Sales Interactions Research Articles

Video-based sales interaction in cross-cultural B2B relationships: Potential (un)desired consequences

In contemporary and global business-to-business (B2B) markets, sales interactions are increasingly conducted via video-based technologies. However, research on the consequences of video-based sales interactions (VSIs) on customer relationships is surprisingly limited. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the consequences of VSIs on cross-cultural customer relationships. We employ a grounded theory approach and derive empirical insights from interviews with 31 salespeople in 17 sales organizations, and 8 of their customers from 8 customer organizations. The findings reveal how VSIs can enhance or restrict different dimensions (interactive, affective, relational, visual) of social presence in the relationship initiation and maintenance phases, and how this can lead to positive and negative relationship consequences. Overall, this study contributes to B2B marketing theory and practice by providing novel insights and a new understanding of the effects of VSIs on customer relationships and explains why and how they manifest in practice.

Closing is more than a list of tactics: how to build rapport while facilitating a commercial exchange

Closing is an essential part of selling. However, academic research related to closing has been quite limited and detailed observational research has not yet been conducted. This research analyzes the closing process in a series of 111 buyer-seller sales interactions using a combination of observational research and a follow-up survey about the customers’ experience. The results of a qualitative analysis suggest that the closing process consists of three stages: (1) the preamble, the lead up or approach to the ask, (2) the closing moment, when the ask is made, and (3) post-sale assurance, the moments directly following the close in which the salesperson debriefs the sales encounter. The closing process impacts customers’ assessment of salesperson responsiveness and empathy, which ultimately leads to relationship commitment. The findings indicate that sufficient post-sale assurance improves both perceived responsiveness and empathy. Meanwhile, the efficacy of the preamble and closing moment techniques depends on customer amicability. For amicable customers, a preamble tactic with a direct close improves perceived responsiveness, while for less amicable customers, indirect closing tactics improve responsiveness. In sum, this research provides a theoretical framework for the closing process and explains the underlying mechanisms by which the closing process impacts sales outcomes.

Salesperson motivation, compensation, training and deployment within the sales ecosystem

PurposeThis study aims to examine the applicability of Hartmann et al.’s (2018) service ecosystem framework to the day-to-day management of the modern sales force. The authors provide a review of the framework, acknowledging its strengths, while also indicating areas for advancement. The authors conclude with recommendations to the framework and indicate opportunities where future research could advance sales theory.Design/methodology/approachA review of the theoretical underpinnings of the service ecosystem framework is weighed against the established roles and responsibilities of the modern sales force in the literature.FindingsThe ability of the framework to capture the multi-level, multi-actor and dynamic aspects of sales represents an improvement in the conceptualization of selling is critical. Suggestions around the refinement for meso-level sales interactions and a more pliant application of service dominant-logic are offered.Research limitations/implicationsThe suggested extensions of the framework continue the advancement of novel theorization for the field of sales. Priorities for future research include consideration of ethical implications of the framework and formulations of new management strategies reflective of the broad and dynamic properties of the ecosystem conceptualization.Practical implicationsThis paper provides managerial guidelines and implications tied specifically to the thick and thin crossing points and how they may impact employee decision-making.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to pointedly examine the service ecosystem framework with respect to established principles of managing a modern sales force.

International sales interactions in a post-disruptive environment

This study examines the impact of a major global disruption on the international sales force. A total of twenty-three qualitative interviews, with eighteen international sales executives, were collected at two points in time. These interviews occurred one year apart (January to March 2022 and January to March 2023), allowing for insights to be developed both during the disruption and after the disruption. The sales executives interviewed had visibility to over $130B in annual global revenue. Findings suggest that previously established success factors, including teams and processes, cultural understanding, and the development and management of local relationships, will remain important in the post-global disruptive sales environment. However, going forward, international sales will involve less travel, due to increased use of technology and local resources, suggesting the need to balance the use of these tools. As a result, this study offers both practical and academic implications, including a set of five propositions, to advance our understanding of international sales interactions after the occurrence of a global disruption.

Research online and purchase offline: The disruptive impact of consumers' online information on offline sales interaction

AbstractRetailers hire salespeople in physical stores to boost revenue by influencing consumer decision‐making. However, the Internet provides consumers with a variety of online product information before they enter the physical store, and this rich online information reduces their willingness to interact with offline salespeople. Using regulatory focus theory, we explore why well‐informed consumers avoid sales interactions and explore strategies for salespeople to mitigate this negative effect. Across three studies, we show that high consumer informedness induces a heightened prevention focus that causes consumers to avoid sales interactions to control the decision‐making process by themselves (Studies 1 and 2). This effect can be alleviated when salespeople provide consumers with currently available information rather than additional information (Study 3). This research contributes to the literature on consumer informedness, regulatory focus theory, and research on promotional information types and provides guidance for retailers' sales interactions.

MENAKAR PENGARUH PERSONAL SELLING TERHADAP EVALUASI ALTERNATIF KONSUMEN DALAM PEMBELIAN RUMAH SECARA SYARIAH (Riset Di Perumahan Firdaus Garden Paku Haji Kabupaten Bandung Barat)

Evaluation alternative of the consumer is an activity of selecting two or more product choices with the same type, which requires consumers to consider a product to be purchased before making a decision. Evaluating all product alternatives, consumers will use the information from personal selling. This study aims to determine and analyze the magnitude of the influence of personal selling on the evaluation alternatives of the consumer in buying a house using KPR Syariah at PT. Arkon Multikarya Perdana (Firdaus Garden Pakuhaji in West Bandung Regency). This research is motivated by the problemof the decline in home sales due to weak personal selling strategies carried out by the company due to the presence of covid-19 so that it works with the Work From Home (WFH) system and limits face-to-face sales interactions. The research method used is a combination method or mixed methods with sequential explanatory models. The results of the final conditions of quantitative, the personal selling value are 84.7% and the alternative evaluation value is 84.3% of the ideal condition and qualitatively personal selling and alternative evaluation at PT. Arkon Muktikarya Perdana is good. The results of the research the effect of personal selling on the evaluation alternatives of consumer, with quantitative data the correlation value in the regression results of the number R = 0.599 means that the correlation between variables X and Y is 0.599. R Square is 0.359 or 35.9%, meaning that the percentage contribution of X's influence on Y is 35.9%, while the remaining 64.1% is influenced by other variables outside of this model. The results of the hypothesis t-test, the comparison is t count (6.396) ≥ t table (1.663) and the results of the F test show that F count (5.069) ≥ F table 2.326. This shows that Ha is accepted and Ho is rejected or it can be said that X has a contribution to Y. While the results of qualitative data, personal selling has a role as a bridge for consumers to get clear and detailed information to help consumers evaluate a product with the factors: a) approach; b) presentation; c) overcoming objections; d) close the sale. These factors correlate with the factors that influence the alternative evaluation variable of consumers with the indicators are a) quality of marketing; b) price; c) location; d) promotion. The cumulative results of quantitative data on personal selling variables obtained r count 0.6708 ≥ r table 0.213 and alternative consumer evaluation variables obtained r count 0.6572 ≥ r table 0.213, this shows that the correlation X to Y is included in the strong category. So it can be said that the greater the role of personal selling, the greater will be the evaluation of alternatives made by consumers in buying home products on a Sharia KPR basis. In addition, other variables influence the evaluation alternatives of consumer that are not examined in this study such as consumer finance, trust in property developers, specifications of materials used, house design and facilities provided. So the results of this study can be concluded that there are qualitative data that broadens and deepens quantitative data. Keywords: Personal Selling, Evaluation Alternatives of Consumer.

Private sector antimalarial sales a decade after "test and treat": A cross-sectional study of drug shop clients in rural Uganda.

The World Health Organization has promoted "test and treat" guidelines for malaria since 2010, recommending all suspected malaria cases be confirmed with a parasitological test, typically a rapid diagnostic test (RDT), prior to treatment with antimalarial medications. However, many fevers at private drug shops in Uganda continue to be treated presumptively as malaria without diagnostic testing. The purpose of this study was to document private sector malaria case management in rural Uganda through a cross-sectional survey of drug shop clients in Bugoye sub-county. Drug shop vendors (n = 46) recorded information about sales interactions with clients reporting fever or requesting antimalarials and collected capillary blood samples from clients who purchased medications without an RDT. We estimated the proportion of clients who purchased an RDT, adhered to the RDT result, and received antimalarials without having laboratory-confirmed malaria. Most drug shops were unlicensed (96%) and sold RDTs (98%). Of 934 clients with suspected malaria who visited study drug shops during the data collection period, only 25% bought an RDT. Since some clients reported previous RDTs from the public sector, 40% of clients were aware of their malaria status at the drug shop. Among those with negative tests, 36% still purchased antimalarials. Sixty-five percent of clients who purchased an antimalarial without an RDT subsequently tested negative. Despite national guidelines, drug shop clients who purchase antimalarials from drug shops in Bugoye are often not tested to confirm a malaria diagnosis prior to treatment. Most clients treated presumptively with antimalarials did not have malaria. Interventions are needed to improve malaria case management and rational drug use in the private sector.

Towards better interaction between salespeople and consumers: the role of virtual recommendation agent

PurposeIn the context of a profound digital transformation, the need for social interactivity is becoming fundamental for consumers on e-commerce sites. It allows them to interact with the company in the same way as with salespeople in physical stores. Among the different existing virtual agents used by companies to offer online solid interaction, this study focuses on virtual recommendation agents (VRAs). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of VRA on consumers’ psychological states and online impulse buying.Design/methodology/approachAn experimental website was designed for this study. After interacting with VRA, respondents had to take part in a survey. The questionnaire included measures of perception of the VRA, perceived enjoyment, online impulse buying and perceived risk. Structural equation modelling was used to test the research model.FindingsThe results confirm the positive influence of the VRA on perceived enjoyment, which is positively associated with online impulse buying. The effect of the VRA’s presence on perceived enjoyment is moderated by gender.Research limitations/implicationsOnly one product category was studied, for which the advice of VRAs is undoubtedly essential. However, this could also be valid for other products, such as technological products, where the consumer’s level of expertise may be low. Hence, the authors propose to extend this study to various products for a better generalization of the results.Practical implicationsThis study provides practitioners with relevant findings on the efficiency of VRAs and offers them guidelines to design more interactive commercial websites with higher levels of social interactions. Such interactions should reduce perceived risks and make visitors more confident. This can encourage more traffic and sales, which implies growth in incomes and revenues.Social implicationsThrough this technology, VRAs can create more humanized links between consumers and companies.Originality/valueWorking on VRAs is original as they represent the technology that can replace salespeople. In addition, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to test the impact of VRA on online impulse buying. By examining the VRA’s set of fundamental capabilities, this study contributes to existing research on how companies should integrate digital technologies in their sales interactions with consumers, which to date has focused on other sales channels such as social media platforms.

Benefits, discounts, features, and value as communication foci in selling: Exploring concepts, drivers, and outcomes

Customers in business markets face difficult choice problems. Depending on the customer’s choice construal, in terms of the customer’s criteria and the tradeoffs the customer wants to make, different kinds of information are relevant and influential. We conceptualize four communication foci in B2B selling, which differ in terms of the kinds of information that is communicated during sales interactions with customers: value communication, benefit communication, feature communication, and discount communication. Drawing on survey data from a sample of 226 B2B salespeople, we empirically investigate these constructs and specifically test for their distinctiveness. Finally, in an exploratory analysis, we identify potential drivers, outcomes, and moderators (i.e., enablers) of these communication foci. The four communication foci are driven by substantially different sets of drivers, indicating that they are employed in different settings. We find no communication focus is clearly directly related to sales performance. Instead, the effectiveness of a communication focus is likely to depend on the situation.

What agro-input dealers know, sell and say to smallholder farmers about pesticides: a mystery shopping and KAP analysis in Uganda

BackgroundPesticides can have negative effects on human and environmental health, especially when not handled as intended. In many countries, agro-input dealers sell pesticides to smallholder farmers and are supposed to provide recommendations on application and handling. This study investigates the role of agro-input dealers in transmitting safety information from chemical manufacturers to smallholder farmers, assesses the safety of their shops, what products they sell, and how agro-input dealers abide by laws and recommendations on best practices for preventing pesticide risk situations.MethodsApplying a mixed-methods approach, we studied agro-input dealers in Central and Western Uganda. Structured questionnaires were applied to understand agro-input dealers’ knowledge, attitude and practices on pesticides (n = 402). Shop layout (n = 392) and sales interaction (n = 236) were assessed through observations. Actual behavior of agro-input dealers when selling pesticides was revealed through mystery shopping with local farmers buying pesticides (n = 94).ResultsWhile 97.0% of agro-input dealers considered advising customers their responsibility, only 26.6% of mystery shoppers received any advice from agro-input dealers when buying pesticides. 53.2% of products purchased were officially recommended. Sales interactions focused mainly on product choice and price. Agro-input dealers showed limited understanding of labels and active ingredients. Moreover, 25.0% of shops were selling repackaged products, while 10.5% sold unmarked or unlabeled products. 90.1% of shops were lacking safety equipment. Pesticides of World Health Organization toxicity class I and II were sold most frequently. Awareness of health effects seemed to be high, although agro-input dealers showed incomplete hygiene practices and were lacking infrastructure. One reason for these findings might be that only 55.7% of agro-input dealers held a certificate of competency on safe handling of pesticides and even fewer (5.7%) were able to provide a government-approved up-to-date license.ConclusionThe combination of interviews, mystery shopping and observations proved to be useful, allowing the comparison of stated and actual behavior. While agro-input dealers want to sell pesticides and provide the corresponding risk advice, their customers might receive neither the appropriate product nor sufficient advice on proper handling. In light of the expected increase in pesticide use, affordable, accessible and repeated pesticide training and shop inspections are indispensable.

Salesperson attributes that influence consumer perceptions of sales interactions

PurposeThis paper aims to examine how modern, digital era customers in a business-to-consumer (B2C) setting prioritize salesperson-customer orientation attributes when evaluating their expectations regarding interactions with salespeople, as well as their impact on positive and negative word-of-mouth. In addition, the research further investigates which negative salesperson attributes have an impact on overall customer experience and satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachRole theory and expectancy-disconfirmation theory form the theoretical foundation for two mixed-method studies. Study 1 is an exploratory content analysis of online consumer reviews and social media word-of-mouth related to consumer experiences with salespeople. Study 2 is a three-round Delphi study investigating which salesperson orientation attributes are most important to the customer in B2C interactions.FindingsThe results uncover which salesperson customer orientation attributes are essential for modern consumers and how they differ as a function of context (retail, direct-selling and follow-up) and how they contribute to the generation of digital word-of-mouth.Originality/valueThis paper expands B2C sales interaction literature by exploring the need for differing sales attributes based on the differential function of the shopping environment.

Emotional labor in a sales ecosystem: a salesperson-customer interactional framework

PurposeThe concept of emotional labor refers to the management of emotions in interaction with customers. This study aims to suggest an integrative definition of emotional labor. It develops a conceptual framework that helps organize and synthesize key insights from the literature, in an interactional and multi-level perspective.Design/methodology/approachThis integrated framework consists in a mapping of key research themes resulting from a systematic literature review, which includes research in sales and marketing. As critical affective processes in sales have not been studied sufficiently, both in business-to-business and business-to-customer selling, this review also incorporates works in other research fields.FindingsSales representatives’ emotional labor must be considered as a bi-directional interaction with the customer in a multi-level perspective. Moreover, emotional labor has rather negative consequences for the salesperson (e.g. burnout and job stress), but may have positive sales and customer outcomes. Findings suggest that the expression of genuine emotions should be used during sales interactions. In addition, organizations should prevent customers’ negative behaviors (e.g. mistreatment).Practical implicationsEmotional labor key practical implications with regard to several management functions such as the recruitment, performance management and training (Ashkanasy and Daus, 2002) of the sales representatives.Originality/valueResearch on emotional labor in a sales ecosystem is scarce. It has largely covered service industry employees in contact with customers, but has not paid enough attention to sales representatives (Mikeskaet al., 2015). The proposed integrated framework concerning emotional labor focuses on the bi-directional interaction between the sales representatives and their customers.

Adapting sales influence tactics in the information intensive era

Purpose This paper aims to explore the usage of selling influence tactics across prospective customers with differing information-related needs. Design/methodology/approach The research study uses an exploratory critical incident technique (CIT) methodology to identify and examine salesperson influence tactics. Findings This study identifies and explores the use of salesperson influence tactics across three information-based conditions often encountered by salespeople (i.e. information seeking customers, informed customers with information inaccuracies and informed customers making sub-optimal decisions). Regardless of condition, salespeople readily used non-coercive information exchange tactics. Whereas, recommendations and ingratiation tactics were applied by more effective salespeople when interacting with informed customers with information deficiencies. Furthermore, salespeople report executing less effectively with prospects with inaccurate preexisting information and with prospects making flawed or sub-optimal decisions. Research limitations/implications Findings illustrate the need for a renewed focus on salesperson influence tactics, the conditions under which they are effective, and how salespeople adapt their influence tactics to various situations. The exploratory nature of this study limits the generalizability of findings. Practical implications A framework of adaptive selling strategies is proposed to help tackle new challenges faced by B2B salespeople in today’s information intensive market. When interacting with more informed customers, pre-existing information is often inaccurate and incomplete. Thus, salespeople must assess and address these flaws and gaps and can adapt their influence strategies to do so effectively. Originality/value Industrial buyers today have virtually unlimited avenues to conduct extensive research and gain supplier information without the aid of interactions with salespeople. Thus, salespeople often enter sales interactions when their prospects have significantly more information than ever before. By examining salesperson influence techniques in selling situations that vary based on prospective customer preexisting knowledge, this research provides guidance on how selling may need to change in a more information intensive era.

Older consumers’ reaction to a patronizing sales interaction

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of patronizing by salespeople when interacting with older consumers in a retail situation of shopping for a mobile phone. In addition to patronizing behavior, the impact of the age of the salesperson and gender of the consumer are explored.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on statistical analyzes of a between-participants controlled experiment collected via an online survey of 338 members of the German Senior Citizens League.FindingsThe study contributes to the field of services marketing by confirming that older consumers reject patronizing sales interactions and by showing that men are more tolerant of condescendence than women, especially when younger salespeople are involved.Research limitations/implicationsA limitation of this study is the use of fictional situations with a selected number of manipulated variables in a simulated sales interaction.Practical implicationsRejection of a patronizing sales interaction was found to be similar by both genders with an older salesperson. Furthermore, retail shops of technical appliances could prevent potential problems by being cautious of having younger male salespeople interacting with older women customers.Originality/valueResearch on the impact of condescending sales interaction as perceived by older consumers is scarce and has not previously considered the role of customer gender and salesperson age. Beyond investigating the perception of participants to patronizing, the role of the salesperson age and customer gender were investigated.

Salesperson communication effectiveness in a digital sales interaction

B2B buyers are exhibiting an increased preference to transact digitally with vendors. A topic which has yet to receive sufficient academic attention in this modern selling environment is salesperson communication effectiveness. Accordingly, this article: 1) defines digital sales interactions (DSIs) as technology-enabled, face-to-face buyer-seller exchanges; 2) proposes a typology of DSIs to set the stage to examine salesperson communication effectiveness; 3) introduces a framework that reifies the sender's auditory and visual cues that can influence receivers' thoughts (i.e., cognition, affect, intention) and activity (i.e., purchase behavior, advocacy); 4) suggests theoretical lenses that can illuminate various aspects of the salesperson's communication barrage; 5) advances how machine learning can be applied to understand what constitutes effective communication in a digital interaction by asking: to what extent does what a salesperson says (auditory cues) and how s/he says it (visual cues) impact her/his effectiveness in a DSI?; and 6) concludes by noting promising future research directions for B2B marketing researchers.

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

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.

Selling in the Digital Age

Advances in technology have revolutionized consumer buying behavior. The internet has provided customers with a cheap source of information that can help them make informed buying decisions. However, many salespeople are still relying on the classic model of selling, which is based on the assumption that customers are uninformed, uncertain, and undecided when they meet a salesperson. This model suggests that salespeople, as knowledgeable gatekeepers of information, should guide customers through the sales process. For example, solution selling suggests that the salesperson should diagnose customer needs and then recommend the right products/services to fulfill those needs. The challenger sales model suggests that a seller should actively teach customers, tailor the sales process to them, and take control of the customer conversation In this report, authors address the question: How does employing the classic sales model with customers with greater and lesser preference certainty affect the sales interaction outcomes of (1) purchase probability, (2) sales revenue, and (3) customer satisfaction? In their first study, the authors collected data from 356 individual sales interactions in 15 different stores of a U.S.-based retailer of durable goods over four months. They show that customers with greater preference certainty have a lower purchase probability when the classic sales model is implemented. (i.e., from more than 80% to 60%). Further, the revenue from a sales interaction is reduced by more than 25% when salespeople use the classic sales model on customers with higher levels of preference certainty. Finally, when faced with customers who have a good idea of what they want to buy, salespeople may decrease customer satisfaction by using the classic sales model technique. A second, scenario-based experiment corroborated and replicated the first study, using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. This study found that, under high levels of preference certainty, challenging the customer results in a lower likelihood to purchase during the shopping visit. Further, these findings were found to be unrelated to price. These findings point to a need to transform the way that salespeople interact with customers. The authors offer two ways that managers can benefit from this research, and help their salespeople move beyond the classic sales model. Training. Sales managers can teach their salespeople about the importance of acknowledging the differences among customers along the decision-making process and train them on the appropriate tactic in each stage. Lead generation. Customer relationship management technology now makes it possible to monitor customers’ research behavior and to index prospects depending on their stage in the process; therefore, this technology can assist salespeople in adopting the appropriate sales tactic. Finally, new sales models should revisit and redefine assumptions of the standard paradigm of selling.

A Discourse Study of Insurance Sales Interactions in Transformational China

A Discourse Study of Insurance Sales Interactions in Transformational China

IMPLEMENTASI ALGORITMA APRIORI TID UNTUK MENGETAHUI POLA PENJUALAN KERAMIK

At PT. JUI SHIN INDONESIA Medan Deli is checking the sales of ceramics once a year. The amount of ceramics needed at PT. JUI SHIN INDONESIA Medan Deli is so big. The lack of good sales interactions has resulted in ceramics sales and the quality of service to the council going down. This research expects to analyze the general operating picture, ceramic sales of PT. JUI SHIN INDONESIA Medan Deli. The problem often faced is that goods are not neatly arranged and cannot be utilized for system development and are only used as archives at PT. JUI SHIN INDONESIA Medan Deli. To find out the pattern of ceramics sales, ceramics sales have so far been ineffective because the data stored in Microsoft Excel is still not good so it requires a long time if at any time the warehouse of PT. JUI SHIN INDONESIA Medan Deli and other company administrations do data checking. For that we need a system that can facilitate the warehouse in analyzing the sales data of ceramics. This algorithm is one part of association rule mining. This method aims to obtain the rules of association or relations between groups of items. by using the Tanagra tool application method for testing data on ceramic sales transactions.Keywords: To Know the Pattern of Ceramic Sales Using the Aryri TID Algorithm

Contribution of mindfulness to customer orientation and adaptive selling

The objective of this research is to examine the relationship between the mindfulness of salespeople and their selling behaviours, as well as their satisfaction with their own sales performance. The sampling frame for this research includes salespersons from a world-leading-direct-sales corporation that has subsidiaries in Thailand. A total of 172 completed surveys were obtained. Results from a partial least squares regression of these surveys showed that both trait mindfulness and state mindfulness during the sales interactions of salespersons positively correlated with these outcome variables. Although trait mindfulness tended to explain adaptive selling indirectly, through the mediating role of customer orientation, only its direct linkage with customer orientation was supported. For state mindfulness during sales activities, the results supported that it is directly and positively associated with both customer orientation and adaptive selling. Lastly, the results showed that both trait mindfulness and state mindfulness during sales activities positively correlated with sales performance satisfaction. Therefore, the study suggests that mindfulness training is a possible intervention that sales organisations and/or sales managers may consider to help their sales personnel improve the quality of mindfulness that may be required for them to work more productively in their sales job.