Performing Under Pressure: Winning Customers Through Improvisation in Team Selling |
| |
| Authors: | Katerina E. Hill Victoria D. Bush Douglas Vorhies Robert Allen King |
| |
| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Management &2. Marketing, College of Business, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, Arkansas, USA;3. School of Business, Department of Marketing, University of Mississippi, University, Oxford, Mississippi, USA;4. Department of Marketing, West Texas A&5. M University, Canyon, Texas, USA |
| |
| Abstract: | The sales presentation is one of the most challenging and dynamic aspect of the sales process. Often-times, the presentation is composed of teams. The purpose of this study is to examine how improvisation manifests itself in the context of the sales team presentation. Utilizing the theoretical foundations of team dynamics and relationships, unplanned behavior, and emotional intelligence, a model of sales team improvisation is developed. A two-phase research design was employed via qualitative in-depth interviews from buyers and sellers followed by a quantitative survey of experienced sales team professionals. Our results find that improvisation impacts the relationship between emotional intelligence and team presentation performance outcomes. Although team selling is common in practice, a dearth of research exists in the sales literature. This study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on team dynamics and emotion in selling. Additionally, this study is one of the first to specifically investigate improvisation in the high pressure context of sales team presentations. |
| |
| Keywords: | Buyer-seller interaction emotional intelligence improvisation relationship management team selling |
|
|
