Abstract

The response from many firms to the recent COVID-19 crisis underscores a more fundamental and overarching question: How should salespeople and their firms prepare for and respond to sales crises more generally? In response, a group of sales scholars recently convened at the American Marketing Association’s Winter Conference to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing salespeople and their firms before, during, and after a sales crisis. Thus, based on this session and subsequent follow-up discussions, this paper develops a framework detailing how the sales function should prepare for, withstand, and learn from a sales crisis. In so doing, we argue that sales crises can originate internally and externally to an organization and can impact the entire sales organization, the sales manager, and/or individual salespeople. Moreover, viewing a sales crisis simply as a turning point rather than a devastating event, we highlight the implications for salespeople and their managers who must inevitably deal with sales crises and the changes involved. Finally, we conclude with potential future directions for sales scholars interested in exploring the impact of crises on the sales function, as the next sales crisis is likely just around the corner.

摘要

许多公司对最近的 COVID-19 危机的反应强调了一个更基本和更重要的问题：销售人员及其公司应该如何更普遍地准备和应对销售危机？作为回应，一群销售学者最近在美国营销协会冬季会议上召开会议，讨论销售人员及其公司在销售危机之前、期间和之后面临的挑战和机遇。因此，基于本次会议和随后的后续讨论，本文开发了一个框架，详细说明销售职能部门应如何准备、抵御销售危机并从中吸取教训。在此过程中，我们认为销售危机可能源于组织内部和外部，并可能影响整个销售组织、销售经理和/或个人销售人员。而且，我们将销售危机简单地视为一个转折点，而不是一个毁灭性事件，因此我们强调了对销售人员及其经理的影响，他们必须不可避免地应对销售危机和所涉及的变化。最后，我们为有兴趣探索危机对销售职能影响的销售学者提出了潜在的未来方向，因为下一次销售危机可能即将来临。