A conceptual framework for successful salesperson role change management

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to provide a conceptual framework on salesperson role change process and, based on the framework, builds propositions to assist future empirical research in business-to-business sales force management and to help sales organizations better understand the changing salesperson role and successfully redesign their sales model. Design/methodology/approach This study reviews and discusses the dynamics observed in the current marketplace and uses appraisal theory to claim that salesperson role change is individual salesperson’s affective decision and subsequent action after a cognitive appraisal of surrounding environmental changes. To support, this study presents a dichotomous classification on salesperson role and presents salesperson role change process that shows individual salespersons’ decision selectively made in the process. Findings Salesperson role change is individual salesperson’s affective decision and subsequent action after a cognitive appraisal of surrounding environmental changes. The role change is individual salespersons’ decision selectively made in their role change process. In the process, they either replicate or transform their (prior) experience for learning and skill changes that subsequently change their role. The individual-led role change may not be found in every salesperson. Originality/value Advancing the traditional view on the evolving role of salespeople, this study holds a view for both unchanging and changing nature of salesperson roles. This study uses appraisal theory to show how salespeople make an adaptive decision based on the evoked emotions to change (or not to change) their roles. Unlike the earlier frameworks, the current salesperson role change process shows how individual salespersons opt to change their roles.

A look into the past and future: theories within supply chain management, marketing and management

“…This theory argues that emotions are elicited or differentiated on the basis of a person’s subjective evaluation. Environments appraised as goal-congruent (incongruent) are evaluated as good or desirable (bad) and evoke positive (negative) emotions (Oh, 2017).…”

Size effect and merger dominance in salesforce integration

“…The findings suggest revisiting the relationship between organizational culture and merger performance. As indicated in earlier studies (Drori et al , 2011; Jukka et al , 2017; McClure, 2010; Oh, 2017; Sarala, 2010; Sarala et al , 2019; Weber and Camerer, 2003), a natural expectation is that organizational capability to integrate different organizational cultures is negatively affected by strategic change processes, and that firms inevitably face various cultural issues in effecting changes. However, recent studies (Brueller et al , 2015; Erel et al , 2015; Oh et al , 2014) identify a potential intervention of the size variable in the relationship and called for additional investigation of the relationship.…”

The future of buyer–seller interactions: a conceptual framework and research agenda

“…The role of salespeople has fundamentally changed in the presence of the informational and technological shifts (Oh, 2017 ). Furthermore, in line with the ecosystems perspective of selling, salespeople’s ability to change the thinking and actions of buyers is increasingly more limited (Hartmann et al, 2018 ).…”

“…The information asymmetry assumption—that sellers have private information about their products and services that buyers are not aware of—is no longer relevant in many business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) contexts due to buyers’ easy access to useful information before their interactions with sellers (e.g., Ahearne et al, 2019b ; Atefi et al, 2020 ; Hartmann et al, 2018 ; Oh, 2017 ). The automotive industry represents a good example, as car buying has fundamentally changed with the emergence of dozens of third-party platforms (e.g., TrueCar, Autotrader, Edmunds).…”