How salesperson traits and intuitive judgments influence adaptive selling: A sensemaking perspective

Abstract

Although the increasing complexity of selling environments has been widely recognized, we know little about how salespeople manage the cognitive demands associated with information processing and decision-making during a sales encounter. Drawing on the Sensemaking Intuition Model and Dual Process Theory, we examine unique influences of salesperson traits and reliance on intuition as contributing to a sensemaking mechanism in the adaptive selling process. Further, we consider the moderating role that reliance on intuition has on the relationships between salesperson traits and adaptive selling. Survey results from 250 business-to-business salespeople produce well-fitting confirmatory and structural models that identify positive direct influences of cognitive empathy, trait competitiveness, and reliance on intuition in the adaptive selling process. Moderation analyses reveal that reliance on intuition reduces the positive impact of empathy, highlighting the complexity that salesperson traits and reliance on intuition introduce to the adaptive selling process.