Emotion regulation – natural reward strategy linkage and its impact on sales performance: the mediating impact of salesmanship skills

Abstract

Purpose In the context of an emerging market, this paper empirically investigates the direct as well as the indirect impact of natural reward strategies (NRS) on the sales performance of B2B sales force. It also investigates the mediating impact of salesmanship skills on the NRS–sales performance linkage. Design/methodology/approach Structural equation modeling (using AMOS 18 software) is used to analyze the data collected, using a survey questionnaire from a sample of 317 B2B salespersons of a single media firm in India. Findings Results indicate that NRS are influenced primarily by a salesperson’s emotion regulation abilities, while salesmanship skills partially mediate in the NRS–performance relationship. Research limitations/implications The study results are based on convenience sampling, which may limit the theoretical generalization of the results across all emerging markets. Originality/value It is one of the earliest studies in the B2B sales literature that integrates multiple theoretical perspectives from job-demands-resources theory, self-regulation theory, motivation and skills theory and social cognitive theory. These theories have been synthesized; then they have been used to develop and test the impact of emotional regulation on NRS components of self-leadership among salespersons, and its subsequent direct impact on sales performance, as well as mediating impact via salesmanship skills.

Assessing the drivers and outcomes of behavioral self-leadership

“…NRSL is “a cognitive strategy directed toward self and is a useful job resource for salespeople” (Singh et al , 2018, p. 354). As previously mentioned, although significant attention has been paid to TSL and NRSL, BSL has largely remained unexplored.…”

“…Following the calls for more research in the area of self-leadership for salespeople (Verbeke et al , 2011), sales researchers have started to investigate the internal mechanisms through which a salesperson can be motivated to perform (Panagopoulos and Ogilvie, 2015; Singh and Venugopal, 2015). In addition, the identification of alternative methods of enhancing self-leading capabilities has gained scholarly attention (Singh et al , 2017, 2018).…”

The moderating effect of emotion regulation on the relationship between risk aversion and brand sensitivity

“…So, the ability to regulate emotions during decision-making process is an important factor in goal accomplishment. For example, Singh et al (2018) found that salesperson's emotion regulation influences natural reward strategy, salesmanship skills and sales performance. Therefore, emotion regulation strategies maintain mental health (Kawata et al, 2019) and facilitate cognitive functioning (Tuicomepee et al, 2018).…”

A bundling sales strategy for a two-stage supply chain based on the complementarity elasticity of imperfect complementary products

“…Successful marketing strategies require companies to manage relationship between organizations and shape corporate boundaries (Chatterji et al , 2018); focus on the use of social media and use competitive intelligence, engagement and word of mouth to adjust the relationship between sales strategy and sales performance in a timely manner (Pham and Johnson, 2017); focus on the impact of cultural and social impacts on sales strategies (Micu et al , 2017); incentive salespeople through natural reward strategies (Singh et al , 2018), offer different commissions to salespeople for new products and remanufactured products and so on Kovach et al (2017); ensure that salespeople do not accept unrealistic and unsurpassed expectations from consumers (Rodriguez et al , 2018). It can be seen from the above that scholars mainly start from the external environment (Pham and Johnson, 2017), social environment (Micu et al , 2017), inter-organizational relationship (Chatterji et al , 2018), internal salesperson (Kovach et al , 2017; Singh et al , 2018) and consumers (Rodriguez et al , 2018). They used sentiment analysis (Micu et al , 2017), questionnaires (Singh et al , 2018; Pham and Johnson, 2017), text document analysis (Rodriguez et al , 2018) and other methods to study marketing strategies.…”

“…It can be seen from the above that scholars mainly start from the external environment (Pham and Johnson, 2017), social environment (Micu et al , 2017), inter-organizational relationship (Chatterji et al , 2018), internal salesperson (Kovach et al , 2017; Singh et al , 2018) and consumers (Rodriguez et al , 2018). They used sentiment analysis (Micu et al , 2017), questionnaires (Singh et al , 2018; Pham and Johnson, 2017), text document analysis (Rodriguez et al , 2018) and other methods to study marketing strategies. In addition, this paper changes angle and method, we start with products, draw on game theory and use qualitative and quantitative methods to study sales strategies.…”