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Training in emotional intelligence (EI) offers a means for developing the communication and interpersonal skills needed by salespeople to develop and improve relationships with customers. Yet little research has explored EI as a precursor to effective sales performance, and existing quantitative measurement tools have been found to be psychometrically inadequate. To address this issue, an exploratory qualitative study was undertaken. Data collected via one‐on‐one depth interviews provides preliminary evidence of a relationship between sales performance and EI. Implications for sales organizations and researchers are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether and under what condition does affective orientation (AO) drive salesperson performance (SP) and whether there is a tradeoff between affective orientation and the need for cognition (NFC). Using career stage theory, this research proposes that emotion is important and that the relationship between AO and SP is conditional and mediated.

The hypothesized model is tested using survey data that were collected from 611 attendees at a Midwest regional sales meeting of a national direct selling organization. The model was estimated using 5,000 bootstrapped samples drawn to assess the conditional and indirect effects.

The findings reveal that AO increases SP when mediated through motivation to work (MW), but only during the salesperson’s initial stage of their career – their first year. In subsequent career stages, AO’s impact on SP diminishes, while NFC’s impact on SP remains significant regardless of career stage.

The data were collected from a single selling organization.

This study increases the understanding of the relationship between salesperson emotion (AO) and SP. This informs sales managers that new salespeople interpret information both emotionally and cognitively, which impacts the management of early career salespeople.

Sales research rarely investigates the role of emotion. This research finds that emotion can be an asset to new salespeople. However, the need for emotion (AO) decreases with experience and no longer has a significant impact on performance after the initial stage.

In today’s rapidly changing sales environment, successful salespeople must acquire skills that give them a competitive advantage. Emotional intelligence (EI), defined as perceiving, interpreting, and reacting to one’s own and others’ emotions, is offered as one critical skill that will allow salespeople to guide their behavior and think in ways that can enhance their sales performance. In this paper, we review emotional intelligence and discuss how it is related to existing theories of sales performance. Research propositions are then developed based on the Walker, Churchill, and Ford (1977) sales performance model. Strategies for sales practitioners are proposed, and additional opportunities for future research are identified.

Drawing from seminal research on organizational buying behavior (Johnston, 1979; Johnston & Bonoma, 1981), we use a case study format to explore the impact of the Internet and internationalization on today's industrial procurement processes. Interviews with senior managers of an industrial distributor reveal several key insights regarding the impact of the Internet on buyer–supplier interactions and the importance of global sourcing. Based on these exploratory findings, implications for future research are offered.

To enhance our understanding of the optimal buyer‐seller dyad composition in different cultures, this study investigates differences in male and female buyers’ perceptions of male and female sales representatives in Pakistan. Data collected from 88 Pakistani buyers reveal that although male and female salespeople were perceived somewhat differently depending on the buyer’s gender, many similarities were also found. In addition, buyers did not perceive salespeople of the same gender more positively than salespeople of the opposite gender. Most of the male buyers did not perceive sales to be an appropriate career for Pakistani women. Overall, the results suggest female Pakistani sales representatives are more relationship‐oriented, and some male Pakistani buyers may prefer working with female salespeople.

As organizations increasingly rely on teams to provide high levels of customer service, one's understanding and research methods related to teams must expand so that multiple hierarchical levels of an organization are analyzed effectively. This study aims to propose and test a model examining multi‐level team relationships.

Survey data from customer contact teams in a banking setting were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), a method appropriate for investigating individual and group level variables within an organization.

Results indicate that team‐member exchange, a group‐level variable, is positively associated with employee performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and explained variance in outcomes above and beyond that explained by the individual‐level relationship between the supervisor and subordinate.

Analyzing both individual‐ and group‐level variables through HLM explicates team processes and outcomes. While this study examines the banking environment, certainly, teams are an area fertile for additional study in a variety of industries.

The results provide support for the importance of team development and training as organizations increasingly use teams to provide critical customer service. Attention to the employee‐manager relationship and team member interactions will improve performance.

The paper extends understanding of important team member outcomes in an environment that increasingly relies upon teamwork to serve customers. It examines team‐member exchange and its effects on employee performance and OCB in the context of customer contact teams. Additionally, investigates leader‐member exchange in the context of team‐member exchange, a relationship that provides a more robust understanding of team processes.

Patient care teams are emerging as health care organizations continue to face resource constraints and greater demands for patient satisfaction. Although health care management researchers and managers tout the benefits of teams, findings from empirical research are mixed regarding the use of patient care teams. To gain a better understanding of patient care teams, we examined the antecedents and consequences of cohesion, one construct hypothesized to contribute to effective team performance. Previous research suggests adequacy of team training, pay equity, and acceptance of teamwork as antecedents positively associated with the team cohesion. Findings support the importance of training and a positive predisposition for teamwork to be significantly related to cohesion. Importantly, cohesion was linked to quality of patient care leading to greater levels of patient satisfaction. Implications for managers and researchers are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of salespersons' attributions about managerial e‐monitoring on salespersons' customer orientation.

Hierarchical linear modeling was used to test the six study hypotheses. A main effects model was used to test the first two hypotheses, with a comparison of regression models used to identify pure modifiers.

The results of this study found informing attributions enhance customer orientation. This effect, however, can be weakened under highly bureaucratic organizational cultures. Similarly, the ability of controlling attributions to hamper customer orientation is less pronounced in cultures described as more bureaucratic.

Building on self‐determination theory (SDT), the authors' study provides an explicit test of e‐monitoring and examines the nature and effects of information and controlling attributions. Given a low variance extracted value attained for bureaucratic culture, future research investigating the underlying dimensions of bureaucratic cultures is warranted. Likewise, more tests of the cognitive mechanisms behind salespersons' attributions are needed to further extend SDT.

Managers seeking to improve customer orientation through the use of e‐monitoring might be best served by encouraging a salesperson's informing attributions. This might be accomplished by clearly communicating the purposes of the e‐monitoring to members of the salesforce.

By investigating the positive and negative effects of e‐monitoring on salesperson customer orientation, this study offers concrete implications for researchers and practitioners on a topic that previously has been examined in the literature only via speculative post hoc analysis.