Sales Leadership Research Articles

Contractual provisions, governance, and maintaining sales leadership: Evidence from franchise systems

Annual sales revenue is one of the most critical indicators of franchise performance not only for the business stakeholders but also for prospective franchisees who are exploring their investment opportunities. Accordingly, Franchise Times ranks and reports the 200 top franchisors annually based on sales performance. Historically, some franchisors have successfully maintained their position among top-ranking firms for years in this credible ranking. Understanding factors associated with such achievement is pivotal for the success and improvement of franchise firms. Despite its importance, the impact of franchise contract provisions on maintaining their sales leadership remains unexplored. In this research, we examine various contract provisions, including cost structure, incentives, and governance, among top franchise firms over time to shed light on factors affecting their sales leadership and continued presence among top-ranking firms. Using the survival analysis, we empirically address this gap by analyzing an unbalanced panel dataset of 153 franchise firms from 2013 to 2020 (1172 firm-year observations). We find that franchisors with contract provisions specifying higher royalty rates, financing support for franchisees, multi-unit or master-franchise-only options, and a primary focus on franchising for expansion are more likely to maintain sales leadership within the industry.

SALES MANAGEMENT ANALYSIS AND DECISION MAKING

This comprehensive book aims to provide readers with an in-depth understanding of sales management, covering analysis and decision-making for developing effective sales strategies and tactics. It also delves into various concepts, techniques, and tools used in sales management and how to apply them in practice. The book covers topics such as personal selling, organizational strategies, sales organization structure, salesforce deployment, recruitment and selection, sales training, sales leadership, motivation and reward systems, evaluating organizational effectiveness, and evaluating salesperson performance. Additionally, it explores the role of personal selling in marketing, highlighting the difference between trust-based selling and transactional selling. The book emphasizes the importance of customer value in sales strategy and adaptive selling. Current trends in sales professionalism, such as complexity, collaboration, and accountability, are also discussed. Organizational strategy's impact on the sales function is examined, along with the allocation of sales efforts and territory design. The importance of recruiting the right sales talent and the significance of sales training for both newly recruited and existing sales force members are emphasized. Sales leadership and management are explored, considering situational factors influencing effective leadership approaches. The book also delves into motivation management and reward systems, detailing various financial and non-financial rewards that motivate salespeople. Evaluating the effectiveness of sales organizations and salesperson performance are also discussed, along with various evaluation methods. Overall, this book provides valuable insights and practical guidance for sales managers, sales management students, and anyone seeking to enhance their sales performance. Ingram et al. have skillfully written this book, offering a comprehensive resource for navigating the complexities of sales management.

A Critical Study on Impact of Leadership Style of Sales Managers on Performance of Sales Teams

Purpose: Sales department is one of the most important verticals for any organization it has a direct impact on both the top-line and the bottom-line of the organisation. Sales leadership has an important role to play to drive the sales executives to achieve the organisational agenda. Hence, it becomes important to maintain a positive relationship between sales managers and the sales executives. so this study is to find out the impact of the leadership style of the sales managers on the performance of the sales team. Theoretical Framework: This conceptual framework identifies major components like leadership, sales team & manager. The study focuses on the two major companies of the BFSI industry. The industry has performed well in past few years and the ICICI group of companies has been a major player in the industry. Design/Methodology/approach: The conceptual framework has been proposed after identifying the components that are significant & analyses leadership style in two major domains – People Oriented Leaders and Task Oriented Leaders. Findings: The components identified for this study & can be considered to have an influence on success. Research, Practical and Social implication: The model attempts to achieve a good fitment of sales managers and sales teams in order to achieve continued good results. Originality/Value: This article is a contribution to the industry has performed well in past few years and the ICICI group of companies.

Selections From the ABC 2022 Annual International Conference, Tampa, Florida, USA: Sharing Teaching Innovations With a Porpoise Pod’s Coordination, Speed, and Grace

Business communication teachers navigate a constantly changing pedagogical geography shaped by technology and breakthrough discoveries in linguistics, psychology, and neurobiology. My Favorite Assignment is designed to speed new teaching methods to the classroom. This article gives readers 11 teaching innovations on report writing, intercultural communication, and analysis and critical thinking debuted at the 2022 Association for Business Communication’s (ABC) 87th Annual International Conference in Tampa, Florida, USA. Additional support materials—instructions to students, stimulus materials, slides, grading rubrics, frequently asked questions, and sample student projects—are downloadable from the ABC and DePaul University Center for Sales Leadership websites.

My Favorite Assignment: Selections From the ABC 2022 Annual International Conference, Tampa, Florida: A Sunrise of Classroom-Tested Pedagogy

This article offers readers 11 classroom teaching innovations presented at the 2022 Association for Business Communication’s (ABC’s) Annual International Conference. Sessions were held online and on-site in Tampa, Florida, USA. Readers will find unique developments in teaching techniques—all designed to enhance students’ communication skill building. The new ideas featured here include personal and professional development, oral communication, analysis, and critical thinking. Additional assignment support materials—instructions to students, stimulus materials, slides, grading rubrics, frequently asked questions, and sample student projects—are posted on the ABC and DePaul University Center for Sales Leadership websites: https://www.businesscommunication.org/page/assignments and https://salesleadershipcenter.com/research/business-professional-communication-quarterly-my-favorite-assignment

My Favorite Assignment—A Storm Surge of Teaching Innovations

This article presents a curated collection of 10 teaching innovations debued at the Association for Business Communication’s 87th annual meeting held in Tampa, Florida, USA, and online October 2022. This My Favorite Assignment 27th edition introduces readers to classroom-ready ideas to help students gain personal and professional development, and a host of fresh assignment topics designed to inviggorate both classic and new assignments. Teaching support materials—instructions to students, stimulus materials, slides, grading rubrics, frequently asked questions, Internet links, and sample student projects—are downloadable from the Association for Business Communication and DePaul University Center for Sales Leadership websites.

Employee Attrition in Pharmaceutical Sales: ASA Theory

Work values shifted in the face of profits versus layoffs during the Covid 19 pandemic. Employees working from home were intellectually stunted without learning opportunities to stay engaged and flailing to find inspiration. Business as usual now needed the new leader to emerge in a virtual environment. With revenue goals to meet, and increased pressure to perform with newly approved FDA medications, management was unable to engage employees leading to high levels of turnover. The result was losing talented individuals and creating an inability to market essential life extending and saving biopharmaceuticals to health care providers that treat rare diseases. Management was faced with carrying operating costs for employees that were unable to reach customers. Yet, there was a lack of transformation in leadership to engage the customer facing employees. This led to above average attrition, creating a need for new people to be hired. Training for newly hired employees was implemented, increasing costs, and creating gaps in sales cycles. Disruption amongst teams was evident as management experienced a communication gap with front-line employees. Post Covid 19, sales leadership must emerge out of its cocoon, and spread its four wings. Grounded in transformational leadership theory (Burns, J. 1978), idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration must be adapted in a hybrid virtual world. Leader management exchange theory may be practiced but the key emphasis should be on attraction selection attrition (ASA) theory.

Transformational and transactional sales leadership during a global pandemic

Transformational (TFL) and transactional leadership (TAL) are foundational leadership styles in sales practice and have been intensively studied by past sales research. However, prior research conflicts on the effectiveness of TFL and TAL to help salespeople cope with the persisting changes of a global pandemic, such as COVID-19. Combining leadership theory with perceived uncertainty theory, we develop and test a longitudinal growth model explaining how TAL and TFL affect sales performance during the emerging COVID-19 pandemic. Using transactional and survey data of 16,275 customers and their respective salespeople during the first months of the pandemic, we show that sales performance declined and that TAL was more effective than TFL at mitigating the drop of sales performance. We ascribe this finding to salespeople’s uncertainty resulting from the persisting changes brought about by the pandemic, which requires leaders’ continuous feedback rather than a focus on long-term visions. To substantiate our findings, we conducted a second study confirming that an increase in TAL is more effective at mitigating the performance decline and that salespeople’s perceived effect uncertainty and response uncertainty moderate this effect. Our findings offer timely and valuable implications for leadership theory and practice how to manage pandemic challenges.

GOING THE EXTRA MILE: TEACHING INNOVATIONS DURING COVID TIMES

ABSTRACT The 2021 Society for Marketing Advances Annual Conference, in Orlando, Florida, offered thirty-four Teaching Moments from marketing educators around the globe. The purpose of the Teaching Moments sessions was to quickly advance innovative teaching techniques, ideas and assignments allowing other educators to implement these methods in their own classrooms. This article features eleven of the best Teaching Moments from the conference, as determined by peer reviews. Additional support materials for these teaching innovations can be found at the websites of the Society for Marketing Advances or DePaul University’s Center for Sales Leadership.

Selections from the ABC 2021 Annual Conference, Placing Another Log on ABC’s My Favorite Assignment’s Cool Fire

This article offers readers 13 teaching innovations debuted at the 86th annual meeting of the Association for Business Communication held online. Assignment topics presented here include personal and professional development as well as oral communication and presentation skills. Additional assignment support materials—instructions to students, stimulus materials, slides, grading rubrics, frequently asked questions, internet links, and sample student projects—are downloadable from the Association for Business Communication and DePaul University Center for Sales Leadership websites.

Selections from the 2021 ABC Annual Conference, Answering Aretha’s Question: “Who’s Zooming Who?”

This article offers readers 12 teaching innovations introduced at the Association for Business Communication’s 86th annual meeting held online in October 2021. This My Favorite Assignment 22nd edition introduces readers to classroom-ready ideas in analysis, critical thinking, and business writing. Assignment support materials—instructions to students, stimulus materials, slides, grading rubrics, frequently asked questions, internet links, and sample student projects—are downloadable from the Association for Business Communication and DePaul University Center for Sales Leadership websites.

Kajian Literatur Terhadap Manfaat Keterampilan Kepemimpinan Dan Management Penjualan Di Dalam Perusahaan

The leadership model is considered by many to be decisive in improving the performance of the sales team in a company. In this case we will discuss in detail the effect of the situational leadership model on improving the performance of the sales team. There are four leadership styles in this model which we will discuss in detail. in our paper. In the end we try to conclude the most effective leadership style that can be used to improve the performance of the sales team in the field. Finding and maintaining good resources in the field of sales leadership and able to work effectively in increasing sales targets is a very difficult task. difficult. Most businesses today are results-oriented; They only make demands to be productive and capable of being a good leader. Failure to consider the nature of sales leadership during the selection process has a great opportunity to present challenges in carrying out sales tasks. In addition, providing development training is also a waste of training given to resources that are not available. not exactly.

영업 관리자의 세일즈 리더십 유형이 팀 영업성과에 미치는 영향

What is the most effective style of sales leadership in a B2C sales environment? This study was designed to find the answer to this key question. We focused on examining the effects of four leadership styles (paternalistic leadership, transactional leadership, empowering leadership, and issue leadership) of sales managers on team sales performance (subjective team performance and revenue growth rate). Specifically, we analyzed the augmenting effects of each leadership style to examine each style’s discriminatory effect on sales performance at the team level. The data were collected from 130 directly-managed branches of J company which operates B2C distribution business nationwide. In order to control for any potential common method biases, we diversified the sources to three―branch sales managers, sales team members, and objective sales data―and collected the two-wave (T1 and T2) data with the two-month interval, with different measurement points for the independent and dependent variables. Furthermore, we obtained the revenue growth rate data from the company's management database and included it as an objective team performance. The findings of the current study could be summarized into two points. First, the issue leadership style of sales managers was the only style that had the statistically significant augmenting effects on the subjective team performance after controlling for the effects of the other three leadership styles. Second, among four leadership styles of sales managers, the issue leadership style was the only style that had significant augmenting effects on the objective sales performance, i.e., the revenue growth rate. The results verified that the sales manager's issue leadership had a significant augmenting effect on team sales performance (subjective team performance, revenue growth rate). We discussed the implications and limitations of this study and suggested how this study results could lead to future studies.

Identifying aggressive versus ethical sales supervision in B2B service recovery: a multilevel perspective

PurposeThe current research provides a conceptual framework that explains how sales managers' aggression across business-to-business (B2B) sales organizations triggers salespeople's surface acting, deep acting and service recovery performance. It also investigates the moderating role of ethical leadership through sales managers' aggressiveness on service recovery performance.Design/methodology/approachThe authors test the model using multilevel analysis with cross-sectional data of 367 salespeople from different sales organizations.FindingsThe study shows that the aggression of sales managers has an adverse influence on service recovery performance. Additionally, aggressiveness among sales managers is positively connected with surface acting while adversely affecting deep acting. The study’s findings also indicate that ethical sales leadership is positively moderate among sales managers' aggressiveness and service recovery performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors collected data from individual salespersons, which is the limitation; however, future studies could collect data using the dyadic approach, such as matching responses from both managers and salespersons. This method could enhance the model's internal validity.Originality/valueSeveral studies have mainly focused on positive supervision styles in the literature on service recovery. At the same time, building a negative supervision model in the B2B service recovery context, which has been persistently ignored, is noteworthy.

Insider versus outsider – who is better? The case of Zyne furnishings

Case overview/synopsisZyne is a mid-sized Delhi-based firm engaged in the home linen business under the company’s brand name. Raman was the Managing Director of Zyne. In 2019, Prashanth the head of the second-best region (West) quit abruptly without grooming a successor. Prashanth’s team consisted of greenhorn executives whom he recruited from colleges. Raman has options of selecting a replacement for Prashanth from within the organization. Two candidates are in the reckoning, namely, Amit and Neha. Amit was 48 years old, a veteran in the business and associated with the Zyne group for over 15 years. He was a top sales performer in the Central region and was interested in relocating to the West. Twenty-seven-year-old Neha was industrious, talented and creative. Within three years of joining Zyne, she had proven herself as a go-getter with remarkable ability to develop strong channel partner relations. Raman had to decide whom to select from among the two or go for an outsider from the industry. Raman has to contend with selection issues related to insider vs an outsider. If one of the internal candidates is chosen how could he motivate the other to continue to perform and deliver? The case focuses on the challenges of recruitment of a Sales Manager (SM) in a small home furnishing business. Use of competency framing to validate the candidates is the high point of the caseLearning objectivesBy the end of case discussion participants should be able to understand the following: differentiate skills required in a sales leadership role as compared to that of a sales executive; evaluate the pros and cons of internal promotions versus hiring an outsider; apply the concept of competency framework to evaluate different candidates vying for the same position; and understand how a candidate not selected for the position understands the reasons thereof to enable improvements.Complexity academic levelStarted in 2010, Zyne Furnishings headquartered at Delhi, was in the business of selling home furnishings. Raman, a second-generation entrepreneur was Zyne’s Managing Partner. With help from his father Rajesh Gupta, Raman worked toward expanding Zyne’s business operations in India. Raman was facing a challenge because of the abrupt resignation of Prashanth, the Western Region SM. Prashant had done well in the region and assiduously built Zyne brand’s presence there. As Raman pondered over the ways of filling up the SM position, questions confronted him for which he did not have immediate answers. He had 30 days in which a replacement must be finalized. Raman looked at the file containing the applications of the two internal candidates, namely, Amit (Southern region) and Neha (Western region) who had applied for the position. What evaluation process should he adopt to ensure an objective assessment is done before deciding on which of the two candidates fit the bill? Given that it was the first week of January 2020 and the year-end targets had to be met by March, Raman knew time was running out. He had to take a quick call. Use of competency mapping to evaluate candidates is a high point of the case. This case can be used to enhance the participants understanding of the challenges of identifying the right candidate for a senior position and weigh the pros and cons associated with the selection. Motivating the rejected internal candidate through the procedural justice system adds value to the case.Supplementary materialsTeaching notes are available for educators only.Subject codeCSS 8: Marketing.

The Usefulness of Marketing Strategies in a Regulated Market: Evidence from the Spanish Tobacco Market

This paper outlines possible useful marketing strategies for companies to develop in a regulated market. The empirical analysis aims to highlight whether companies can use marketing strategies to create competitive advantages and scale positions in sales leadership once regulation policies are introduced. To this end, we apply two econometric approaches to sales variables for 138 best-selling cigarette brands: the Bass Model (1969) to estimate the parameters that determine the way clients adopt, and the methodology proposed by Hartigan and Wong (1979) for a further cluster analysis that groups brands. The empirical results suggest that restrictions on demand introduced to the Spanish tobacco market during the years 2005 and 2006, have generated a new scenario in which innovation parameters have no effect on the process of adoption. Therefore, the imitation coefficient is the parameter which makes discrimination between brands possible, which demonstrates the existence of heterogeneity among brands based only on recommendation. The results show the inability of direct marketing strategies to create advantages and scale positions in sales leadership after the introduction of regulation policies, however companies have other marketing options such as imitation among clients and these have proven to be effective since imitation shows heterogeneous behaviour among brands across the diffusion process. This has implications that should be taken into account in markets which are on the verge of being regulated, specifically the modification of marketing strategies if the intention is to lead and scale position in a regulated market. In particular, in the case of Spain, policymakers must acknowledge that the measures implemented in law 28/2005 have had an effect on marketing strategies by cancelling, in practical terms, the diffusion of brands based on innovation and homogenizing the diffusion process based on direct marketing.

BREAKING DOWN CLASSROOM WALLS: TEACHING MOMENTS FOR ONLINE LEARNING EXCELLENCE

ABSTRACT The Teaching Moments program at the 2020 Society for Marketing Advances Annual Conference moved beyond the confines of four walls going virtual due to the pandemic, just like universities around the world. Many of the Teaching Moments were lessons on how to thrive in our evermore important online environment. This article highlights seven of the top teaching moments from the conference, as determined by peer reviews. Readers can find additional support materials such as student instructions, instructor resources, exercise materials, sample student work, frequently asked questions and grading rubrics available on the websites of the Society for Marketing Advances or DePaul University’s Center for Sales Leadership.

The effect of honest and humble leadership on salesperson customer orientation

Drawing on Leader-Member Exchange Theory, our study explores how salesperson perceptions of their leaders influence leader-salesperson relationship quality and ultimately salesperson outcomes, including customer orientation and performance. Extending prior research on sales leadership, our model proposes that an important personality trait of a leader — honesty-humility — influences leadership style (i.e., servant leadership). Servant leadership has a positive effect on salesperson outcomes because it enhances leader-subordinate relationship quality. Data from 317 professional salespeople representing a variety of industries lend support for the proposed serial mediation model: honesty-humility → servant leadership → relationship quality → customer orientation. We conclude that the personality trait of honesty-humility affects leadership style, which in turn impacts salesperson customer orientation and performance via a positive effect on relationship quality. Additionally, we show that salesperson perceptions of difficulty in attaining quota moderate the relationship between relationship quality and customer orientation.

Should firms invest more in marketing or R&D to maintain sales leadership? An empirical analysis of sales leader firms

Some firms have successfully maintained their position as sales leaders for years, as evidenced by their presence on the annual Fortune 500 list. While sustained investments in both marketing and RD and investing more in R&D than in marketing enhances sales leadership maintenance in dynamic environments for highly leveraged firms. A sales leader firm that incrementally spends 1% of its five-year average sales revenue on each of marketing and R&D activities can improve its probability of sales leadership maintenance by 50%.

An ecosystems analysis of how sales managers develop salespeople

Purpose The purpose of this study is to identify and explain how leadership behaviors of sales managers can enhance the development of salespeople within the context of those interpersonal connections and interactions that is the sales ecosystem. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected and analyzed qualitative data from in-depth interviews with a sample of 36 sales professionals. Over 47 hours of interviews were transcribed and analyzed via NVivo. The statements were labeled as particular leader behaviors using the Miles and Huberman (1994) coding system. Findings The study identifies coaching, customer engaging, collaborating and championing as the four key leader behaviors that are relevant to the sales ecosystem. Specifically, coaching and customer engaging enhance the individual microsystems of salespeople; and collaborating and championing enhance the corresponding mesosystems. Analysis of the interview statements further revealed that trust, confidence, optimism and resilience are four relational elements that tend to coexist with these leader behaviors in the sales ecosystem. Practical implications This study provides a structure for sales organizations to strengthen their sales ecosystem through targeted interventions and training for those that manage salespeople. Past research finds that sales organizations too often neglect this type of managerial training. Originality/value This is the first study to examine sales leadership through the lens of Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems theory. Further, the qualitative methodology, which is relatively unique in sales research, provides rich data that is particularly useful for exploring how and why things have happened.