Several studies suggest that accelerating technology, increasing product complexity, and an expan... more Several studies suggest that accelerating technology, increasing product complexity, and an expanding volume of information in the marketplace are changing sales roles, necessitating a review of the current sales skills required for success. Using mixed methods, we examine the skills required of contemporary B2B salespeople. First, we draw on unique data from 3.8 million LinkedIn job postings to examine which skills sales recruiters are seeking in new hires. Whilst confirming the importance of previously researched sales skills, this identified a sales skill largely disregarded by the extant literature: salesperson analytical skills. We triangulated these findings through interviews with 20 sales executives and developed a scale to measure this new analytical skills construct. Then, to test the scale's predictive and nomological validity, we used survey data from 251 business-to-business salespeople. Results reveal that salesperson analytical skills have both a direct and a moderating effect on sales performance across varying selling situations. ☆ We acknowledge and thank Adam Rapp, Justin Shriber, and Fred Han for their early contributions to, and recommendations for, the research. We also thank LinkedIn and the Canadian Professional Sales Association for their research collaboration. This work was supported by Mitacs through the Mitacs Accelerate Program (IT18920).
Retail sales has consistently faced threats by technology throughout history, with the recent adv... more Retail sales has consistently faced threats by technology throughout history, with the recent advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) posing the most recent challenge. It is often said that because of new technologies, retail salespeople will disappear. In this article, we challenge this assertion by arguing that humans and technology each possess unique strengths and weaknesses, and that each works to affect the customer experience in distinct ways. Specifically, AI elevates the baseline customer experience by improving service consistency, operational efficiency, and multitasking capabilities, thereby "raising the floor" of the customer experience while human salespeople, possessing unique strengths in building customer relationships, showcasing adaptive creativity, and adhering to ethical considerations, expand the upper limits of potential customer experiences thereby "raising the ceiling" of the customer experience. We propose a synergistic future where AI and human salespeople complement each other, with human potential ultimately prevailing in delivering a superior customer experience that can be approximated, but not fully replicated by AI. Building upon this premise, we present real-world examples of retailers that embody these synergies, and we advocate and assess these instances through the lens of the "seven Cs" representing core customer experience needs: (1) curation, (2) customization, (3) community, (4) cost, (5) customer retailtainment, (6) convenience, and (7) category expertise. Finally, we discuss managerial considerations and propose directions for future research.
Depression is an important and prevalent issue often overlooked in the sales literature. Although... more Depression is an important and prevalent issue often overlooked in the sales literature. Although prior research provides evidence that depression negatively impacts a variety of job-related outcomes, little is known about the factors that can mitigate such relationships-particularly that between depression and salesperson performance over time. To remedy this, we draw on Job Demands-Resources theory and propose a unique framework that examines job resources (i.e., work adaptability, family work support, and supervisor support) that may mitigate the negative effects of depression. Using salesperson surveys matched with objective sales performance data during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., January, February, and March 2020), we show that depression is negatively related to salesperson performance over time, work adaptability and family work support both mitigate the negative effects of depression, and contrary to expectations, supervisor support aggravates the relationship between depression and performance for a time but helps boost performance at the end of the observation window. The article's broader contribution is that depression is a crucial issue to consider and that sales managers should pay special attention to job resources that may mitigate the negative relationship between depression and salesperson performance over time.
Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 2023
selling is often associated with competitiveness, which has led many scholars to examine trait co... more selling is often associated with competitiveness, which has led many scholars to examine trait competitiveness as a driver of salesperson performance. however, it is also suggested that competitiveness contributes to less cohesive work environments which can have adverse effects on firms and their stakeholders. the authors explore this dichotomy by first conducting a field study utilizing multilevel, multisource data acquired from 358 salespeople working at 86 offices of a large company. Using Mplus, the authors employ a 1-2-1 multilevel model to test the effects of trait competitiveness on work group cohesion, along with subsequent effects on sales performance and turnover. Findings reveal a surprising positive relationship between trait competitiveness and work group cohesion, with the latter reducing turnover likelihood. thus, trait competitiveness has indirect effects, through work group cohesion, in reducing turnover, while having direct and positive effects on sales performance. Results of a follow-up qualitative study reveal that the positive relationship between trait competitiveness and work group cohesion can be attributed to the competitive focus (i.e. interpersonal, intergroup, or intrapersonal) of the individuals within the sales organization. Overall, this work shows that organizations can have both competitive salespeople and cohesive work environments, contributing beneficially toward sales output and turnover.
People with the personality traits of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy (i.e., the "d... more People with the personality traits of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy (i.e., the "dark triad") are prevalent in the sales profession. Yet research into sales performance drivers tends to focus on positive personality traits. The authors examine the dark triad's effect on salesperson performance and reveal some conditioning factors that influence these links. A longitudinal study that pairs surveys and objective performance data from a national insurance agency reveals the complex effects of dark triad traits on performance over time. Another study, based on data from a direct sales organization and employing social network analysis, relies on partial least squares structural equation modeling to determine the role that the social structure plays in conditioning the relationship between dark triad traits and performance. The results yield insights into both the challenges and the opportunities that dark traits present for managers and scholars.
Customer engagement (CE) reflects the increased ease with which business-to-consumers (B2C) custo... more Customer engagement (CE) reflects the increased ease with which business-to-consumers (B2C) customers can engage with firms and other customers outside of face-to-face interactions. However, increased customer engagement brings with it uncertainty regarding the future of B2C salespeople. Traditionally, salespeople have been a firm’s primary method of engaging customers, but with customers now entering sales interactions highly engaged, the question is, are B2C salespeople still needed? To explore this timely issue, a focus group is employed and themes are developed, which interestingly run counter to suggestions in the literature that salespeople should act as “knowledge brokers” to create value with their customers. In fact, the findings indicate that face-to-face interaction may actually impede, rather than create, value. The chapter concludes by presenting theory-based solutions to this problem.
Relationships inside the company help boost sales performance, write Willy Bolander and Cinthia S... more Relationships inside the company help boost sales performance, write Willy Bolander and Cinthia Satornino
Despite the large body of research that examines the determinants of salesperson performance, sig... more Despite the large body of research that examines the determinants of salesperson performance, significant variation exists regarding how scholars can operationalize salesperson performance using secondary, firm-provided data. Moreover, this variation often exists without explanation or justification. We explore the issue in three parts. First, we conduct practitioner surveys to discover various salesperson performance operationalizations (SPOs) in use by salespeople and sales managers. Second, using a carefully constructed and theoretically driven evaluative framework, we conduct a systematic review of the literature on salesperson performance that encompasses over thirty years of empirical research on the subject; this review allows us to better understand the SPOs that scholars use. Third, we compare these practitioner and scholarly perspectives to create a comprehensive conceptual model of the different types of SPOs. The model highlights theoretical insights and provides guidance to scholars and reviewers related to the selection of appropriate SPOs for meeting specific research objectives.
It is no secret that the consumer journey produces retail consumers who have varying levels of su... more It is no secret that the consumer journey produces retail consumers who have varying levels of subjective knowledge about a purchase prior to a retail interaction. This observation leads to a common conclusion that the need for frontline employees (FLEs) in retail environments is diminishing. Nevertheless, retailers invest heavily in staffing and training FLEs. As such, understanding pre-encounter subjective knowledge and how FLEs should address it is critical, yet the topic is largely overlooked in the marketing literature. Thus, we investigate consumer subjective knowledge via an information diagnosticity lens to provide guidance on how subjective knowledge operates when the information in question is scarce/known, tacit/explicit, and specific/general. The results of three experiments reveal consumers can be classified as traditional, well-calibrated, or poorly-calibrated based on their subjective knowledge prior to meeting with an FLE – with each type requiring different FLE approaches to improve both consumers’ willingness to buy and acceptance of FLE recommendations.
Several studies suggest that accelerating technology, increasing product complexity, and an expan... more Several studies suggest that accelerating technology, increasing product complexity, and an expanding volume of information in the marketplace are changing sales roles, necessitating a review of the current sales skills required for success. Using mixed methods, we examine the skills required of contemporary B2B salespeople. First, we draw on unique data from 3.8 million LinkedIn job postings to examine which skills sales recruiters are seeking in new hires. Whilst confirming the importance of previously researched sales skills, this identified a sales skill largely disregarded by the extant literature: salesperson analytical skills. We triangulated these findings through interviews with 20 sales executives and developed a scale to measure this new analytical skills construct. Then, to test the scale's predictive and nomological validity, we used survey data from 251 business-to-business salespeople. Results reveal that salesperson analytical skills have both a direct and a moderating effect on sales performance across varying selling situations. ☆ We acknowledge and thank Adam Rapp, Justin Shriber, and Fred Han for their early contributions to, and recommendations for, the research. We also thank LinkedIn and the Canadian Professional Sales Association for their research collaboration. This work was supported by Mitacs through the Mitacs Accelerate Program (IT18920).
Retail sales has consistently faced threats by technology throughout history, with the recent adv... more Retail sales has consistently faced threats by technology throughout history, with the recent advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) posing the most recent challenge. It is often said that because of new technologies, retail salespeople will disappear. In this article, we challenge this assertion by arguing that humans and technology each possess unique strengths and weaknesses, and that each works to affect the customer experience in distinct ways. Specifically, AI elevates the baseline customer experience by improving service consistency, operational efficiency, and multitasking capabilities, thereby "raising the floor" of the customer experience while human salespeople, possessing unique strengths in building customer relationships, showcasing adaptive creativity, and adhering to ethical considerations, expand the upper limits of potential customer experiences thereby "raising the ceiling" of the customer experience. We propose a synergistic future where AI and human salespeople complement each other, with human potential ultimately prevailing in delivering a superior customer experience that can be approximated, but not fully replicated by AI. Building upon this premise, we present real-world examples of retailers that embody these synergies, and we advocate and assess these instances through the lens of the "seven Cs" representing core customer experience needs: (1) curation, (2) customization, (3) community, (4) cost, (5) customer retailtainment, (6) convenience, and (7) category expertise. Finally, we discuss managerial considerations and propose directions for future research.
Depression is an important and prevalent issue often overlooked in the sales literature. Although... more Depression is an important and prevalent issue often overlooked in the sales literature. Although prior research provides evidence that depression negatively impacts a variety of job-related outcomes, little is known about the factors that can mitigate such relationships-particularly that between depression and salesperson performance over time. To remedy this, we draw on Job Demands-Resources theory and propose a unique framework that examines job resources (i.e., work adaptability, family work support, and supervisor support) that may mitigate the negative effects of depression. Using salesperson surveys matched with objective sales performance data during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., January, February, and March 2020), we show that depression is negatively related to salesperson performance over time, work adaptability and family work support both mitigate the negative effects of depression, and contrary to expectations, supervisor support aggravates the relationship between depression and performance for a time but helps boost performance at the end of the observation window. The article's broader contribution is that depression is a crucial issue to consider and that sales managers should pay special attention to job resources that may mitigate the negative relationship between depression and salesperson performance over time.
Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 2023
selling is often associated with competitiveness, which has led many scholars to examine trait co... more selling is often associated with competitiveness, which has led many scholars to examine trait competitiveness as a driver of salesperson performance. however, it is also suggested that competitiveness contributes to less cohesive work environments which can have adverse effects on firms and their stakeholders. the authors explore this dichotomy by first conducting a field study utilizing multilevel, multisource data acquired from 358 salespeople working at 86 offices of a large company. Using Mplus, the authors employ a 1-2-1 multilevel model to test the effects of trait competitiveness on work group cohesion, along with subsequent effects on sales performance and turnover. Findings reveal a surprising positive relationship between trait competitiveness and work group cohesion, with the latter reducing turnover likelihood. thus, trait competitiveness has indirect effects, through work group cohesion, in reducing turnover, while having direct and positive effects on sales performance. Results of a follow-up qualitative study reveal that the positive relationship between trait competitiveness and work group cohesion can be attributed to the competitive focus (i.e. interpersonal, intergroup, or intrapersonal) of the individuals within the sales organization. Overall, this work shows that organizations can have both competitive salespeople and cohesive work environments, contributing beneficially toward sales output and turnover.
People with the personality traits of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy (i.e., the "d... more People with the personality traits of Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy (i.e., the "dark triad") are prevalent in the sales profession. Yet research into sales performance drivers tends to focus on positive personality traits. The authors examine the dark triad's effect on salesperson performance and reveal some conditioning factors that influence these links. A longitudinal study that pairs surveys and objective performance data from a national insurance agency reveals the complex effects of dark triad traits on performance over time. Another study, based on data from a direct sales organization and employing social network analysis, relies on partial least squares structural equation modeling to determine the role that the social structure plays in conditioning the relationship between dark triad traits and performance. The results yield insights into both the challenges and the opportunities that dark traits present for managers and scholars.
Customer engagement (CE) reflects the increased ease with which business-to-consumers (B2C) custo... more Customer engagement (CE) reflects the increased ease with which business-to-consumers (B2C) customers can engage with firms and other customers outside of face-to-face interactions. However, increased customer engagement brings with it uncertainty regarding the future of B2C salespeople. Traditionally, salespeople have been a firm’s primary method of engaging customers, but with customers now entering sales interactions highly engaged, the question is, are B2C salespeople still needed? To explore this timely issue, a focus group is employed and themes are developed, which interestingly run counter to suggestions in the literature that salespeople should act as “knowledge brokers” to create value with their customers. In fact, the findings indicate that face-to-face interaction may actually impede, rather than create, value. The chapter concludes by presenting theory-based solutions to this problem.
Relationships inside the company help boost sales performance, write Willy Bolander and Cinthia S... more Relationships inside the company help boost sales performance, write Willy Bolander and Cinthia Satornino
Despite the large body of research that examines the determinants of salesperson performance, sig... more Despite the large body of research that examines the determinants of salesperson performance, significant variation exists regarding how scholars can operationalize salesperson performance using secondary, firm-provided data. Moreover, this variation often exists without explanation or justification. We explore the issue in three parts. First, we conduct practitioner surveys to discover various salesperson performance operationalizations (SPOs) in use by salespeople and sales managers. Second, using a carefully constructed and theoretically driven evaluative framework, we conduct a systematic review of the literature on salesperson performance that encompasses over thirty years of empirical research on the subject; this review allows us to better understand the SPOs that scholars use. Third, we compare these practitioner and scholarly perspectives to create a comprehensive conceptual model of the different types of SPOs. The model highlights theoretical insights and provides guidance to scholars and reviewers related to the selection of appropriate SPOs for meeting specific research objectives.
It is no secret that the consumer journey produces retail consumers who have varying levels of su... more It is no secret that the consumer journey produces retail consumers who have varying levels of subjective knowledge about a purchase prior to a retail interaction. This observation leads to a common conclusion that the need for frontline employees (FLEs) in retail environments is diminishing. Nevertheless, retailers invest heavily in staffing and training FLEs. As such, understanding pre-encounter subjective knowledge and how FLEs should address it is critical, yet the topic is largely overlooked in the marketing literature. Thus, we investigate consumer subjective knowledge via an information diagnosticity lens to provide guidance on how subjective knowledge operates when the information in question is scarce/known, tacit/explicit, and specific/general. The results of three experiments reveal consumers can be classified as traditional, well-calibrated, or poorly-calibrated based on their subjective knowledge prior to meeting with an FLE – with each type requiring different FLE approaches to improve both consumers’ willingness to buy and acceptance of FLE recommendations.
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