with adaptation as a strategy and forming the means has not been elaborated upon in previous research. Adaptation in the context of relationships has mostly been studied in relationship marketing. In sales and sales management research, adaptation has been studied with reference to personal selling. This study focuses on adaptation of the sales process to strategically match it to the buyer’s mindset and buying process. The purpose of this study is to develop a framework for strategic adaptation of the seller’s sales process to match the buyer’s buying process in a business-to-business context to make sales processes more relationship oriented. In order to arrive at a holistic view of adaptation of the sales process during relationship initiation, both the seller and buyer are included in an extensive case analysed in the study. However, the selected perspective is primarily that of the seller, and the level focused on is that of the sales process. The epistemological perspective adopted is constructivism. The study is a qualitative one applying a retrospective case study, where the main sources of information are in-depth semi-structured interviews with key informants representing the counterparts at the seller and the buyer in the software development and telecommunications industries. The main theoretical contributions of this research involve targeting a new area in the crossroads of relationship marketing, sales and sales management, and buying and purchasing by studying adaptation in a business-to-business context from a new perspective. Primarily, this study contributes to research in sales and sales management with reference to relationship orientation and strategic sales process adaptation. This research fills three research gaps. Firstly, linking the relationship orientation mindset with adaptation as strategy. Secondly, extending adaptation in sales from adaptation in selling to strategic adaptation of the sales process. Thirdly, extending adaptation to include facilitation of adaptation. The approach applied in the study, systematic combining, is characterised by continuously moving back and forth between theory and empirical data. The framework that emerges, in which linking mindset with strategy with mindset and means forms a central aspect, includes three layers: purchasing portfolio, seller-buyer relationship orientation, and strategic sales process adaptation. Linking the three layers enables an analysis of where sales process adaptation can make a contribution. Furthermore, implications for managerial use are demonstrated, for example how sellers can avoid the ‘trap’ of ad-hoc adaptation. This includes involving the company, embracing the buyer’s purchasing portfolio, understanding the current position that the seller has in this portfolio, and possibly educating the buyer about advantages of adopting a relationship-oriented approach.

Drivers of sales performance: a contemporary meta-analysis. Have salespeople become knowledge brokers?

It has been 25 years since the publication of a comprehensive review of the full spectrum of salesperformance drivers. This study takes stock of the contemporary field and synthesizes empirical evidence from the period 1982–2008. The authors revise the classification scheme for sales performance determinants devised by Walker et al. (1977) and estimate both the predictive validity of its sub-categories and the impact of a range of moderators on determinant-sales performance relationships. Based on multivariate causal model analysis, the results make two major observations: (1) Five sub-categories demonstrate significant relationships with sales performance: selling-related knowledge (ß=.28), degree of adaptiveness (ß=.27), role ambiguity (ß=-.25), cognitive aptitude (ß=.23) and work engagement (ß=.23). (2) These sub-categories are moderated by measurement method, research context, and salestype variables. The authors identify managerial implications of the results and offer suggestions for further research, including the conjecture that as the world is moving toward a knowledge-intensive economy, salespeople could be functioning as knowledge-brokers. The results seem to back this supposition and indicate how it might inspire future research in the field of personal selling.

A technology market transfer for the Zonadvanced video technology

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Efectividad en las redes empresariales

Este estudio tiene como objetivo identificar cuáles son las variables que repercuten en la efectividad de las redes empresariales. Esto, con base en la búsqueda de literatura existente de la efectividad en equipos, en organizaciones y en las redes interorganizacionales, así como el análisis de modelos y estudios empíricos que permitieron el análisis. De acuerdo con la búsqueda, se encontró que variables como la estructura de la red, la estabilidad del sistema, el compromiso de los empleados en cada una de las organizaciones que hacen parte de la red, la confianza dentro de la red, la transferencia de conocimiento y la apertura del sistema son las variables que en conclusión, mostraron ser buenas predictoras de efectividad dentro de las redes empresariales.

Marketing position taxonomies : an empirical analysis

Despite the continuing need for an empirically validated classification of marketing positions, for theoretical and practical purposes, it appears that no such schema exists. This study contributes to the development of such a taxonomy through an empirical examination of marketing positions. Specifically, the research extends an existing taxonomy by empirically investigating personal selling marketing activities. Based on the taxonomy developed by Darmon (1998), data were collected about the information load, information complexity, and time and relationship management activities of marketers. Various analytical techniques were used to investigate specific features of the instrument and the taxonomy, as well as to provide convergence for the conclusions drawn by the researchers. It was established that sales positions can be more meaningfully identified, and, therefore, better categorised, by six dimensions than by job title or job role. Further, it appears that marketers in the same selling position vary significantly on these dimensions. These findings have important implications for marketing theory, applied research and management. However, future research should refine the instrument used in this study, since some anomalies emerged in the findings, and extend the study by investigating a wider range of marketing positions. Such research may also explore whether the dimensions identified in this study influence the performance and job satisfaction of marketers, and the extent to which marketing managers account for these variations.