Sales Literature Research Articles

Noise information in sales literature of machinery as a support to Sell and Buy Quiet

The Sell & Buy Quiet concept helps employers to protect their workers from risks arising from the exposure to noise emitted by machines. Reliable noise emission data are key to successfully implement this concept in practice. The NOMAD (NOise MAchinery Directive) project aims to assess and improve the quality of noise information provided by machinery manufacturers in sales literature and instruction manuals of machinery in accordance with the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC. Here, we present the results of a pre-market surveillance exercise, which examined the compliance of noise information in sales literature. Machinery manufacturers have to provide this information in compliance with the European Machinery Directive, if the sales literature contains the performance characteristics of the machine. The study investigated 85 samples of sales literature and 45 instruction manuals collected in five EU Member States. The faults found in sales literature were similar to those identified in the original NOMAD survey (NOMAD Phase 1), including the absence of noise information, confusion between noise emission and noise exposure quantities, incorrect notations and terminology, as well as missing noise emission quantities required by the Machinery Directive. Based on our findings, we make recommendations to stakeholders to improve the situation.

EXPRESS: Global Events Demand Global Data: COVID-19 Crisis Responses and the Future of Selling and Sales Management around the Globe

In the context of the global crisis presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, we investigate the perspectives of sales managers regarding their organizations’ responses to the crisis and future expectations in a post-COVID-19 world. While there has been much discussion about these topics in the sales literature, very little research has examined them globally by collecting data from many nations and across many continents. Yet, how can global events be understood without analyzing global data? In response, we conducted the first, to our knowledge, global data coalition by hosting video-recorded group interviews with 76 sales executives representing twenty-seven nations. Our inductive investigation, informed by institutional logics, reveals how organizations accepted new norms, retained old ones, or blended the old with the new in response to the crisis. Our results simultaneously validate certain emerging concepts on a global scale (e.g., Customer Success Management, bricolage, etc.) and give rise to several insights not currently detailed by extant scholarship (e.g., localization, cultural cringe, etc.). This work also catalyzes new, relevant avenues for international research and sheds light on issues facing sales practice globally.

Does B2B salespeople’s love of money attitude mediate the relationships between a growth mindset, a fixed mindset, grit, and job performance?

Purpose To most people, money is a motivator, which is robustly true for salespeople. A high love of money attitude predicts university students’ poor academic performance in a business course and cheating in laboratory experiments and multiple panel studies, but money (income) itself does not predict dishonesty. Extrinsic reward undermines intrinsic motivation. Very little research has incorporated the grit construct in the sales literature and explored the relationship between grit and the love of money. Further, a growth mindset and a fixed mindset may also impact salespeople’s job performance. This study aims to explore a brand-new theoretical structural equation model (SEM) and investigate the relationships between individual characteristics (growth and fixed mindsets and grit orientation) and job performance directly and indirectly through a mediator – salespeople’s love of money attitude. Design/methodology/approach This study uses Qualtrics and collects data from 330 business-to-business (B2B) salespeople across several industries in the USA. This study uses a formative SEM model to test this study’s hypotheses. Findings First, there are significant correlations among grit, a growth mindset and a fixed mindset, revealing no construct duplication or redundancy. Second, both a growth mindset and grit indirectly enhance job performance through the love of money attitude – a mediator, offering a brand-new discovery. Third, counter-intuitively, a growth mindset and grit do not directly improve job performance. Fourth, grit is significantly and negatively related to the love of money attitude, adding a new twist to this study’s theoretical model. Fifth, a fixed mindset undermines job performance directly but is unrelated to the love of money. Overall, B2B salespeople’s love of money attitude (employee demand) undermines sales personnel’s self-reported job performance (organization demand) in the organization and employee’s supply and demand exchange relationship. Originality/value The findings reveal that a growth mindset, a fixed mindset and grit contribute differently to sales personnel’s love of money attitude and job performance in this study’s theoretical model. The love of money serves as a mediator. A commonly accepted belief is that money is a motivator. Money (income) itself and the love of money attitude are two separate constructs. This study’s novel discoveries provide the essential missing monetary-aspirations-to-job-performance link in the literature – ardent monetary aspiration undermines self-reported job performance. This study offers inspiration to help decision-makers make happy, healthy and wealthy decisions and improve performance.

Technology use in B2B sales: examining the extant literature and identifying future research opportunities using morphological analysis

Understanding the impact of technology use on the business-to-business (B2B) sales profession has been one of the priorities for scholars for over 20 years. While the extant sales literature has focused mainly on stand-alone technologies like customer relationship management and social media, few studies have taken a holistic approach to understand how technology has transformed the sales function and the corresponding impact this change has had on the salesperson and sales organizational level. Employing morphological analysis (MA), we conduct an extensive review of the last two decades of B2B sales research to highlight emergent research topics on how technology use is continuing to influence B2B selling and identify research gaps that still need to be addressed by sales scholars. We characterize the literature on technology use in B2B sales in terms of 6 ‘dimensions’ and 22 ‘variants’ and represent it as an MA framework. Using this framework, we identify 49 research gaps that can inform future research on technology use in B2B sales. These gaps were prioritized using inputs from academics and practitioners and 10 gaps rated high by both groups were identified. We conclude with theoretical and practical implications of our research.

Conceptualizing an integrative typology of sales enablement strategy

Recent conceptualizations of sales enablement (SE) provide a foundation for emerging scholarship yet do not capture the vast complexities of developing an SE strategy. SE is not a singular construct. As a point of departure for future scholarship, the authors conceptualize a framework integrating extant knowledge of SE research and theorizing to develop a typology of SE strategy components. To establish a baseline for the typology, this paper first reviews the theoretical foundations of SE. Next, research domains on the periphery of the phenomenon (go-to-market strategy, organizational learning, change management, technology adoption) are reviewed and organized. Building from extant literature, the emergent typology integrates relevant literature streams with the various perspectives of the organization where SE strategy is devised and utilized (top management, sales management, salesperson). In addition to internal organizational factors, the authors include performance indicators, external contingency factors, and a research agenda associated with each SE typology component area (i.e., SE strategy: people, process, and system components). Ultimately, this work contributes to the sales literature by providing a nuanced view of SE strategy.

Relational exchanges in the sales domain: A review and research agenda through the lens of commitment-trust theory of relationship marketing

The commitment-trust theory (C-T theory) of relationship marketing ushered in a new marketing paradigm that shifted attention from discrete transactions to establishing, developing, and maintaining successful relational exchanges not only within buyer–seller dyads, but also across a broad spectrum of internal and external relationships involving a focal firm. Because of its relevance and implications, the theory has had a profound impact on the marketing discipline and beyond. This article employs the four broad categories of relational exchanges (i.e., supplier, lateral, buyer, and internal partnerships) identified in the C-T theory as an organizing framework to (1) review extant research on relationship marketing in the sales literature and (2) identify research gaps to stimulate future research within these four categories. Additionally, several promising avenues for future research on relationship marketing in the sales domain are also identified. Overall, this article underscores the significant impact of C-T theory on the sales literature.

Understanding why and when sales role focus affects salesperson turnover: Do career aspirations and age play a role?

Sales force turnover has been identified as one of the top issues in sales organizations by sales researchers and practitioners. The present research examines the role of two under-investigated factors: sales role focus (i.e., hunting focus versus farming focus), and salespeople’s career aspirations in understanding turnover. Analysis of survey data from 263 salespeople showed support for sales role focus as a factor associated with salespeople’s turnover intention and career aspirations, and the influence of salespeople’s age on the supported relationship. The current research extends the sales literature by demonstrating how salespeople’s age moderates the relationship between sales role focus and turnover intention through career aspirations. The findings of the research will help sales managers hire and retain the right salespeople.

“Converging on a new theoretical foundation for selling” five years later: emerging priorities, new applications, & directions for ongoing research

PurposeNot that long ago, half of all sales research was demonstrably if not unequivocally “atheoretical” (Williams and Plouffe, 2007). The foundational argument of this paper is that stronger theoretical development and application of theory in sales research is critical for the sales field to retain its relevancy. The purpose of this paper is to underscore that deliberate and cogent application of HWV (2018) is scant in the recent sales literature (over five years after publication in Journal of Marketing) for one or both of two reasons: scholars either do not understand the paper and/or are fearful of (mis)applying it.Design/methodology/approachMore than simply introducing the articles to this special issue of the European Journal of Marketing (EJM), this paper also makes a number of important, overdue contributions. Although Hartmann, Wieland and Vargo’s JM (HWV, 2018) theoretical and conceptual paper has been well-received by the sales community, it has seen limited meaningful integration or application in sales research since its publication. This paper thus clarifies key misunderstandings and misperceptions with HWV (2018) so that sales researchers can more impactfully apply it to future sales research.FindingsThis paper identifies and then explains key aspects of service-dominant logic (S-D logic) and commonly misapplied and/or misunderstood aspects of HWV (2018) to guide future sales research. Ultimately, the overarching goal of this special issue of EJM is to focus a “spotlight” on sales theory development, while simultaneously demonstrating – through the five articles the special issue reports – that with purposeful effort, rich theoretical insights can effectively be applied to both “classic” and more current and emergent sales research topics.Research limitations/implicationsBecause HWV (2018) draw heavily upon S-D logic, it follows that some aspects of their article have been misinterpreted or misapplied by sales scholars. In particular, the critical concept of “crossing points” (both of the “thick” and “thin” variety) are explicated and detailed further, so as to afford sales researchers with better knowledge and insight on how to apply these key tools within HWV (2018).Practical implicationsThe practical implications of this paper primarily revolve around further educating and clarifying for sales researchers “how” to better apply HWV (2018) to sales research, rather than simply citing it in passing. The paper also concludes by providing a summary and introduction to each of the five EJM special issue articles.Originality/valueThe originality and value of this paper and this special issue of the EJM is twofold. First, both this paper and the entire special issue itself emphasize the ongoing importance of advancing sales research through the meaningful and cogent application of theory. Second, the paper demonstrates that purposeful effort can lead to successful applications of HWV (2018) – as exhibited by the five articles in the EJM special issue – such that rich theoretical insights can be woven into both traditional and contemporary sales research topics.

Salespeople and teams as stakeholder and knowledge managers: a service-ecosystem, co-creation, crossing-points perspective on key outcomes

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the increasing importance of the intraorganizational dimension of the sales role (IDSR) based on service-ecosystem theory. Specifically, it examines how firms can improve interactions both internally and with external actors and stakeholders to both create and sustain advantageous “thin crossing points” (Hartmann et al. 2018). Academic research on sales ecosystems has yet to fully harness the rich insights and potential afforded by the crossing-point perspective.Design/methodology/approachAfter developing and unpacking the paper’s guiding conceptual framework (Figure 1), the authors focus on crossing points and the diversity of interactions between the contemporary sales force and its many stakeholders. They examine the sales literature, identify opportunities for thinning sales crossing points and propose dozens of research questions and needs.FindingsThe paper examines the importance of improving interactions both within and outside the vendor firm to thin crossing points, further develops the concept of the “sales ecosystem” and contributes a series of important research questions for future examination.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper focuses on applying “thick” and “thin” crossing points, a key element of Hartman et al. (2018). The primary limitation of the paper is that it focuses solely on the crossing-points perspective and does not consider other applications of Hartman et al. (2018).Practical implicationsThis work informs managers of the need to improve interactions both within and outside the firm by thinning crossing points. Improving relationships with stakeholders will improve many vendor firm and customer outcomes, including performance.Originality/valueIntegrating findings from the literature, the authors propose a conceptual framework to encompass the entire diversity of idiosyncratic interactions as well as long-term relationships the sales force experiences. They discuss the strategic importance of thinning crossing points as well as the competitive disadvantages, even peril, “thick” crossing points create. They propose an ambitious research agenda based on dozens of questions to drive further examination of the IDSR from a sales-ecosystem perspective.

Linking person–job fit and intrinsic motivation to salespeople’s service innovative behavior

PurposeDrawing from conservation of resources (COR) and regulatory fit theories, this paper aims to propose and examine moderated mediation model of service innovative behavior among salespeople.Design/methodology/approachThe hypothesized links were gauged based on time-lagged and multiple sources of data collected from salespeople and their supervisors in a large-scale multi-brand retail firm.FindingsThe hypothesized relationships were confirmed, and the moderated mediation model proposed in this paper was viable. Results suggest that person–job (P-J) fit boosts salespeople’s service innovative behavior, and intrinsic motivation (INTMOT) mediates this relationship. Promotion focus strengthens the positive influence of P-J fit on salespeople’s INTMOT. More importantly, promotion focus moderates the indirect positive link between P-J fit and service innovative behavior through INTMOT.Originality/valueThis research enhances the current knowledge by assessing promotion focus as a moderator of the impact of P-J fit on service innovative behavior via INTMOT among salespeople. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no established research examining the abovementioned links in the sales literature.

I want what they have: the impact of salesperson envy on customer relationships amid organizational disruption

PurposeThis study aims to use cognitive appraisal theory to explain how organizational disruption influences the development of envy resulting in unethical selling practices, turnover intentions and a reduction in customer orientation that causes disruption to impact customer relationships. This research helps to address drivers of salesperson envy, the potential disruptions to customer relationships and the required need to invest in psychological resources to offset these negative effects.Design/methodology/approachA total of 211 salespeople were surveyed to test the hypotheses. First, the measurement model was validated using a confirmatory factor analysis. Next, the hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling AMOS 27. Mediation and moderated mediation were tested using the bootstrap method. Estimands were created within AMOS to test the indirect and interaction effects in the full model. A post hoc analysis further informed the findings.FindingsThe results show that the development of envy increases under conditions of organizational disruptions, leading to potential customer disruptions through turnover intentions, unethical selling behaviors and a reduction in customer orientation. In addition, the mediation analysis shows that envy drives the relationship between organizational disruption and unethical selling, turnover intentions and customer orientation through fully mediated relationships. Finally, the interaction effects between organizational disruption and psychological capital show high levels of psychological capital help to decrease the development of envy, thus reducing unethical selling behaviors and turnover intentions while increasing customer orientation.Practical implicationsThe study provides practitioners with insights into how to reduce envy by investing in the psychological capital of their salesforce. The study also provides suggestions for handling disruptions and managing envy to prevent actions that act to damage customer relationships.Originality/valueSalespeople are likely to encounter organizational disruption. Sales managers need to be prepared to manage the outcomes of organizational disruption as it impacts the sales force. Understanding how disruptions impact customer relationships through envy is an important yet under-explored topic. This research adds to and expands the sales literature using cognitive appraisal theory to help address drivers of salesperson envy and its potentially negative impact on customer relationships and shows the required need to invest in psychological resources to offset these negative effects. The study also helps expand the recent focus on worldwide disruptions by adopting another context for disruption stemming from organizational disruption.

Psychological capabilities for salespeople’s sustainable work performance in financial services sector

The present study investigated the importance of psychological capabilities to support financial product salespeople in overcoming challenges and sustaining motivation and work performance during and after COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, this study suggests useful ways to develop the psychological capabilities. By using an interpretive phenomenological approach as the methodology, twenty financial product salespeople have been interviewed. The findings reveal that positive mindset, belief-in-oneself and not-giving-up are crucial psychological capabilities for salespeople’s sustainable work performance. These psychological capabilities match with the elements in the Psychological Capital Model. Positive mindset is associated with hope and optimism; belief-in-oneself is associated with self-efficacy, and not-giving-up is associated with resilience. The study also found approaches that help develop these psychological elements, including being proactive in seeking help and guidance, setting personal goal, and continuous learning. The findings contribute to the financial services and sales literature by providing a better understanding of how psychological capabilities help motivate financial product salespeople toward positive and sustainable work outcomes, and the ways to develop the psychological capabilities.

Alleviating the negative effects of salesperson depression on performance during a crisis: Examining the role of job resources

Depression is an important and prevalent issue often overlooked in the sales literature. Although prior research provides evidence that depression negatively impacts a variety of job-related outcomes, little is known about the factors that can mitigate such relationships—particularly that between depression and salesperson performance over time. To remedy this, we draw on Job Demands-Resources theory and propose a unique framework that examines job resources (i.e., work adaptability, family work support, and supervisor support) that may mitigate the negative effects of depression. Using salesperson surveys matched with objective sales performance data during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., January, February, and March 2020), we show that depression is negatively related to salesperson performance over time, work adaptability and family work support both mitigate the negative effects of depression, and contrary to expectations, supervisor support aggravates the relationship between depression and performance for a time but helps boost performance at the end of the observation window. The article's broader contribution is that depression is a crucial issue to consider and that sales managers should pay special attention to job resources that may mitigate the negative relationship between depression and salesperson performance over time.

Managing ambiguity: salesperson bricolage behavior and its organizational determinants

Bricolage – a term that implies resourcefulness – is a construct with a long history in anthropology, design, management, and entrepreneurship, among other fields. Our study is one of the first to apply the bricolage concept to better understand the behaviors of salespeople. Overall, findings from our multi-study, multi-method approach (combining survey methodology and a scenario-based experiment with video manipulations) indicate that salesperson bricolage behaviors are desirable and can be developed in a sales force. More specifically, in Study 1, we leverage Job Demands-Resources Theory and survey data from 405 business-to-business (B2B) salespeople and find that salesperson bricolage behaviors can effectively mitigate the predictably negative impacts of role ambiguity on sales performance. In Study 2, we leverage Self-Determination Theory and an experimental design with 181 B2B salespeople and provide initial evidence regarding salesperson bricolage behaviors’ organizational determinants (i.e. sales force control system combinations). Study 2 indicates that capability control interacted synergistically with outcome control and antagonistically with activity control in predicting bricolage behaviors. Taken together, findings from the two studies indicate that bricolage behaviors are both beneficial and manageable, warranting continued study in the sales literature.

Understanding the consequences of digital technology use in sales: multilevel tensions inside sales organizations

Personal selling and sales management are undergoing a major transformation driven by an increased use of digital technologies. Despite the potential that digitalization holds, many sales organizations struggle to realize the benefits of digital technologies. While the extant sales literature has studied the impact of digital technologies on sales, it tends to consider sales organizations broadly as uniform structures and provides fewer insights on the potential impacts between different levels within sales organizations. Consequently, this study explores how digital technology use in sales results in multiple tensions leading to both positive and negative consequences and how they are experienced differently at multiple levels (sales director, sales manager, salesperson). We draw empirical insights from 32 interviews with sales professionals in ten different organizations in the Australian construction industry. The findings reveal six tensions (autonomy, innovation, information, interaction, resource, and control) and show how these tensions can be perceived differently at each level. These findings advance the contemporary personal selling and sales management literature by offering a multi-level perspective that explains why and how the use of digital technologies can have both positive and negative consequences in sales organizations and generates important insights for sales managers who are adopting digital technologies.

Understanding salespeople's resistance to, and acceptance and leadership of customer-driven change

Salespeople's responses to change have been extensively examined in the context of sales literature, sales force automation (SFA), customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and other sales technologies. The majority of sales technology changes were typically organization driven. In contrast, during the COVID-19 pandemic, salespeople faced changing sales processes that were increasingly customer-driven. We seek a deeper understanding of salespeople's acceptance of customer-driven change and interview 38 sales professionals to enhance our understanding of salespeople's perceptions and behaviors. Our findings show an increase in the use of technology, increased marketing-sales integration, and shifts in sales processes and organizations. We identify three profiles of salespeople: those that resist change, accept change, and lead change. We find differences in salespeople driven by their perceptions of customer environments and their capabilities, sales management function, and organization factors relevant in defining attitude toward change. We consequently derive implications for theory and practice.

Fostering creative selling through ethics. An emotion‐based approach

AbstractResearch on salesperson creativity remains as one of the most under‐researched topics in the sales literature despite the evidence that encouraging creativity in the sales domain is a source of competitive advantage. This paper aims to fill this research gap by exploring the influence of perceived ethical climate on salesperson creative performance, paying special attention to the role that emotions play in this process. Data provided by 176 supervisor–salesperson dyads confirm that the trust/responsibility dimension of an ethical climate is positively related to salesperson creative selling by increasing salespeople's organizational pride. Similarly, the perception of unethical selling practices negatively affects salesperson organizational pride, reducing the expression of creative behaviors. Moreover, the negative effect of unethical selling practices on creative performance is stronger (more negative) when salespeople's identification with an organization increases. Managerial implications and future research directions are also addressed.

The Effect of Knowledge, Work Experience, and Work Spirit on Performance of Employees PT. Adira Dinamika Multifinance Pasuruan

As the relationship management perspective has been criticized and contradicting for focusing too much on individual entities, two parallel research tracks encourage business practices to view relational exchanges from a systems perspective. These two literary streams exist across the performance domain, sales force customization, sales force management, and sales to domain. The sales process can be seen as an episodic and non-linear exchange involving a large number of stakeholders. Our systematic review of the sales literature reveals a rich science that parallels the above characteristics. At the same time, this research fails to integrate management school perspectives or to identify links that illustrate the foundations of neoliberalism and improved the welfare states. We aim to develop a middle-class theory of the well-being of the sales ecosystem by combining the sales performance and performance of the sales ecosystem that can be targeted to this emerging of increasing the sales insurance product

The Role of Grit and Emotional Exhaustion in the Selling Process

ABSTRACT Purpose The focus of this article is to provide an overview of the existing business-to-business literature on two sales constructs that have been of interest to marketers. Although relatively new to the sales literature, the first construct is grit. This construct has been studied in a wide variety of manners for 130 years; however, within the sales literature, this construct has only been explored for the past three years. The second construct has been investigated in the sales literature for over 20 years is emotional exhaustion, which is one of the three dimensions of burnout. Furthermore, this article then introduces the eight manuscripts included in this special issue which expand marketing’s knowledge on these two constructs of interest. Research Implications Currently in the sales literature, there is a lack of research containing the grit construct. This article contributes to the marketing and sales literature by showcasing the importance of researching grit in sales. In addition, this article discusses the most popular researched burnout dimension, emotional exhaustion. Although emotional exhaustion has been studied in the sales literature, there is still additional research needed in order to fully understand the intricacies and situations that might lead to or result from a salesperson’s experiencing emotional exhaustion. Further, as with many underexplored constructs, such as grit, there is also an inconsistency in the research findings related to the relationship between grit and emotional exhaustion. Therefore, this article examines this inconsistency and provides some additional research ideas for consideration. Practical Implications This article calls attention to two constructs that can impact a sales organization’s long-term success. Prior research on each of these constructs is provided which highlights what a sales organization should and should not do in order to increase grittiness and reduce emotional exhaustion levels of their salesforce. Originality/Value/Contribution This article contributes to the literature in several meaningful ways. First, this article provides a detailed table of articles previously published in the sales literature that include the construct of grit. Second, this article investigates emotional exhaustion and its role in the sales process. A brief discussion on how grit might impact emotional exhaustion is also provided. Finally, based on prior research as well as insights gleaned from the eight articles included in this special issue, future research opportunities and suggestions are presented.

Reducing Salesperson Turnover Intentions via Organizational Market Orientation and Selective Hiring: A Job Demand-Resources Approach

ABSTRACT Purpose This study is designed to respond to repeated calls for research on sales person retentionby building upon a mature research stream to identify ways to reduce turnover in boundary spanning employees and the resultant effect it has on organizational productivity. Specifically, this research draws on the Job Demands-Resources model to explore the effect of employee perceptions of firm market orientation as a way to reduce role stressors and subsequently turnover intentions. It also looks at employee traits that may serve as a buffer to the role stress to turnover intentions link and can be part of the hiring selection process (in this case grit). In so doing, this research uses a sample of early career salespeople to examine the effects of a firm’s market orientation (MO) and selective hiring for specific traits (level of grit) on a salesperson’s intention to quit using Job Demand-Resources as a framework. Design/Methodology/Approach The authors utilized a questionnaire to collect data from a sample consisting of 260 respondents who were employed full-time and worked in either B2B or B2C sales as boundary-spanning employees. The measures utilized in this study have been used in previous research and have demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity. Analysis of the latent constructs was conducted using PLS-SEM. The model was assessed as specified in the hypotheses and was estimated using the PLS algorithm to obtain path coefficient estimates. Findings Findings suggest that organizations can benefit internally from strong MO by mitigating stressors placed on boundary-spanning employees. Those who perceived strong MO in their employer experienced more clearly defined roles, which led to decreased role ambiguity. These increased levels of job satisfaction, which reduced turnover intention. Additionally, Grit appears to only moderate the link between role conflict and job satisfaction, which suggests that grit can serve as an additional resource salespeople can tap into in response to the demands of role stressors thereby reducing their likelihood of leaving their positions. Research Implications In this research, inclusion of market orientation as an antecedent to role stressors in the Job Demands-Resources model expands the conceptualization of the construct as it relates to salespeople in that market orientation is something the firm can control directly. This opens research opportunities to use this model in the sales literature. In addition, the job-demands-resources model expands the role of grit beyond positive psychology to be viewed as a resource in stressful situations and puts the role of grit into a theoretical framework for use in business contexts. As such, the current work suggests that the grit scale can be used to replace measures used for similar constructs such as tenacity. Practical Implications This research suggests that role ambiguity can be reduced by the presence of a market orientation. This reduction in role ambiguity leads to an increase in job satisfaction which leads to reduced turnover intention. Thus, this study indicates that there may be a cost-saving benefit (e.g. recruiting and retention efforts, lost sales, etc.) that accrues to firms with a market orientation due to reduced salesperson turnover via role perceptions. This supports that the idea that organizations can benefit from market orientation not only externally, but also internally in terms of mitigating stressors placed on boundary-spanning employees. Therefore, companies should push for adoption of market orientation in order to alleviate some key role stressors placed on their salespeople in addition to the already established benefits from external customers. The link between grit, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions is another positive finding. As expected, job satisfaction helps reduce turnover intentions; however, the relationship is moderated by grit in such a way that people with higher grit show a weaker link between job satisfaction and turnover intentions while those with lower levels of grit show a stronger link between job satisfaction and turnover intentions. This raises human resource issues in the hiring process: human resource managers should work to identify salespeople with high levels of grit in order to better minimize turnover intentions given the cost of turnover to organizations. Originality This research expands existing research by examining the effects of a firm’s market orientation (MO) and selective hiring for specific traits (level of grit) on a salesperson’s intention to quit using Job Demand-Resources as a framework Combining these two literature streams – market orientation and salesperson grit – is novel and will inspire new thinking and foster new insights. This study serves as a starting point for future research to examine firm controllable resources (market orientation) along with employee traits that can act as a buffer (grit) when resources are scarce.