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Despite its importance in sales, listening is an overlooked concept in research with limited empirical studies examining the construct since the work conducted by Castleberry and Shepherd (1993) and Ramsey and Sohi (1997) . Knowledge of the role listening plays in sales and the processes involved in explaining listening in relationship performance is limited with many discrepancies identified between studies. Using meta-analytical techniques, this study summarizes approximately 20 years of research on salesperson listening. The study developed a meta-analytical model based on the marketing and psychology literature to build an underlying framework for listening theory, advance research in listening, and provide theoretical and managerial implications. The obtained results show that customer-oriented salespeople express their care toward customers through listening, which helps them adapt their selling behaviors to fit customers' demands. Salesperson relational and sales outcomes are driven by listening through direct and mediated mechanisms.

Impression management tactics have recently been identified as effective strategies for coping with work stressors. However, despite the evidence that using a combination of tactics can provide more favorable outcomes than using a single tactic, previous studies have often examined impression management tactics in isolation. Furthermore, many sales organizations view their employees' proactive behaviors as essential for gaining a competitive advantage, but our knowledge about the antecedents of proactivity at work is still limited. To address this knowledge gap, we introduce a theoretical model that explains the joint moderating effects of combining two forms of impression management tactics on the relationship between work-family conflict and salespeople's proactive behaviors. We study 249 salesperson-supervisor dyads, and the results indicate that work-family conflict is negatively related to salespeople's proactive behaviors through emotional exhaustion. In addition, the combination of ingratiation and self-promotion has a buffering effect on the relationship between work-family conflict and emotional exhaustion.

Top performing salespeople are attracted to organizations that provide opportunities to make full use of their abilities. Responses from 1450 sales directors from a leading direct selling organization were used to examine salesperson's experienced meaningfulness. Results show that experienced meaningfulness is critical to sales because it impacts salesperson's performance, turnover intentions and felt stress. Further, ethical climate and customer demandingness influence experienced meaningfulness perceptions.

This paper identifies three potential barriers to career advancement in sales: being excluded from informal networks, a lack of cultural fit, and a lack of mentoring. Using a sample of 241 account executives and managers from an organization in the television broadcasting industry, study results suggest that perceived barriers to career advancement (PBCA) have a significant negative impact on the organizational commitment (OC) of these sales employees. Effects are estimated with path analysis, and the effects of common method bias and job satisfaction are considered. Demographic variables (age, gender, company tenure, job level) are also hypothesized to moderate the relationship between PBCA and OC. The negative influence of PBCA on OC is found to become stronger as company tenure increases. Data also suggest that the negative relationship between PBCA and OC is more powerful among account executives than sales managers/directors. Managerial and research implications are discussed.

Job stress is an integral part of the organizational landscape and particularly severe in the sales profession. A host of studies have looked at felt stress, its antecedents, and consequences. This research examines how employee resistance to change and a manager's decisiveness affect the salesperson's felt stress and turnover intentions. This study shows that the salesperson's resistance to change is positively associated with felt stress. Study results also show that the impact of an employee's resistance to change on felt stress is moderated by a manager's decisiveness. Model hypotheses are tested with responses from 255 bank salespeople in India.

Emotional exhaustion and organizational deviance are getting increased attention because of their negative impact on business in terms of lost productivity, decreased job satisfaction, lower organizational commitment, and decreased performance. In this study, we investigated the combined effect of leadership style and person–job fit on emotional exhaustion using a sample of employees that provide healthcare and social benefits to a large metropolitan county. We also explored how the impact of emotional exhaustion on organizational deviance behaviors is mediated by employee's job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Results indicate that both emotional exhaustion and job attitudes mediate the effects of participative leadership and person–job fit on organizational deviance. Managerial implications are also provided.

This article presents a meta-analysis that includes studies conducted over the past 25 years across 14 countries and a mix of selling and nonselling situations. Findings indicate that the relationship between organizational commitment and job performance is positive and stronger for sales employees than for nonsales employees. Stronger correlations between organizational commitment and job performance are found for collectivist compared to individualistic cultures. The results are discussed in terms of implications for future sales force performance research.