Suchergebnisse

Key account management (KAM) is a rapidly growing area of interest in business-to-business marketing. However, unnoticed by marketing, a quiet revolution has taken place in supply chain management (SCM), where the traditional emphasis on least-cost transactions has given way to a focus on long-term relationships with a few key suppliers. It is thus apparent that the two disciplines are converging. This article uses a cross-disciplinary approach to explore whether these developments from the field of SCM provide insights into key business-to-business relationships. A detailed case study of a long-term relationship between a business-to-business services provider and a key customer in the construction industry suggests there is a definable overlap. The supply chain model illuminates five important elements of KAM and offers a promising method for the evaluation of such relationships. As a result of the research, both supplier and customer companies implemented actions to improve and strengthen this important relationship.

Purpose
The digital transformation is dramatically changing the business-to-business (B2B) sales environment, challenging long-standing views regarding the critical competencies required of salespeople. This paper aims to explore the personal traits associated with sales performance in a digital selling environment.


Design/methodology/approach
Using template analysis, the researchers captured and coded over 21 h of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with senior sales leaders from various industry sectors, exploring their perceptions of the personal traits now required of B2B salespeople in the digital landscape.


Findings
The research identifies three high-level trait types critical to sales success within a digital selling environment: "analytical curiosity" – the natural motivation and ability to gather and synthesize sales-related knowledge, "empathetic citizenship" – the ability to establish initial rapport while building long-term trust and "disciplined drive" – the exertion of selling effort in a highly focused and methodical manner across all stages of the sales process.


Research limitations/implications
The present data came from interviews with sales leaders in Canada. A more global sample may lead to additional insights. Moreover, the sample was drawn from long-cycle B2B sales environments; conclusions may differ for short-cycle or business-to-consumer markets.


Practical implications
This paper presents a framework for hiring and developing salespeople in the digital sales environment, identifying personal trait types that sales leaders should look for when hiring: analytical curiosity, empathetic citizenship and disciplined drive. The paper identifies how these trait types influence sales success, suggesting that sales leaders could coach and educate their teams to make the best use of them.


Originality/value
This paper presents a conceptual framework for hiring in the digital sales environment and introduces the trait of analytical curiosity not previously discussed in the literature.

Purpose
The purpose of this study is to identify and explain how leadership behaviors of sales managers can enhance the development of salespeople within the context of those interpersonal connections and interactions that is the sales ecosystem.


Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected and analyzed qualitative data from in-depth interviews with a sample of 36 sales professionals. Over 47 hours of interviews were transcribed and analyzed via NVivo. The statements were labeled as particular leader behaviors using the Miles and Huberman (1994) coding system.


Findings
The study identifies coaching, customer engaging, collaborating and championing as the four key leader behaviors that are relevant to the sales ecosystem. Specifically, coaching and customer engaging enhance the individual microsystems of salespeople; and collaborating and championing enhance the corresponding mesosystems. Analysis of the interview statements further revealed that trust, confidence, optimism and resilience are four relational elements that tend to coexist with these leader behaviors in the sales ecosystem.


Practical implications
This study provides a structure for sales organizations to strengthen their sales ecosystem through targeted interventions and training for those that manage salespeople. Past research finds that sales organizations too often neglect this type of managerial training.


Originality/value
This is the first study to examine sales leadership through the lens of Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological systems theory. Further, the qualitative methodology, which is relatively unique in sales research, provides rich data that is particularly useful for exploring how and why things have happened.