Citation
(2014), "Executive summary of Antecedents and anticipated outcomes of superstitious behavior among professional salespeople", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 29 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-01-2014-0021
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Antecedents and anticipated outcomes of superstitious behavior among professional salespeople
Article Type: Executive summary and implications for managers and executives From: Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Volume 29, Issue 3
This summary has been provided to allow managers and executives a rapid appreciation of the content of the article. Those with a particular interest in the topic covered may then read the article in toto to take advantage of the more comprehensive description of the research undertaken and its results to get the full benefit of the material present.
If your salesman says he has had a lucky break in landing a large, profitable order for the company do you react by welcoming his good fortune or by asking: "Whats luck got to do with it?" Surely orders result from confident, intelligent hard work, not luck.
Maybe it was just a turn of phrase, but then again maybe the salesperson did carry a lucky coin or charm "just in case". Maybe he engaged in some dressing, grooming or eating ritual before setting out for work. After all, you often see athletes performing bizarre little ceremonies before a big event – bouncing the tennis ball a certain number of times, wearing "lucky" socks, insisting on approaching the stadium from the left, rather than the right. Crazy? Well, perhaps. But if they think it works for them why not keep up the superstition? And if successful sports people think it is good for them why not salespeople, who also have to cope with the risk of rejection and failure on a daily basis and the stress that causes?
There is evidence that superstitions have a large impact in the marketplace. For example, some people intentionally curtail travel and going to work each Friday the 13th resulting in nearly $1 billion in lost business. Conversely, lucky superstitions may boost demand. For instance there was an increase in weddings scheduled for 7/07/2007 to take advantage of the good fortune associated with the number 7 in the US and elsewhere.
So, are superstitions a natural way to handle stress, whether sports or sales is the job causing the stress, and consequently managerial concerns over salespeoples superstitions might be allayed? In "Antecedents and anticipated outcomes of superstitious behavior among professional salespeople", Dr Michael Mayo and Dr Michael Mallin say that managers who find a sales representative who is superstitious must not assume that the individual is unstable but rather should use coaching, counseling, and open communication to ensure that such beliefs and behaviors are not substitutes for effort, skill, and execution.
Salespeoples boundary spanning roles, which often add complexity to the job, can be stressful and some salespeople may resort to unconventional means to calm their anxieties, reduce frustration and give meaning to otherwise confusing situations. Given the lack of clarity and direction, a rep would be more likely to engage in some superstitious behavior ritual, thinking that it might impact a sales outcome more so than a rep who is clear in their direction and views the selling role as unambiguous.
Dr Mayo and Dr Mallin describe their study as a "first look" at sales superstitions to establish its prevalence among professional salespeople and to examine the subsequent effects on their expected confidence, motivation, sales call behavioral intentions, and anticipated performance outcomes. The majority (72.6 percent) of salespeople in their study reported on occasion of engaging in one or more superstitious behaviors for good luck in a selling situation, suggesting that superstitions do play a role in their job. Seeing how such a high percentage of salespeople report having at times engaged in superstitious acts, it is likely that sales managers (most of whom were once salespeople) also engage in superstitious sales behaviors. This notion reinforces the view that superstitions are a natural way to handle stress among all sales personnel and might serve to further ease any managerial concerns over salespeople demonstrating these acts.
The reps who engaged in superstitious behaviors may have done so for psychological reasons (i.e. to secure more confidence and motivation). That being the case, management should not ridicule their rituals and beliefs but rather may want to discuss other ways to respond to the demands imposed by personal selling to help fill out their coping repertoire. Doing so may help reps to succeed in the longer term. Reps who engage in superstitions for socio-cultural reasons may not necessarily be a cause for alarm. Some superstitions (like wearing ball caps backwards to rally or will the team to come from behind late in the game) provide group camaraderie. Previous research has discussed how this same group camaraderie in business or organizational identity is positively related to the sales units financial performance.
Previous research has also suggested that sales reps attributing a successful sales situation to "good luck" may subsequently be more motivated to work harder or gain the confidence necessary to try a new selling strategy. Novice reps who hold luck as an external cause of a success intended to engage in a number of future positive sales behaviors like working harder and smarter. As such, superstitious behavior in sales may work to increase the reps expected sense of confidence and motivation as well as his or her tendency towards positive sales intentions – including working harder and more strategically.
To read the full article type 10.1108/JBIM-04-2011-0055 into your search engine.
(A précis of the article "Antecedents and anticipated outcomes of superstitious behavior among professional salespeople". Supplied by Marketing Consultants for Emerald.)