Salesperson’s spirituality: impact on customer orientation and adaptability

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 408-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vaibhav Chawla ◽  
Sridhar Guda
Keyword(s):  
Customer Orientation ◽  
Meaningful Work ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Adaptive Selling ◽  
Service Behavior ◽  
Adaptive Selling Behavior ◽  
Sales Behavior ◽  
Outcome Behaviors ◽  
Leadership Actions

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to use the perspective of ego to investigate the spirituality of a salesperson and its influence on customer orientation and adaptive selling behavior. Meaningful work is proposed as a mediator. Design/methodology/approach Cross-sectional data were collected from 218 insurance salespeople in India. Bootstrap with SEM was used to test mediation. Findings The paper finds that there is full mediation through meaningful work on both the outcome behaviors. Research limitations/implications The findings will encourage researchers to link various salesperson outcomes such as ethical sales behavior, salesperson service behavior, and so on to spirituality. Practical implications The findings can provide some relevant inputs for sales leadership actions aimed at facilitating employees’ spiritual experiences. Originality/value This is among the first few studies, as what the authors believe, in the sales literature to find out that spirituality and sales job not only can co-exist, but they do complement each other.

The combined effect of customer perceptions about a salesperson’s adaptive selling and selling orientation on customer trust in the salesperson: a contingency perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 553-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Guenzi ◽  
Luigi M. De Luca ◽  
Rosann Spiro
Keyword(s):  
Attribution Theory ◽  
Customer Orientation ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Adaptive Selling ◽  
Relationship Length ◽  
Customer Perceptions ◽  
Contingency Perspective ◽  
Customer Trust ◽  
The Impact

Purpose This paper aims to examine the impact of customer perceptions about a salesperson’s combined use of adaptive selling (AS) and selling orientation (SO) on customer trust in the salesperson. Based on insights from attribution theory, the contingency model of salespeople’ effectiveness, relationship marketing and market orientation literatures, the authors analyze the interplay between customer perceptions of salespeople’s AS and SO, and how this affects customer trust. Furthermore, adopting a contingency perspective, the authors investigate how two important situational variables (i.e. length of buyer–seller relationships and importance of purchase for the buyer) affect this relationship. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on regression analysis with two- and three-way interactions, using survey data from 134 business-to-business (B2B) buyers. Findings The results indicate that the interplay between AS and SO is negatively related to trust, and that the above situation is attenuated in sales contexts characterized by high purchase importance or enduring buyer–seller relationships. Research limitations/implications The empirical findings are based on firms from a single industry. Second, a cross-sectional research design is adopted. Third, the absence of measures of objective performance (e.g. sales) might be regarded as a limitation. Practical implications The study suggests that salespeople willing to win customer trust should modify their approach across the relationship life cycle. Similarly, when purchase importance for the customer is low, salespeople interested in building relationships based on trust should combine AS and customer orientation. In contrast, when purchase importance is high, salespeople can only generate more trust by increasing customer orientation/reducing SO. These findings might inspire sales trainers and sales managers in developing training experiences based on adaptation and customer orientation. Originality/value The research contributes in several ways to the literature. First, the simultaneous effect of AS and SO on performance (i.e. customer trust) was investigated. Second, the analysis of the interaction between AS and SO was complemented by testing two important boundary conditions residing in the selling situation: purchase importance and relationship length. Third, this study is the first to examine the interplay among AS, SO and selling context outside using customer data from actual B2B sales interactions. Also, it enhances knowledge of the effects of AS on sales outcomes by adding a long-term, relational outcome (i.e. trust) to previous work that tended to focus on short-term outcomes (i.e. sales revenues). Furthermore, by investigating perceived benefits from the point of view of customers rather than sellers, our findings add to previous studies of AS which relied too heavily, or exclusively, on the voice of the seller. Finally, this study shed further light on the role played by SO in affecting customer-based performance.

The moderating role of sales experience in adaptive selling, customer orientation and job satisfaction in a unionized setting

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (8) ◽  
pp. 1724-1735 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harindranath R.M. ◽  
Bharadhwaj Sivakumaran ◽  
Jayanth Jacob
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Customer Orientation ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Adaptive Selling ◽  
Job Experience ◽  
Adaptive Selling Behavior

Purpose The principal purpose of this study is to examine the moderating influence of selling experience on the following two relationships – adaptive selling and job satisfaction and customer orientation and job satisfaction – using unionized salespeople as respondents. It also tests for the mediating role of adaptive selling in the customer orientation–job satisfaction relationship. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses data from a survey conducted on 208 pharmaceutical unionized salespeople from 46 pharmaceutical firms in India. The model was tested using structural equation modeling. Moderation hypotheses were estimated using process macro and the Johnson–Neyman technique. Findings The data fitted the model well. This research found that customer orientation drove adaptive selling behavior and job satisfaction, and that adaptive selling influenced job satisfaction (all positively); it was found that adaptive selling partially mediated the relationship between customer orientation and job satisfaction. Results revealed that job experience negatively moderated the adaptive selling behavior–job satisfaction and customer orientation–job satisfaction relationships. Practical implications The results show that pharma firms may hire young recruits and, importantly, measure their customer orientation and adaptive selling levels. For the purposes of training to enhance customer orientation and adaptive selling, pharma firms may send only their less experienced salespersons. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this study could be the first to examine the interaction of job experience and customer-directed selling behaviors such as adaptive selling and customer orientation on job satisfaction. Moreover, this is possibly the only study in this domain that uses unionized salespeople in an emerging market (India).

Contribution of cultural intelligence to adaptive selling and customer-oriented selling of salespeople at international trade shows: does cultural similarity matter?

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arti Pandey ◽  
Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Cultural Intelligence ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Effect Analysis ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Adaptive Selling ◽  
Adaptive Selling Behavior ◽  
International Trade Shows ◽  
Trade Shows

Purpose This study aims to examine the contribution of cultural intelligence (CQ) to the level of adaptive selling behavior and customer-oriented selling behavior of salespeople in a cross-cultural selling context. Design/methodology/approach This study collected data from a total of 210 Thai salespeople who had been assigned to work at trade shows in Japan (n = 110) and in Vietnam (n = 100). Findings The findings show that salespeople with higher CQ tend to demonstrate a higher degree of adaptive selling behavior and customer-oriented selling behavior in both countries. The moderating effect analysis shows that the positive relationship between CQ and adaptive selling behavior is significantly higher for Thai salespeople in Japanese trade shows than in Vietnamese trade shows. Research limitations/implications This study uses cross-sectional data collection; therefore, the results have been interpreted as associations, but not causations. Practical implications The study suggests that CQ development programs could be considered as part of the training that organizations provide to salespeople to develop cross-cultural competencies to deal effectively with foreign customers. Originality/value This study provides additional evidence concerning the benefits of CQ in an occupational area that has not been previously explored. More importantly, the result regarding the positive linkage between CQ and adaptive selling behavior was significantly stronger in the country characterized by higher cultural differences. This also contributed to CQ research by showing that differences in a cultural context might also influence the benefits of CQ in relation to the outcome variables.

The effect of managerial coaching on salesperson's relationship behaviors: new evidence from frontline bank employees in China

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 1259-1277
Author(s):  
Claudio Pousa ◽  
Yunling Liu ◽  
Asad Aman
Keyword(s):  
Customer Orientation ◽  
Sales Performance ◽  
Mediating Effect ◽  
Managerial Behavior ◽  
Managerial Coaching ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Frontline Employee ◽  
Adaptive Selling ◽  
Adaptive Selling Behavior ◽  
Bank Employees

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to test the effect of relationship managerial behavior (i.e. managerial coaching) on frontline employee performance (i.e. sales performance) and the mediating effect of employee's relationship behaviors (i.e. customer orientation and adaptive selling) in a Chinese banking environment.Design/methodology/approachData were collected using a survey from 242 frontline employees working at a large commercial bank in Dalian (China). Measures on managerial coaching, customer orientation, adaptive selling and sales performance were adapted from the literature. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling in AMOS 26.FindingsResults indicate that (1) managerial coaching positively affects employee customer orientation, (2) employee customer orientation positively affects employee adaptive selling behavior and (3) adaptive selling behavior positively affects sales performance. Bootstrap analysis confirmed the significance and stability of all the direct paths (suggesting that every mediator fully mediates the effect of its antecedent on the criterion) but none of the indirect paths found support (full mediation model).Research limitations/implicationsThe study makes a contribution to the nomological network of managerial coaching by introducing a construct that has not been used previously (i.e. employee adaptive selling behavior) and testing its relevance in a commercial setting.Practical implicationsThe results suggest that (1) managerial coaching is a central managerial behavior for companies that would like to implement a relationship marketing strategy because it helps promote specific employee relationship behaviors like customer orientation and adaptive selling, (2) there seems to be little cultural differences in the banking industry between the Chinese and the Western banks, suggesting that coaching and other management tools can be transferable from one culture to the other and (3) that coaching is an effective tool to help employees achieve higher sales performance.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the literature on the use of managerial coaching in commercial areas to increase frontline employee relationships behaviors. The identification of adaptive selling as a mediator is an original contribution because it has received little attention in scientific research. Additionally, the use of a Chinese sample of bank employees responds to recent call for more research in cross-cultural settings.

The student-customer orientation questionnaire (SCOQ)

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riina Koris ◽  
Petri Nokelainen
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Customer Orientation ◽  
Educational Experiences ◽  
Educational Experience ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study Bayesian dependency modelling (BDM) to validate the model of educational experiences and the student-customer orientation questionnaire (SCOQ), and to identify the categories of educatonal experience in which students expect a higher educational institutions (HEI) to be student-customer oriented. Design/methodology/approach – This paper employs a cross-sectional quantitative survey study, mixed methods research, exploratory factor analysis and BDM. Findings – The validated model of educational experiences and the SCOQ; results indicate that students expect to be treated as customers in some, but not all categories of educational experience. Research limitations/implications – The authors contribute to existing literature on two fronts: the validated model of educational experiences and the categories of educational experience in which students expect to be treated as customers. Practical implications – The validated SCOQ presented in the paper may be used by other HEIs to assess the degree to which students expect a particular HEI to be customer oriented. Also, HEIs should assess students’ expectations concerning student-customer orientation before employing such an approach. Originality/value – The paper presents a validated model of educational experiences and a SCOQ. Additionally, the study does not investigate whether students expect a HEI as such to be student-customer oriented (as most studies have done so far); instead, the aim is to find out whether, in which categories of educational experience and to what extent students expect a HEI to be student-customer oriented. Thus, the study explores the phenomenon of student-customer orientation at a deeper level, i.e. separately at the level of educational experiences.

From cognition to action: the effect of thought self-leadership strategies and self-monitoring on adaptive selling behavior

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (12) ◽  
pp. 1915-1927
Author(s):  
Hayam Alnakhli ◽  
Rakesh Singh ◽  
Raj Agnihotri ◽  
Omar S. Itani
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Self Monitoring ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Adaptive Selling ◽  
Adaptive Selling Behavior ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose This study aims to investigate salespersons’ self-monitoring and its effect on adaptive selling behavior. As salespeople are constantly facing different customers with various needs and want and engaging in a different sales situation, salespeople must deploy their inner capabilities in practicing adaptive selling behavior during and across sales interactions. This study also investigates the impact of salesperson’s intrapersonal leadership – where leadership stems from the individuals with the purpose to influence oneself. Design/methodology/approach Authors draw on the social cognitive theory of self-regulation to develop our model and examine the relationship between self-monitoring, thought self-leadership and adaptive selling behavior. We empirically test the model using data from 335 pharmaceutical salespeople working across several countries in Asia. Findings The results support the role of self-monitoring and thought self-leadership as antecedents to adaptive selling. Further, the results suggest that self-monitoring positively moderates the relationship between thought self-leadership and adaptive selling behavior. In light of these results, we explore implications and limitations and conclude by suggesting directions for further research. Research limitations/implications The sampling method used was convenience sampling, which may limit the theoretical generalization of our results across all emerging markets. Moreover, this study examines the direct impact of self-management mechanism on adaptive selling behavior and the way it interacts with salesperson's thought self-leadership to strengthen adaptive selling behavior. However, the research model does not include organization-level drivers. Originality/value This study makes an important and original contribution to sales literature by demonstrating the direct and interaction effects of self-monitoring mechanism on a critical component of a business to business sales process, adaptive selling behavior. Results from this study highlight the critical importance of cognitive processes that drives positive selling behavior.

Examining the consequences of adaptive selling behavior by door-to-door salespeople in the Korean cosmetic industry

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fortune Edem Amenuvor ◽  
Ho-Taek Yi ◽  
Henry Boateng
Keyword(s):  
Customer Loyalty ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Dyadic Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Adaptive Selling ◽  
Cosmetic Industry ◽  
Adaptive Selling Behavior ◽  
Customer Outcomes

PurposeThis paper aims to assess the effect of adaptive selling behavior on customer outcomes, mutual outcomes and salesperson outcomes.Design/methodology/approachThe respondents were salespeople and customers in selected door-to-door cosmetics companies in South Korea. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data in this study.FindingsFindings show that adaptive selling behavior positively affects customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, sales performance, job satisfaction and relationship quality. These findings suggest that adaptive selling is crucial for the firm's survival depending on the industry and the product. Additionally, unlike previous studies, the authors use salespeople's self-reporting responses and customer-reporting of salespeople, which further enhances the richness and uniqueness of the results.Originality/valueStudies investigating mutual outcomes of adaptive selling behavior are scarce. The study also emphasizes that adaptive selling behavior enhances salesperson outcomes and customer outcomes and primarily uses dyadic data between door-to-door salespeople and their customers, which is not very common.

scholarly journals A multipath model of salesperson performance in the financial services industry

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 195-213
Author(s):  
Jose Varghese ◽  
Manoj Edward ◽  
Sunil Sahadev
Keyword(s):  
Financial Services ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Customer Orientation ◽  
Structural Equations ◽  
Mediating Effect ◽  
Salesperson Performance ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The study looks at how salesperson’s customer orientation (SCO) mediates the impact of a host of organisational, job-related and personality-related factors on salesperson performance. Previous studies that have considered the impact of customer orientation on performance have often considered a limited number of antecedent variables which has led to inconsistent results. The purpose of this paper is to address this concern by considering the multiple effects of several independent variables. Design/methodology/approach The conceptual model was tested through a large-scale survey of financial services salespersons in India. A total of 1,106 respondents participated in the survey. The data were analysed through structural equations modelling. Sobel’s test was employed to test the mediating effects. Findings The study found that customer orientation has a significant mediating effect in the case of several antecedent variables. The impact of variables like perceived supportive work environment, experienced meaningfulness, organisational identification, salesperson agreeableness and salesperson instability on salesperson performance is seen to be partially or fully mediated by SCO. Research limitations/implications The cross-sectional design and the convenience sampling methodology are the main limitations of the study. Practical implications The study develops a more holistic, multipath model which can help managers as a guideline in recruiting and selecting salespersons. The importance of customer orientation points towards the need for better attitudinal training. Originality/value Theoretically, the paper highlights the need for developing more comprehensive models for considering the consequences of customer orientation and related issues. The multipath model addresses several calls for research on testing different antecedents of customer orientation as well as how customer orientation enhances salesperson performance.

Empathy, nonverbal immediacy, and salesperson performance: the mediating role of adaptive selling behavior

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 654-667 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yam B. Limbu ◽  
C. Jayachandran ◽  
Barry J. Babin ◽  
Robin T. Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Sales Force ◽  
Nonverbal Immediacy ◽  
Salesperson Performance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Adaptive Selling ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Adaptive Selling Behavior ◽  
Outcome Performance

Purpose Previous studies that examined the role of empathy and nonverbal immediacy on business-to-business (B2B) salesperson performance is limited in scope and yielded inconclusive evidence. Grounded in Plank and Greene’s (1996) framework of salesperson effectiveness, this paper aims to empirically investigate the mediating role of adaptive selling behavior through which empathy and nonverbal immediacy influence sales force performance and the form of empathy (cognitive or affective) that has the most beneficial role in improving relationship (versus outcome) salesperson performance. Design/methodology/approach Using cross-sectional data that were collected from 422 pharmaceutical sales representatives, this study used structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized relationships. Findings Adaptive selling behavior mediates the effect of perspective taking empathy and empathic concern on relationship performance. However, the impact of empathy on outcome performance is not significant through adaptive selling behavior, but perspective taking empathy has a direct influence on outcome performance. Contrary to expectations, nonverbal immediacy is not mediated by adaptive selling behavior but has a direct and positive impact on relationship performance. Research limitations/implications The results of this study have several implications for recruitment, training and assessment of salespeople in a B2B context. Based on the empirical evidence, it is highlighted that firms may use different forms of empathy and nonverbal cues to promote adaptive selling behavior that impact sales force performance (i.e. outcome or relationship). Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study which simultaneously examines the mediating role of adaptive selling behavior in the relationship between three antecedent variables that relate to sales force empathy and nonverbal communication (i.e. perspective taking empathy, empathic concern and nonverbal immediacy) and two aspects of B2B sales performance (relationship and outcome).

Effects of frontline employee role overload on customer responses and sales performance

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 282-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Subhash Jha ◽  
M.S. Balaji ◽  
Ugur Yavas ◽  
Emin Babakus
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Customer Orientation ◽  
Sales Performance ◽  
Role Overload ◽  
Frontline Employees ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Negative Effect

Purpose Using the basic framework of the service profit chain, this study aims to develop an integrated model that explains the relationships among role overload (RO), customer orientation (CO), service interaction quality (IQ), customer satisfaction (CS) and sales performance. Design/methodology/approach A large-scale survey of 872 customers and 530 frontline employees across 50 branches of a major retail bank in New Zealand serves as the study setting. Findings The results indicate that RO has a significant negative effect on IQ. Nevertheless, CO mitigates the negative outcome of RO on IQ. IQ fully mediates the relationship between RO and CS. Additionally, the effect of IQ on branch sales is fully mediated by CS. Research limitations/implications The cross-sectional nature of the current survey does not permit causal inferences. Thus, future studies should adopt longitudinal designs. Also, future studies should explore the roles of other variables (e.g. job crafting, work-related self-efficacy) as possible moderators. Practical implications Results suggest that service managers should create a balance between the role requirements and organizational resources to mitigate the adverse effects of employee RO. To enhance IQ and CS, bank managers should coach employees about work overload and train them in CO while prioritizing the tasks. Originality/value Empirical research pertaining to employee–customer interaction through a nested framework accommodating data from customers, employees and firm performance is scarce. This study fills in the void.

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