Steven P. Brown’s research while affiliated with University of Houston and other places

An exploratory investigation of selected voice characteristics of 21 direct salespeople revealed that rate of speaking, average pause duration, and fundamental frequency contour were significantly related to a measure of output sales performance. Although a sample of 26 housewives (who constituted the target market for the product being sold) was able to distinguish among the speaking rates of the salespeople, there was no relationship between either the housewives' perceptions of the salespeople based on their voice characteristics or between perceptions and output sales performance. Relative to a comparison group of 13 nonsalespeople, the salespeople spoke more rapidly and produced fundamental frequency contours that fell more.

Previous research has made a distinction between “open” and “closed” salesperson influence tactics (Spiro and Perreault 1979; Weitz 1981). Open tactics are conceptualized as straightforward, legitimate and above-board, whereas closed tactics are characterized as manipulative, illicit and containing an ulterior motive. This paper posits that the same behaviors may constitute either open or closed influence tactics and that it is the salesperson's intent that differentiates the two. Regardless of the salesperson's intent, however, the buyer's attributions of motive to the salesperson determine how tactical behavior is interpreted and whether it effectively influences the buyer. A model incorporating variables likely to influence the incidence of closed influence tactics by salespeople and the nature of buyer attributions is posited and a series of propositions advanced.

The authors discuss the need to adapt research in three substantively related but paradigmatically diverse research domains (salesperson motivation, control systems, and compensation) in light of the evolving selling environment. A key objective is to suggest the desirability of integrating these literatures, which, ultimately, all seek to inform management regarding how salespeople and sales organizations can be encouraged to become more productive. The authors maintain that specification of the right goals and metrics constitutes a fundamental common denominator across the three literatures.

New developments and trends in selling and sales management are creating demands and opportunities that require adaptation and new approaches on the part of both sales organizations and academic researchers. This paper summarizes critical dimensions of change in the environment that affect the practice of selling and sales management and introduces the papers that follow in this Anniversary Special Issue of JPSSM.

The authors served as Special Issue Guest Editors for this issue of JPSSM. In this introduction to the Special Issue, they discuss how the issue was conceived and produced, and express their gratitude to the many colleagues who worked to make the issue a success.

Business-to-business firms are increasingly focusing on building long-term partnering relationships with key customers. Salespeople are often responsible for managing these relationships. To be effective as relationship managers, salespeople need to be embedded in both their firm’s and customers’ organizations. They need to have extensive knowledge of their customers’ business and also know and be able to leverage their firm’s resources to develop offerings tailored to their customers’ needs. Their companies and sales managers need to use different approaches to manage and support salespeople in this new role. In this paper, we examine some issues affecting the interfaces between elements of the embedded sales force and suggest some directions for future research and methods for examining these issues. KeywordsSales force-Relationship-Embedded

The authors review issues related to the application of structural equation modeling (SEM) in marketing. The discussion begins by considering issues related to the process of applying SEM in empirical research, including model specification, identification, estimation, evaluation, and respecification, and reporting of results. In addition to these process issues, a number of other issues, such as formulation of multiple theoretical models, model error versus sampling error, and relating study objectives to the capabilities of SEM, are considered, and suggestions offered regarding ways that SEM applications might be improved.

The authors report a meta-analysis of relationships linking employee job satisfaction to customer satisfaction and perceived service quality in studies that correlate employee data with customer data. Overall, both relationships are positive and statistically and substantively significant. Moderator analyses show that service industry characteristics (relationship versus encounter, personal versus non-personal) and methodological characteristics (aggregated versus individual level of analysis, concurrent versus predictive survey) moderate these relationships. Estimation of a path analytic model using the aggregated data shows that customer-perceived service quality completely mediates the relationship between employee job satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

The reported research examines the moderating effects of role overload on the antecedents and consequences of self-efficacy and personal goal level in a longitudinal study conducted in an industrial selling context. The results indicate that role overload moderates the antecedent effect of perceived organizational resources on self-efficacy beliefs. They also show that role overload moderates the direct effects of both self-efficacy and goal level on performance, such that these relationships are positive when role overload is low but not significant when role overload is high. Further, the results reveal a pattern of moderated mediation, in which goal level mediates the indirect effect of self-efficacy on performance when role overload is low but not when it is high. Implications for theory and managerial practice are discussed.

The authors examined the moderating effects of coping tactics on the relationship between negative emotion and work performance. Findings indicate an adverse effect of emotion on performance; however, this effect is moderated by coping tactics. Venting (expressing one's negative feelings to others) amplified the adverse effects of negative emotion. Self-control had mixed effects: On one hand, it buffered the adverse effects of negative emotion, yet on the other hand, it had a negative direct effect on outcomes. Task focus had a positive direct effect on performance but no buffering (moderating) effect. Implications of these findings for understanding the effects of negative emotion and coping in the workplace are discussed.