Salesperson Behavior Research Articles

Wearing your success on your sleeve: How salesperson luxury brand consumption affects consumers’ perceptions

First impressions matter. Just as salespeople assess potential customers, consumers make judgments about salespeople, using cues from a salesperson's appearance and behavior to shape their expectations. In this research, we propose that a salesperson's personal display of luxury-branded products (e.g., wearing a Burberry scarf or driving a BMW) in a non-luxury retail setting is an unexplored but consequential cue that negatively frames consumers’ expectations of a pending negotiation. Across four studies, we demonstrate that, in business-to-consumer contexts, when a salesperson displays luxury-branded products, consumers reduce their expectations of receiving a favorable deal compared to when no luxury brands are displayed. Such expectations are problematic as they deter consumers from approaching salespeople, which can lead to lost sales for firms. Further, we find that the negative effect of luxury-branded products on deal expectations is sequentially mediated by consumers’ perceptions of salesperson materialism and moral character. Finally, we demonstrate that cues signaling the salesperson's customer orientation fail to negate the damaging effects of luxury-brand displays and may backfire depending on the signaler. As such, this research provides takeaways for salespeople who sell non-luxury products and offers important contributions to theory.

Sales Ethical Behavior: An Empirical Investigation of Its Determinants and Impacts on Bank Customer of Urban area in Indonesia

This study analyzes the effect of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) performance ratings on the cost of equity in South-East Asia, both individually and in aggregate. The implied cost of equity (ICC) based on various models is used as a proxy of a true cost of equity. The ESG rating data are from Refinitiv. The panel regression is applied to relate ICC to ESG rating scores and relevant explanatory variables. This paper examines the following five South-East Asian markets: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. We find that firms with better ESG ratings do not necessarily have lower cost of equity as the effects of each ESG component are not the same. Environmental rating (E) and Social rating (S) are not statistically significant in determining the cost of equity. Only Governance rating (G) has a statistically significant negative relationship. The implication is that a firm that aims to lower its cost of equity does not need to invest in all aspects of ESG but should focus more on improving its governance.Each company strives to ensure ethical behavior among salespeople through the implementation of policies, training programs, and promotional activities, recognizing that it has a significant impact on company performance and consumer behavior. However, there is a limited amount of research exploring how internal factors within the human resource management system of a company contribute to consumer perceptions. The objective of this study is to investigate the determinants and consequences of salesperson's ethical behavior. Specifically, the study aims to examine the influence of the reward system on salesperson's ethical behavior and its subsequent impact on consumer perceptions of the company and its products. This research is conducted in response to the scarcity of studies that investigate the relationship between reward systems, salesperson's ethical behavior, and the formation of consumer perceptions towards the company and its offerings. Keywords: Sales, Ethical Behavior, Bank Customer, Urban area.

Study on online payments and e-commerce with SOR model

PurposeThe main purpose of this paper is to explain the preferences of consumers for using online payment services. This paper applies a unified theory model named stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) theory for exploration.Design/methodology/approachThis is quantitative research based on the structural equation modelling method. The stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) theory was applied, whereby the author conducted an online survey through a structured questionnaire with users of mobile payment services. These consumers are using online payments for online shopping purposes. The survey was conducted all over India. The sample size is 355.FindingsThe study found that utilitarian, hedonic value and salesperson behaviour impact consumers satisfaction and behaviour while using online payment services. The study found that there is a significant direct relationship between consumer satisfaction and consumer behaviour. This study examines how financial mobile services contribute to e-commerce implementation, especially in the context of India.Practical implicationsThis study incorporates a variety of factors, including the behaviour of salespeople, which affect consumer happiness, satisfaction and behaviour intention. This study reveals a direct relationship between consumer satisfaction and behavioural intention. Accordingly, the use of mobile banking and digital financial services has a positive impact on customer satisfaction. This study suggested that awareness about e-commerce services and mobile financial services is an important aspect of consumers satisfaction. Effective e-commerce services and mobile financial services have a positive impact on consumer behaviour.Originality/valueThis is a comprehensive model used for online payment services and directly related to emerging economies like India. This study examines the consumer willingness of the digital market in relation to online payment services. This study contributes to the relevant literature by simultaneously examining the role of e-commerce platform characteristics and online consumer psychology in influencing behavioural intention. Numerous factors have been revealed by this investigation.

In-person Communication Styles and Consumer Advocacy - Centered on the Chinese Luxury Market -

China is one of the largest markets for high-end items. Consumers in China prefer to make purchases in stores after interacting with salespeople. However, the impact of communication style on customer behavior has received little research attention in terms of how salespeople build rapport and promote consumer advocacy. Two research questions were proposed accordingly. Which aspects of luxury salespeople’s communication style (e.g., task orientation, interaction orientation, and self-orientation) affect the relationship between consumers and brands in China? Does rapport-building generate Chinese consumer advocacy? A questionnaire survey with 319 consumers who had visited luxury stores was conducted. Data was analyzed using a structural equation model. The findings show that when salespeople adopt an interactive communication style with consumers, it means they succeed in building rapport and influencing consumers’ advocacy. Self-oriented salespeople can also positively influence customer advocacy by relational rapport-building with consumers. It was suggested that luxury managers should further improve their salespeople’s communication perceptions and skills, use targeted communication strategies for various consumer types, and encourage customers to act as “brand ambassadors”. The study findings contributed to the body of the literature in that it investigated how behavior of salespeople in luxury stores affected ordinary consumers and filled knowledge gaps in the research on Chinese luxury retail service.

Supplier involvement and supplier performance in new product development: Moderating effects of supplier salesperson behaviors

Supplier involvement (SI) for new product development (NPD) entails multiple relationships between buyers and their suppliers, demanding appropriate coordination mechanisms for successful NPD collaboration. This study proposes that supplier salesperson behaviors act as coordination mechanisms in the SI setting for NPD information regulating and process regulating behaviors. Drawing on information processing theory and using survey data matched with archival data, this study unravels the role of supplier salesperson behaviors in the relationship between the timing of SI and supplier performance, which is the precursor to the buyer’s NPD performance. Our results indicate that although information regulating behaviors positively moderate the timing of SI–supplier performance linkage, process regulating behaviors weaken this linkage across multiple NPD stages. This study contributes to the literature by highlighting a new salesperson’s role in the SI setting (i.e., salesperson as coordinator), which has been previously overlooked.

Secondary Selling: Beyond the Salesperson–Customer Dyad

A study involving unobtrusive observations of salespeople's behaviors in sales settings surfaces a novel insight: a salesperson's selling effectiveness with a customer may be enhanced by the way the salesperson interacts with secondary entities, such as objects and people outside the core salesperson–customer dyad. Based on this insight and social interest theory, this research introduces the construct of secondary selling. It refers to a salesperson interacting with secondary entities in a manner that indicates to a focal customer that the salesperson values these entities. The pattern of results from four follow-on studies using multiple methods and data sources indicates that, in general, secondary selling reduces a focal customer's reactance to a salesperson's recommendations, which leads to higher sales revenue and customer satisfaction. Customers with high persuasion knowledge (compared with customers with lower persuasion knowledge) are more favorably influenced by secondary selling involving company property but less favorably influenced by secondary selling involving nonfocal customers. In addition to reducing a focal customer's reactance to sales recommendations, secondary selling also helps primary selling (targeted at a focal customer) reduce the customer's reactance to a greater extent. Overall, the results provide evidence of the pervasive and influential role of secondary selling in boosting sales revenue and customer satisfaction in sales exchanges.

Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Cascading Impact of Performance Pressure on Supervisor Bottom-Line Mentality and Salesperson Hypervigilant Decision Making, Emotional Exhaustion, and Engagement

Purpose Pressure to achieve or exceed performance goals accompanies many sales positions in business-to-business (B2B) organizations. Sales supervisors experience pressure from executives to hit sales targets, exceed quotas, and increase market share. Such pressures may result in supervisor adoption of a bottom-line mentality (SBLM). When this occurs, supervisors tend to focus solely on achieving bottom-line results. When supervisors manage the sales force with this mentality, it may cause their salespeople to experience mental and emotional stress. Individual salespeople are likely to cope with the stress induced by SBLM by employing dysfunctional decision-making behaviors. Ironically, the dysfunctional decision-making techniques used to alleviate the stress engendered by SBLM may actually increase salesperson emotional exhaustion. In this stressful and results-driven environment, salespeople may direct their efforts toward obtaining certain goals at the expense of other priorities, such as their emotional well-being. When salespeople experience emotional exhaustion, various negative outcomes may result. In the present study, we investigate whether emotional exhaustion affects salesperson cognitive and emotional engagement and intentions to seek alternative employment opportunities. Essentially, this study assesses the potential trickle-down effect of performance pressure from organizational executives down organizational channels to sales supervisors and the sales force. Empirically, we examine how SBLM affects salesperson decision making, emotional exhaustion, job engagement, and turnover intention.Methodology A theoretical model of our hypothesized relationships is presented and tested using a sample of 274 business-to-business (B2B) salespeople. The sample was obtained through Qualtrics Panels, and a project manager was utilized to conduct an initial cleaning of the data to improve objectivity during data collection and analysis. Survey respondents were subjected to multiple screening questions and attention checks to enhance data quality. All constructs used in the survey were adapted from previous research and were measured using 7-point likert scales. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to assess the measurement properties of all constructs, and structural equation modeling (i.e. AMOS 26) was utilized to test the hypothesized relationships in our model.Findings The results highlight multiple negative repercussions of the hypothesized trickle-down effect of organizational performance pressure on sales supervisors and the sales force. Specifically, our findings show that (1) performance pressure from organizational executives incites SBLM, (2) SBLM encourages hypervigilant decision making in salespeople, (3) hypervigilant decision making is a strong predictor of emotional exhaustion, and (4) emotionally exhausted salespeople have lower levels of both cognitive and emotional job engagement and higher intentions to seek alternative employment. Interestingly, while salespeople with lower levels of emotional engagement tend to have greater turnover intentions, salesperson cognitive engagement is not significantly related to turnover intentions.Practical Implications The findings from this study have important implications for B2B sales organizations. Sales executives and supervisors need to understand how the “sell, sell, sell” mentality may harm the overall emotional well-being of their salespeople. The present research highlights how the organizational environment influences the behaviors and emotional welfare of the sales force and provides empirical evidence showing that the organizational context has the potential to influence salesperson behaviors and organizational outcomes. Persistently emphasizing bottom-line goals may put the long-term vitality of the sales force at risk. Therefore, organizational executives and sales supervisors should be mindful of how they communicate desirable performance outcomes to avoid SBLM and overwhelming individual salespeople. Essentially, organizational executives must be careful not to overemphasize the desire for increased performance goals to sales supervisors, and sales supervisors must avoid continuously highlighting the attainment of bottom-line outcomes when communicating with individual salespeople. Instead, sales managers should consider reducing outcome-based measures (e.g. sales volume) and using behavior-based measures (e.g. effectively communicating with and servicing customers) to assess salesperson performance. Additionally, sales managers should strive to create an authentic, open partnership with individual salespeople and avoid a paternalistic management style. Establishing professional relationships characterized by mutual respect may enable managers to achieve an appropriate balance between attaining bottom-line results and building a mature, confident, and competitive salesforce.Originality/Contribution To our knowledge, this is the first article to introduce a form of dysfunctional decision-making (i.e. hypervigilant decision making) to the sales literature. This research is also one of the first to examine SBLM in a sales context. Understanding the impact of SBLM is an emerging research interest in the management literature but considering it through a sales lens is unique. Our findings emphasize the importance of SBLM in B2B organizational environments and provide fruitful avenues for future research in this area. The present study contributes to the sales literature by examining the impact of SBLM on salesperson hypervigilant decision making and the impact of hypervigilant decision making on emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, this study adds to existing research on salesperson engagement and emotional exhaustion by showing how emotional exhaustion negatively affects both the emotional and cognitive engagement of B2B salespeople. Our findings also reinforce previous research by corroborating the inverse relationship between salesperson engagement and turnover intentions.

SALESPERSON BEHAVIUOR AND CUSTOMERS SATISFACTION IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY: AN EXPOSITION OF SELECTED RESTAURANTS IN ENUGU METROPOLIS

Purpose: This paper studied the effect of salesperson behaviuor on customer satisfaction in the services industry. The specific objectives were firstly to determine the relationship between salesperson ethical selling behaviuor in delivering services and customer satisfaction in the services industry. Secondly, to ascertain the relationship between salesperson smart selling behaviour in delivering services and customer satisfaction in the services industry.
 Methodology: The study comprises customers of elected restaurant in Enugu metropolis whose population is unknown. Cochran’s sample size determination formula was used to determine the sample size of 384. Survey method was used to distribute structured questionnaires to the 384 respondents who eventually retuned 300 well filled questionnaires. For the reliability of the study, Cronbach’s alpha was used and the value of 0.784 was determined. Analysis of data was done using Pearson Product Moment correlation statistical tool.
 Results: Findings revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between salesperson ethical selling behaviour in delivering services and customer satisfaction. Similarly, it was revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between salesperson smart selling behaviour in delivering services and customer satisfaction. The implication of this finding is that if salespersons continue with these pleasant approaches, satisfied customers will make repeat purchase and transform into loyal customers. Therefore, restaurant management should lay more emphasis on improving salesperson behaviour to satisfy customers and improve organizational performance. Also, salespersons should be taught to be innovative in the manner they deliver restaurant services to enhance customer value.

Stop making excuses: reducing unethical behavior and improving performance and relationship quality

Stop making excuses: reducing unethical behavior and improving performance and relationship quality

THE EFFECT OF INDIVIDUAL FACTORS ON CONSUMER’S PURCHASING DECISIONS AT GRAND DUCK KING RESTAURANT CAMBRIDGE MEDAN

The personality individual factors that usually affect consumers‘ purchasing decisions include age or life cycle stage, job, economic condition, lifestyle and personality or self-image. The consumer‘s purchasing decisions related to goods depends on various factors such as brand, quality, after sales services, warranty, advertising, rebates, offers, discount, mode of payment, display, sales person behaviour, store location and many more. Grand Duck King Restaurant Medan, it has been confirmed that the number of consumers has been decreasing these recent months. It has been suspected that this problem is due to consumers‘ individual factors. The indicators of individual factors in this research were adopted by Rouzbahani, et.al (2013:1151) which include age and life cycle stage, job, economic condition, lifestyle, and personality or self-image and indicators of consumer‘s purchasing decisions indicators by Lopez (2012:127) which are frequency of transactions, consumer referral, Loyalty, repeat decisions. The population that the writer used is the consumers the writer doing research 1 day on 30th May 2017 at grand Duck King Cambridge Medan which are 101 people, by using Slovin‘s Formula, the sample size is 81 consumers, and use the simple random sampling technique which the consumers have same chance to be chosen as sample. The results from analysis are individual factors have effect on consumer‘s purchasing decision at Grand Duck Restaurant King Cambridge Medan and individual factors have a strong and positive effect on consumer‘s purchasing decisions at Grand Duck King Restaurant Cambridge Medan.

Factors Influencing Consumer Loyalty: A Study of Japanese Retail Stores

ABSTRACT The importance of understanding how to encourage consumer loyalty is critical to the success of a retail establishment. Faithful customers are more likely to be repeat buyers, purchase more frequently and recommend the store to others. Thus, it is essential to understand the factors that drive the most dedicated patrons. In this study, we look at whether salesperson behaviors, perceptions of their expertise, the quality of the products offered, and the overall reputation of the retailer, influence allegiance to a store. The results indicate that two variables, salesperson behavior and quality of the products offered at the store, significantly affect customer loyalty.

Inter-organizational purchasing contracts: the effects of multi-agents in a supplying firm

We investigate how supplier performance is influenced by the behaviors (self-interested behaviors and gatekeeping actions) of a supplier’s salesperson and engineer, and how such behaviors affect a performance-based contract design to ensure the desired performance from the supplier. This article develops a incentive contract that proves how such behaviors affect supplier performance, elucidating how agents’ behaviors influence a buyer’s incentive contract form for collaboration with the supplier. Our study found that in general, the behaviors of salespeople and engineers can damage supplier performance. Their impact changes depending on some contingent factors, proposing incentive contract forms that can mitigate the negative consequences of the behaviors on supplier and buyer performance. This paper takes multiple agents’ behaviors and their behavioral disutility into consideration when developing an incentive contract.

The Role of Salespeople in Value Co-Creation and Its Impact on Sales Performance

ABSTRACT Purpose This paper aims to examine salesperson skills, including listening, communication, and adaptive selling, that can enable value co-creation with customers and increase sales performance, while taking into consideration the contingent role of salesperson relationship-enhancing activities. Methodology Survey and objective sales performance data were collected from 201 B2B salespeople in the industrial goods industry. The hypotheses were tested using PLS-SEM. Findings The results show adaptive selling, listening, and communication of salespeople positively impact the behaviors of salespeople to co-create value with customers. The results show that when salespeople co-create value with customers, they will have a positive effect on sales performance. Results show how value co-creation mediates the effects of listening and adaptive selling on sales performance. Research Implications Salespeople need to effectively listen to their customers to provide needed solutions by jointly working with them to co-create value. Similarly, a salesperson’s communication and adaptive selling skills have collective impacts that positively contribute to the value co-creation process. Results supplement previous findings in the literature by showing value co-creation holds a positive effect on sales performance at the micro salesperson level. The results offer additional support to the ongoing dialog on the role of a salesperson as a value co-creator. Practical Implications This study has identified several variables that engender successful co-creation by salespeople in B2B sales contexts. Findings demonstrate that salespeople who can adapt their selling approach, are good listeners, and can effectively communicate with customers can engender the value co-creation process with customers. The findings serve as a base to create professional guidelines about the skills and capabilities salespeople need to successfully execute a value co-creation process. Originality/Value The study adds to the literature on value co-creation by highlighting three factors that can enhance the value co-creation process at the level of salespeople leading to better sales outcomes. This research adds the existing literature on the role of value co-creation in sales by empirically examining the relationship between value co-creation and sales performance at the salesperson level.

Impact of Salesperson Behaviour on Customers Equity in Super Market

The main objective of the study is to examine the impact of adaptive selling and ethical orientation behavior on customer equity. The present study is descriptive and analytical research design in nature. The study based on questionnaire survey to collect primary data of super market within Kathmandu valley with 200 respondents using judgmental sampling technique. Correlation and regression have been adopted to analyze and interpret the collected data. The study has found that adaptive selling and ethical orientation behavior have positive relationship with customer equity. Moreover, Ethical oriented behavior has most impact on customer equity building in super market.

Salesperson ethics behavior as antecedent of Islamic banking customer loyalty

PurposeThe development of the banking industry is encouraging increasingly fierce competition. In the face of banking competition, Islamic banks need to build customer loyalty by paying attention to ethical aspects. Ethics has an essential role in forming and preserve relationships between companies and customers in the long term. The measurement model of salesperson ethical behavior in this study was built using the Islamic-based marketing concept. This study aims to test empirical models of Islamic ethics-based salesperson behavior in increasing customer loyalty of Islamic banks through the aspect of customer trust.Design/methodology/approachResearch data were obtained from 165 Islamic bank customers in the Central Java, Indonesia, using the purposive sampling method. Data analysis in this study uses structural equation modeling.FindingsThe study shows that the Islamic ethics-based salesperson behavior has a positive effect on customer trust in a salesperson, customers’ trust in Islamic banks and customer loyalty. Customer trust in a salesperson has positively and significantly influenced customer trust in Islamic banks and customer loyalty. Customer trust in Islamic banks has a positive and significant effect on customer loyalty.Practical implicationsThis study’s results are expected to be used to reference maintenance salesperson in Islamic banking to behave based on Islamic principles. Islamic marketing principles need to be applied through salespersons behaving realistically (al-Waqi’iyyah) and humanistic concepts (insaniyyah). The application of Islamic ethics can limit and avoid deviant behavior from salespeople that is detrimental to consumers and organizations. The behavior of salespeople based on Islamic ethics will build consumer trust in both organizations and salesperson so that it has implications for consumer loyalty.Originality/valueThis paper provides new findings to understand Islamic banking consumer loyalty that focuses on Islamic ethical salesperson behavior point of view. This paper also presents a new measurement of research variables from an Islamic perspective in examining the role of Islamic ethics-based salesperson behavior toward banking customer loyalty. This study takes the object of research in Islamic banking that has different characteristics from conventional financial institutions.

Determinant Analysis of Salesperson's Performance at PT. Prima Zirang Utama Semarang

The purpose of this research is to test empirically the effect of salesperson behavior, sales activity planning, and performance orientation on salesperson performance at PT. Prima Zirang Utama Semarang. The research method used is the survey method, namely research that takes a sample from a population and uses a questionnaire as the main data collection tool. The type of research used is explanatory research. The samples studied were all salespeople at PT. Prima Zirang Utama Semarang, totaling 36 people. The result of this research is that there is a positive and significant influence between the salesperson's behavior, sales activity planning, and performance orientation on the salesperson's performance. This can be seen from the significant value in the ANOVA recapitulation of 0.026 indicating a value smaller than 0.05. This means that the regression model is feasible to predict the effect of salesperson behavior variables, sales activity planning, and performance orientation on salesperson performance variables.

Evaluation of salespeople by the purchasing function: implications for the evolving role of salespeople

As the focus on the effectiveness of salespeople has increased, we concentrate on the fact that selling involves broad sets of actors and investigate the approaches and behaviors of salespeople from the perspective of the purchasing agent to develop a deeper theoretical understanding of the effectiveness of salesperson strategies. Our focus is on the purchasing function that is increasingly involved in the buying process, and we examine a central research question—how does the purchasing function view salespeople’s strategies and behaviors? We describe the results of in-depth interviews with 35 purchasing executives that focused on how the purchasing function views salespeople’s strategies and behaviors. The findings suggest that salespeople, in general, do not focus enough on the needs of the purchasing function. Salespeople are not meeting the purchasing function needs, and purchase-centered sales strategies may need to be developed. These findings have theoretical and managerial implications and offer directions for future research in this area.

Tell me more: how salespeople encourage customer disclosure

Purpose This paper aims to explore salesperson–customer interactions to identify actual behaviors that result in enhanced customer disclosure and classify them as disclosure tactics, and to explore whether certain tactics are more likely to lead to salesperson–customer relationship advancement. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative research uses conversation analysis to identify salesperson disclosure tactics that result in customer disclosure, using 12 video-recordings of authentic business-to-business initial sales meetings between a salesperson and customer. Findings Findings showed four disclosure tactics that salespeople use to get customers to disclose information: embedded expertise claims, tailored references, demonstrations of preparation and customer orientation and benevolence. These tactics appear more often and are executed differently in sales meetings that successfully advance. Originality/value The research addresses an unexplored area of specific salesperson behaviors and their connection to customer disclosure and relationship advancement in the exploration phase. Additionally, this fills a gap that cannot be addressed with traditional survey or interview data and brings conversation analysis to this particular area.

Protection motivation theory and brick-and-mortar salespeople

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to apply protection motivation theory (PMT) to brick-and-mortar salespeople's responses to customers' fear appeals.Design/methodology/approachThe approach is to develop a conceptual model for the effect of customers' fear appeals on brick-and-mortar salespeople.FindingsPMT relates to the influence of customers' fear appeals on brick-and-mortar salespeople's behaviours. The salesperson's decision whether to follow a retail manager's suggestion about ways to mitigate a customer's fear appeal depends on believed threat severity, believed threat susceptibility, response efficacy, self-efficacy and response costs.Research limitations/implicationsPMT is applied to a new domain: brick-and-mortar salespeople. Although a powerful yet universal emotion, only limited research has examined fear within this group.Practical implicationsUnderstanding salespeople's fears will help retail managers identify strategies for encouraging adaptive behaviours and deterring maladaptive behaviours by salespeople.Originality/valueA model relating customers' fear appeals to salespeople's behaviours is introduced.

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

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