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Digital selling: organizational and managerial influences for frontline readiness and effectiveness

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Abstract

To provide much-needed guidance for digital transformations in sales organizations, we draw from change readiness theory to propose a digital selling effectiveness framework. Based on a cross-industry sample of 225 salespeople across 69 sales organizations, findings reveal key organizational and managerial influence mechanisms that impact digital selling readiness, and consequently, effectiveness. We discover that digital selling psychological climate drives digital selling readiness; however, results also reveal the strong influence marketing has over this relationship. Marketing-sales joint rewards increase the influence of digital selling climate on readiness, whereas marketing-sales rivalry weakens such influence. On the managerial side, positive outcome framing, an apprising managerial influence tactic, positively impacts digital selling readiness. At the same time, sanction influence tactics negate the effect of positive outcome framing on readiness while consultation tactics yield little influence. Importantly, we demonstrate an association between digital selling readiness and effectiveness, illustrating a performance-based approach for successful digital transformation.

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Notes

  1. In comparison to a broad general theory, our middle-range theory approach (i.e., less abstract and more specific to an empirical context) (Merton, 1968) aims “to form a basis for more abstract general theories that are more diversified, inclusive, loose knit, and generalized across domains” (Setia et al., 2013, p. 566).

  2. In their seminal work, Kipnis and Schmidt (1985) suggest that managerial influence tactics can be grouped into categories of hard, soft, and rational tactics. Hard tactics involve the use of authority/power, soft tactics involve the use of power-sharing, and apprising falls within the category of rational tactics, which rely on explanations and evidence (Lee et al., 2017, p. 213).

  3. Given previous research has shown that rewards may reduce the impact of interfunctional conflict, there is potential for an interaction between marketing-sales rivalry and joint rewards. As a result, we tested the possibility of a three-way moderation between marketing-sales rivalry, marketing-sales joint-rewards, and digital selling climate. Results did not support this model however (γ = –.008, SE = .075, p > .40), providing empirical evidence for the specification of the proposed model.

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  1. All authors contributed equally, and their names appear in reverse alphabetical order.

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  1. Powers College of Business, Marketing Department, Clemson University, 324N Powers Hall, Clemson, SC, 29634, USA

    Ryan Mullins

  2. Ivey College of Business, Marketing Department, Iowa State University, 3185 Gerdin Business Building, Ames, IA, 50011-2027, USA

    Raj Agnihotri

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Mullins, R., Agnihotri, R. Digital selling: organizational and managerial influences for frontline readiness and effectiveness. J. of the Acad. Mark. Sci. 50, 800–821 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-021-00836-5

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