Purpose

Salespeople are at the forefront of the external environment where they act as the first responders to critical events and their resulting business turbulence. How the salesforce responds to turbulence is, therefore, of great interest both theoretically and in practice. The paper aims to rekindle interest in agility selling, which is the most adequate behavioral sales model to exploit environmental uncertainty.

Design/methodology/approach

An organizational autoethnography complemented with data from in-depth interviews with key salespeople involved in turbulence resulted in the development of eight case studies.

Findings

Salespeople use agility selling through four possible responsive roles. They amplify, innovate, cooperate or mitigate turbulence to exploit its ensuing opportunity or minimize its negative effect for both the supplier and the customer. The article enhances the agility selling model by putting three core abilities in the forefront: (1) forecasting turbulence from critical events, (2) responding to changes quickly and adequately and (3) exploiting changes as opportunities.

Research limitations/implications

The article argues that critical events are the cause of the turbulence that the salesforce must deal with before it hits the dyad. Agility selling represents an untapped research opportunity in business-to-business sales, and sales management, as well as within the overall agile organization.

Practical implications

Sales organizations would greatly benefit in implementing training of agility selling’s core abilities because responsiveness is a valuable tool for salespeople in times of turbulence.

Originality/value

The study is the first to empirically demonstrate the existence of agility selling.

中文翻译：

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动荡时期的 Salesforce 响应角色：敏捷销售案例研究

目的

销售人员处于外部环境的最前沿，他们是关键事件及其导致的业务动荡的第一响应者。因此，销售人员如何应对动荡在理论上和实践中都具有重要意义。该论文旨在重新点燃人们对敏捷销售的兴趣，敏捷销售是利用环境不确定性的最合适的行为销售模型。

设计/方法/方法

组织的自我民族志与对参与动荡的主要销售人员进行深入访谈的数据相辅相成，最终形成了八个案例研究。

发现

销售人员通过四种可能的响应角色使用敏捷销售。他们放大、创新、合作或减轻动荡，以利用随之而来的机会或最大限度地减少其对供应商和客户的负面影响。本文通过将三个核心能力放在首位来增强敏捷性销售模型：(1) 预测关键事件的动荡，(2) 快速、充分地响应变化，以及 (3) 将变化视为机遇。

研究限制/影响

这篇文章认为，关键事件是销售人员在遇到二元组之前必须处理的动荡的原因。敏捷销售代表了企业对企业销售和销售管理以及整个敏捷组织内部尚未开发的研究机会。

实际影响

销售组织将在实施敏捷销售核心能力的培训中受益匪浅，因为响应能力是销售人员在动荡时期的宝贵工具。

原创性/价值

该研究是第一个以经验证明敏捷销售存在的研究。