Is the customer king?

Sales and service staff need to consider and influence a portfolio of relationships, not only customers, write Willy Bolander, Christopher R. Plouffe, Joseph A. Cote and Bryan Hochstei

Salesperson Counterproductive Work Behaviors

This study examines salespeople’s engagement in Counterproductive Work Behaviors (CWBs), which are volitional behaviors that harm or intend to harm organizations. Depth interviews were conducted with ten professionals who identified fifty six distinct CWBs, organized into thirteen categories. Compared to non salespeople, salespeople commit some different CWBs, and for different reasons. Sales managers were found to deal with CWBs very informally and lack best-practice ideas for incorporating CWBs into recruitment and performance assessment. Finally, compared to the extra-role nature of OCBs, CWBs were found to occur among salespeople primarily as in-role behaviors

Incorporating a Counterproductive Work Behavior Perspective into the Salesperson Deviance Literature: Intentionally Harmful Acts and Motivations for Sales Deviance

Counterproductive Work Behaviors (CWBs) are based on the harm, or intended harm, they cause to organizations and or stakeholders (Spector and Fox 2005), while sales deviance is based on the violation of organizational norms (Robinson and Bennet 1995). Utilizing the definitional difference, this article explores a gap in the sales deviance literature that allows for potentially unidentified intentionally harmful behaviors that do not violate organizational norms, to exist. In addition, we propose strategic motivations for such behavior. Results suggest that motivations include long-term attitudes toward CWBs, moral obligation, consensus beliefs, productive equity, self-image congruence, and impression management

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

A systematic literature review of negative psychological states and behaviors in sales

In sales settings, negativity typically manifests in two forms. Negative psychological states (NpS), such as stress, burnout, and/or depression can result from sales activities. Negative sales behaviors are actions counter to the expected behaviors associated with the sales role. Both NpS and negative behaviors lead to reduced performance and disengaged employees. Yet, despite their importance, no single analysis of how these various negative topics are related exists. Thus, the present research utilizes the systematic literature review approach to investigate NpS and behaviors in sales settings. The present research contributes to the literature in four main ways, through: (1) explication of forty-nine salient constructs; (2) identification of NpS and behaviors construct roles in prior research; (3) systematic review of past research and trends; and (4) presenting a comprehensive set of future research opportunities

Is Sales Competition A Good Motivator or a Bad Idea? The Underlying Mechanism of Threat Appraisals

The common logic for competition in sales organizations is simple: as salespeople compete with one another, the sales performance of the entire group should increase. Some prior research has supported this notion, while other studies suggested that competition may adversely affect employees. Our research finds both positions have merit, as a salesperson\u27s perceptions of a competitive psychological climate (CPC) increase sales performance and turnover intentions. To explain this countervailing effect, we turn to cognitive appraisal theory to demonstrate that salesperson appraisal of the environment motivates their behavior. Specifically, salesperson threat appraisals act as a mediator between CPC to performance and turnover, identifying an underlying mechanism and negative relationships for both. We further uncover learning orientation as a moderator of the competitive psychological climate – threat relationship, thus identifying a variable that enables the benefits while minimizing the drawbacks of utilizing competition in the sales force

N2O production in the eastern South Atlantic: analysis of N2O stable isotopic and concentration data

The stable isotopic composition of dissolved nitrous oxide (N2O) is a tracer for the production, transport, and consumption of this greenhouse gas in the ocean. Here we present dissolved N2O concentration and isotope data from the South Atlantic Ocean, spanning from the western side of the mid-Atlantic Ridge to the upwelling zone off the southern African coast. In the eastern South Atlantic, shallow N2O production by nitrifier denitrification contributed a flux of isotopically depleted N2O to the atmosphere. Along the African coast, N2O fluxes to the atmosphere of up to 46 µmol/m2/d were calculated using satellite-derived QuikSCAT wind speed data, while fluxes at the offshore stations averaged 0.04 µmol/m2/d. Comparison of the isotopic composition of the deeper N2O in the South Atlantic (800 m to 1000 m) to measurements made in other regions suggests that water advected from one or more of the major oxygen deficient zones contributed N2O to the mesopelagic South Atlantic via the Southern Ocean. This deeper N2O was isotopically and isotopomerically enriched (δ15Nbulk − N2O = 8.7 ± 0.1‰, δ18O − N2O = 46.5 ± 0.2‰, and Site Preference = 18.7 ± 0.6‰) relative to the shallow N2O source, indicating that N2O consumption by denitrification influenced its isotopic composition. The N2O concentration maximum was observed between 200 m and 400 m and reached 49 nM near the Angolan coast. The depths of the N2O concentration maximum coincided with those of sedimentary particle resuspension along the coast. The isotopic composition of this N2O (δ15Nbulk − N2O = 5.8 ± 0.1‰, δ18O − N2O = 39.7 ± 0.1‰, and Site Preference = 9.8 ± 1.0‰) was consistent with production by diffusion-limited nitrate (NO3−) reduction to nitrite (NO2−), followed by NO2− reduction to N2O by denitrification and/or nitrifier denitrification, with additional N2O production by NH2OH decomposition during NH3 oxidation. The sediment surface, benthic boundary layer, or particles resuspended from the sediments are likely to have provided the physical and chemical conditions necessary to produce this N2O