Customer Relationship Management (CRM)'s Impact on B to B Sales Professionals' Collaboration and Sales Performance

Purpose: Sales literature has traditionally considered technology adoption from acceptance and diffusion perspectives. This article examines the impact of customer relationship management (CRM) technology on business-to-business (B2B) sales professionals' ability to collaborate with internal stakeholders and also assesses the relationship between CRM utilization and sales performance. The study moves from assuming that CRM utilization positively impacts salesperson effectiveness and performance to assessing this outcome from the perspective of the salesperson.

Methodology: A survey that was comprised of four scales was sent to 115 B2B sales professionals and usable surveys were received from 70 respondents. The data were analyzed using partial least squares regression to test the hypothesized paths. Partial least squares regression has been shown to work for small sample sizes.

Findings: There is empirical evidence that CRM adoption and utilization positively impacts sales performance, sales effectiveness, and collaboration. As a partial mediator, collaboration positively influenced CRM utilization's effect on sales performance. However, collaboration did not positively influence sales process effectiveness. Explanations of the findings are offered.

Managerial Implications: Sales managers can use CRM technology to make their sales team more effective and efficient. Second, increased collaboration across the firm positively mediates sales performance. Lastly, to increase collaboration, sales managers should stress that CRM leads to higher performance for both the sales team and the entire firm.