Sales Force Automation Systems and Sales Force Productivity

Abstract

Salespeople are in a unique position of being in very close proximity to customers and thus have the ability to create and maintain long-term relationships with them. Sales force automation systems (SFA) have the ability to help or hinder this relationship building process. This article looks at SFA and its impact on sales force productivity. Much of the current research in the area of SFA seems to focus on efficiency issues within the firm, with particular attention being paid to technology implementation and reasons for high SFA failure rates. The authors review past literature and identify potential areas for future research by creating and presenting a research agenda. Many of the future research areas lie in the realm of effectiveness of SFA rather than the efficiency side of SFA. Although efficiency is still of great importance to SFA researchers and practitioners, the customer or relationship focus of SFA effectiveness is also needed.     

正式控制对销售绩效的影响机制研究--一个被中介的调节作用模型

基于目标设定理论,构建了一个被中介的调节作用模型,探讨正式控制(包括结果控制和行为控制)对销售人员绩效的影响。实证结果表明：结果控制、行为控制分别与销售绩效显著正相关;结果控制与行为控制对销售绩效有交互的影响效应,结果控制与行为控制较强时,销售绩效更高;销售人员的顾客导向行为对上述交互效应与销售绩效的关系起部分中介作用。本研究的结论说明销售管理者需要通过结果控制为下属设置目标,配合使用行为控制提供反馈,从而激发销售人员迎合顾客需求的销售行为,提升其销售绩效。     

The Myth of the Salesperson: Intended and Unintended Consequences of Product-Specific Sales Incentives

Product-specific sales incentives (PSIs), or "spiffs," have instigated conflict in business and sales for more than fifty years. PSIs are exactly what they sound like: incentives offered by manufacturers to salespeople to encourage them to promote certain products above those of competitors. PSIs have provoked considerable controversy. They are sometimes likened to "bribes," in that their purpose is to motivate salespeople to offer advice that might contradict what they would otherwise recommend. If a salesperson's job is to sell an array of products, how is it equitable for him or her to receive additional compensation for selling certain products above others? In addition, how are we to justify the bias that the presence of PSIs introduces into the selling process. There is concern that this causes negative consequences for stakeholders, including manufacturers, retailers, salespeople, and, of course, customers. How does this affect the competitive process?The research conducted explores the reaction to PSIs by people of different ages. It reveals a correlation between age, education, and reaction to PSIs. The findings correspond with the Josephson Institute of Ethics report, which found that younger adults tend to exhibit higher tolerance for unethical behavior. Examination of PSIs, like other sales incentives, reveals intentional and unintentional consequences to a wide array of stakeholders. The research indicates that there is value inherent in considering both the propriety and manner of implementation of sales incentives, such as PSIs.     

An Emotion-Based Model of Salesperson Ethical Behaviors

Academic research studies examining the ethical attitudes and behaviors of salespeople have produced several frameworks that explore the ethical decision-making processes to which salespeople adhere when faced with ethical dilemmas. Past literature enriches our understanding; however, a critical review of the relevant literature suggests that an emotional route to salesperson ethical decision-making has yet to be explored. Given the fact that individuals?? emotional capacities play an important role in decision-making when faced with an ethical dilemma, there is a need for empirical research in this area. We address this issue by outlining and testing an emotion-based model to study the ethical attitudes and behaviors of salespeople in a relational selling context. Building on the cognitive-affective model proposed by Gaudine and Thorne (J Bus Ethics 31:175?C187, 2001), we outline a framework that incorporates higher order prosocial emotions: capacity for concern and capacity for guilt. We include salesperson??s role clarity within the organization as a moderator to examine person?Csituation interaction.     

An Econometric Model for the Sales Impact of Supermarket Price Promotions

No abstract available for this article.     

The Impact of the Great Recession on Financial Services Advertising: An Exploratory Study

We explore how advertising managers of financial services organizations have responded to the repercussions of the Great Recession in their advertising strategies. To this end, we compare print ads for financial services that appeared in six magazines at two periods in time: 2005, prior to the Great Recession and 2010, after the end of the Great Recession. We content analyzed 755 prints ads and found major differences in the advertising strategies from prerecession to postrecession, particularly in the type of appeals. We further examined these strategic shifts by audience focus (business-to-business and business-to-consumer) and gender focus (male, female, or both).     

反向服务外包对我国生产率的影响——生产性服务业的实证分析

本文在服务外包的背景下,在生产性服务业中定量分析了反向服务外包对我国生产率的影响。数据样本选择2004-2009年18个行业的面板数据,并利用2002年和2007年的投入产出表定量计算了我国生产性服务投入以及反向服务外包和当地服务外包的规模。本文的结论是:由于我国服务外包尚处于初级阶段且规模较低,因此反向服务外包对我国生产率产生了负向影响,同时本文也证明了反向服务外包对未来生产率的负向影响会逐渐减少,甚至可能为正;反向服务外包的变化对未来生产率变化的影响为正,因此扩大其规模有助于降低目前的负向影响。同时,本文也得到了行业层面的结论,这些结论有助于我国进一步发展服务外包。     

An Exploratory Study of the Impact of Non-Commodity-Specific Agricultural Promotion Campaigns on Consumer Purchasing Patterns

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the possible impact of the “California Grown” campaign on consumer purchasing patterns. This advertising and public relations program was designed to encourage residents of the State to purchase more agricultural products grown in California.

The analysis reviewed the results of various market research studies conducted before, during, and after the Campaign and evaluated the extent to which the Campaign may have resulted in increased purchasing of agricultural products grown in California. The findings suggest that the advertising and public relations efforts had favorable/positive impacts on consumer attitudes, preferences for, purchase intent, and purchase action among those who were aware of the Campaign.     

The Independent Sales Contractor and Relationship Quality: An Exploratory Study of Relational Attitudes and Behavioral-Intention

Since the turn of the century, independent sales contractors have emerged as an important and growing sales and distribution channel. This study, guided by theories of attitude-behavior relation, constructs and tests a conceptual independent sales contractors (ISC) relationship quality scale. The findings support the proposition that relationship quality is a composite of attitudes and behavioral intentions. The work provides theoretical and practical implications, as well as suggestions for future research.     

A Typology of Situational Factors: Impact on Salesperson Decision-Making about Ethical Issues

We explore two dimensions of situational factors expected to influence decision-making about ethical issues among sales representatives – universal vs. particular and direct vs. indirect. We argue that these distinctions are important theoretically, methodologically, and managerially. We test our hypotheses by means of a survey of 252 sales representatives. Our results confirm that considering universal and particular and direct and indirect situational factors contributes to our understanding of decision-making about ethical issues within a sales context, specifically willingness to engage in an unethical act. We also find that personal factors act independently and interact with situational factors in decision-making about ethical issues. Both demographic factors, age and gender, and personality factors, Machiavellianism and self-monitoring, have main effects on decision-making, and some of these factors interact with situational factors to affect decision-making. For example, age of the decision-maker (younger) and size of commission (larger) interact such that the likelihood of choosing an unethical alternative is greater.     

Investigating the Moderating Effects of Perceived Technological Change on Sales Force Acceptance

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Prior literature has shown that the acceptance of new technologies can improve the long-term performance of sales forces and firms. However, new technologies are likely to introduce obstacles to acceptance, especially for those technologies that represent a massive change for the user. Sales force members who drastically change their work processes in order to integrate a technology sacrifice both time and effort and may be distracted from their primary goals (e.g. hitting deadlines or sales goals). Thus, we investigate how perceived technological change can negatively moderate individual motives to accept a new technology. Furthermore, we analyze how managerial support can help overcome the acceptance issues caused by perceived technological change.

Methodology/approach: Data for this study was collected from 163 sales force members via an online survey. Respondent data was collected using a private market research firm that provides access to online panels. We utilize structural equation modeling for factor analysis and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression for testing the hypotheses.

Findings: We find that perceived technological change negatively moderates the influence of individual goal orientation on to acceptance of new technology. We also find that managerial support, as opposed to team goal commitment, will positively moderate an individual’s goal orientation onto acceptance of new technology. This suggests that managerial support is necessary in order to encourage acceptance of technologies that present drastic change for the end user. Post-hoc analysis takes a deeper look into potential curvilinear effects, a three-way interaction, and differences among categories of technologies. This analysis reveals that the negative influence of perceived technological change specifically affects the acceptance of behavioral-based technologies, as opposed to outcome-based technologies, thus necessitating the moderating influence of managerial support.

Contribution: This study demonstrates the acceptance issues presented by technologies associated with drastic perceived technological change. This article identifies and suggests how to more appropriately enhance acceptance of technologies that introduce drastic changes by sales force employees, thus enhancing potential long-term organizational performance.     

Impact of Personality on Sales Manager Leadership Style

ABSTRACT

Much research in sales management has examined the impact sales manager leadership styles have on salesperson work outcomes. What has not been investigated is what factors may lead an individual to adopt one leadership approach over an alternate. Theorists in organizational behavior posit that personality characteristics may be predictive of the leadership style an individual employs. This paper reports the results of a study that explored whether two key personality variables-extraversion and neuroticism-are related to three prominent leadership styles-laissez-faire, transaction-al, and charismatic. The findings support the overriding hypothesis that the two personality variables are strongly related to and account for a substantial portion of the variance in the three leadership styles. Implications for sales management practice and research are provided.     

The Impact of Salesperson Perception of Firm Market Orientation on Behaviors and Consulting Effectiveness

The purpose of this study was to study market orientation as an antecedent of salespersons' behaviors that should, in turn, influence the ability of the salesperson to add value to the product or service. There have been many studies of personal antecedents of salespersons behaviors and performance, with little predictive success. But there are few studies of firm-level influences on salesperson behaviors and their outcomes. A survey was sent to non-retail salespeople utilizing previously validated scales for all constructs of interest. The survey responses were analyzed using structural equation modeling to test hypotheses. Results suggest that market orientation has an indirect influence on salesperson consulting through adaptive selling and active listening behaviors. Active listening fully mediates the relationship between customer orientation and salesperson consulting, while salesperson consulting fully mediates the relationship between active listening and consulting effectiveness. Half of the influence of market orientation on salesperson consulting effectiveness is direct, while the other half of its influence is indirect through those salesperson behaviors. The author provides explanations for these results and implications for managers and researchers.     

The Impact of Customer-Salesperson Guanxi and Customer Dependence upon Salesperson Influence Effectiveness

Abstract

This study aims to explore the underlying impact of customer’s perceived dependence on salesperson (CPDS), customer–salesperson guanxi (C-S guanxi), and the customer’s preference of the salesperson’s influence tactics (SITs) on the salesperson’s influence effectiveness. The relationship between CPDS and C-S guanxi is also discussed. Based on the literature review, this study depicts the possible development paths of C-S guanxi and discusses the isolated impact of C-S guanxi dimensions, i.e., ganqing, renqing, mianzi and xinyong, on the customer’s preference of SITs. Several research propositions, theoretical and managerial implications in the context of personal selling and Chinese society are provided.     

The Interplay of Emotion Regulation and Sales Experience in Salesperson Conflicts: Evidence from an Emerging Economy

ABSTRACT

It is human nature that personal interactions are often charged with emotions and laden with conflicts. Workplace encounters are not immune from this reality. Despite this, few studies have examined ways to reduce interpersonal conflict in the workplace. This study examines the interpersonal impact of emotion regulation on salesperson relationships with stakeholders. Using structural equation modeling, results of the analysis showed that salesperson's regulation of emotions was negatively related to interpersonal conflict with co-workers as well as with customers; and positively impacted customer-oriented sales behaviors. The results also support the moderating role of selling experience in the relationship between emotion regulation and interpersonal conflict with customers. That is, the negative relationship between regulation and conflict with customers is stronger for salespeople with lower sales experience. These findings put forward important managerial implications with regard to the recruitment and training of sales professionals.     

推销人员道德失范的影响因素及对策分析

改革开放30年以来，我国市场经济逐步发展，然而社会转型和经济转轨使得社会的道德状况面临严峻考验，道德建设的新问题和新要求使得社会应充分关注站在市场前沿的推销人员。针对影响推销人员道德状况的因素进行归纳分析，提出了改善推销道德状况的对策，以期补充推销人员道德建设的研究和应用。     

创意的网络广告给促销带来的影响

世界已经进入信息时代,以国际互联网络为基础的信息技术正在改变着我们的生活方式、工作方式和商务方式。从万维网到电子邮件,正逐渐成为广告媒体用以接触消费者,向消费者传递信息的强有力的工具。互联网络的前景正在以前所未有的速度在全球范围内普及开来。在适当的时间向人们传递适当的广告,能给商家带来不可预测的促销影响,能产生更大的经济效益。     

信用证关系对买卖合同的影响

依信用证独立原则，信用证一旦开产，则完全独立于买卖合同，法律适用上信用证适用UCP500，买卖合同适用买卖公约、买卖法律、合同法等。但买卖合同却不能独立于信用证。相反，信用证交易会对买卖合同交易产生直接影响。信用证与买卖合同不符合导致买卖合同的修改、信用证的拒付，特别是因下不符而遭到拒付，将直接导致买卖双方的违约责任问题。研究信用证对买卖合同的影响，分析其法律性质，促使UCP500与买卖法的结合与衔接，有助于减少和解决信用证与买卖合同纠纷，使信用证更好地发挥其功能。