It’s Time to Adapt: How Salespeople’s Time Perspective Alter their Adapted Behaviors
(A2022-108158)

AUTHORS

Laurianne Schmitt, EM Strasbourg Business School

ABSTRACT

As current literature acknowledges the necessity to see adaptive selling as different adapted behaviors, our study assumes that some of those adapted behaviors could instead of focusing on the relationship between the salesperson and the buyer be done to achieve personal profit for the salesperson. Drawing on the personality-performance process model and social exchange theory, we examine the difference of short- and long-term perspectives on adapted selling behaviors (customer information communication and customer ingratiation) and their impact on performance. Survey results from 208 business-to-business salespeople allow us to identify that salespeople with long-term perspectives adapt to their customers through the information they communicate, while salespeople with short-term perspectives will adapt through ingratiation. We confirm the impact of adaptive selling on performance, however, only some adapted behaviors impact performance.