Stakes High When Emotions Undermine Sales Performance

The emotional undercurrent facing salespeople can be treacherous, according to research by Richard P. Bagozzi, professor of marketing at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business. In a series of studies published since 2000, Bagozzi explores how anxiety, shame, embarrassment, pride, envy and other emotions affect salespeople's behavior.

Richard Bagozzi, professor of marketing

The way salespeople cope with emotions and their effects has a direct relationship to job performance, says Richard P. Bagozzi. Self-conscious emotions generally are triggered automatically; and salespeople who cannot control them may become aroused, angry, anxious or despondent during a sales call, which may cause customers to question their credibility. Sales-call anxiety, for example, is commonly accompanied by a protective urge to withdraw from the sales encounter — to avoid contact with customers or, when contact is made, to be submissive and avoid taking steps to close the sale.

The adverse effect this behavior can have on sales revenue growth is obvious — and significant. Salespeople face the possibility, even the likelihood of experiencing repeated rejection and failure day after day, a difficult psychological environment for sales personnel who are susceptible to self-conscious emotions. As a result, sales-call anxiety is quite prevalent, reaching intense levels for up to 40 percent of salespeople at some point in their careers.

A Downward Spiral

From Bagozzi's studies, conducted with Willem Verbeke of Erasmus University in the Netherlands, a picture emerges of salespeople who are, at certain times and under certain circumstances, vulnerable to self-conscious emotions such as fear, shame and embarrassment.

Let's say a salesman is calling on a prospect for the first time. Meeting someone new, feeling pressure to make a good impression, and being wary of transgressions and fearful of rejection can all cause self-consciousness.

The salesperson and customer come from different organizations and have different backgrounds, expectations and objectives. There may be differences in age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, social class and standing in the corporate hierarchy — differences that can be magnified during a stressful sales encounter. The salesman questions himself — Am I dressed appropriately? Have I said the wrong thing? Have I been insensitive? Doubts emerge about dealing with the customer — How does she prefer to be addressed? Should I be deferential? What does she think of me?

What if the salesman does say something that might be perceived as inappropriate? He appraises the situation, consciously or unconsciously, and physiological changes occur — he sweats, his heart races, his voice quivers, his stomach becomes queasy. His attention and judgment are heightened and he focuses intensely on communication signals and social stimuli from the customer. His ability to interact effectively may be curtailed. This is followed by new emotions triggered by the negative emotions — being angry about being ashamed, for example, and hard-to-control ruminations: Am I capable of doing this job?

In the future, the salesperson may adopt "protective strategies" that help him avoid this type of anxiety. This may translate into an inability to accomplish key tasks — reaching out to new customers, posing pointed questions and nurturing relationships, an inability that effectively takes him out of the sales game. The greater the shame and embarrassment the salespeople feel, Bagozzi has found, the greater their protective action and subsequent decline in performance.

Cultural Variations

At least that's the picture in Western cultures. In a fascinating study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology in 2003, Bagozzi, Verbeke and Jacinto C. Gavino Jr. of the Asian Institute of Management found very different results in Asia.

The researchers compared the effects of shame on salespeople from the Netherlands, who see themselves as autonomous individuals focused on personal achievement, and the Philippines, who see themselves as part of an interdependent social network focused on collective goals. These groups experience the same effects from shame — heightened attention to themselves, a sense of vulnerability, physiological symptoms and an urge to take action to protect their core self-image. "This is part of our biology that we share with everybody," Bagozzi says. "It's human nature."

When shamed, Dutch and Filipino salespeople both take steps to protect their core identity; but their core identities differ dramatically and so do the protective steps they take. To Dutch salespeople, shame signifies personal failure and threatens their self-worth. To protect their individualistic self-image, they will avoid situations that can lead to shame. This strategy is likely to cause their performance to suffer. To Filipino salespeople, on the other hand, shame during a sales encounter is a threat to their social identity. For that reason, shamed Filipino salespeople don't withdraw from the sales process. Instead, their protective instinct is to take steps to repair the relationship with the customer, co-worker or supervisor at the center of the shameful experience.

In this way, Filipino salespeople stay engaged in the sales process to address the issues that caused the shame, and their job performance improves relative to Dutch salespeople. "Coping with emotions," Bagozzi explains, "differs fundamentally when you look at it from one culture to another."

Corrective Action

How can a salesperson short-circuit the negative effects of self-conscious emotions? Involuntary responses cannot be prevented, but Bagozzi's research suggests effective countermeasures. "Through training, role-playing and practice, salespeople can learn to respond in ways that bring the sales interaction back to a functional and objective exchange of information and away from the disruption of inappropriate and self-defeating behaviors," Bagozzi and Verbeke wrote in Psychology & Marketing in 2002.

• Awareness: It's necessary to understand destructive behavior in order to change it. Sales managers should be equipped to recognize the signs of self-conscious emotions. When they suspect that fear, shame or other emotions are adversely affecting performance, they should alert the salesperson and work together to address the problem. It's important to adopt a coaching style and help the salesperson understand that her or his responses and behaviors are not unusual and can be managed.
  
  
• Be aware of triggers: Self-conscious emotions often arise when salespeople are pushed out of their comfort zones — for example, when sales strategies or customer accounts change.
  
  
• Face the fear: Anxious people continuously perceive themselves as vulnerable and subject to danger. When they avoid threatening situations, they never accurately gauge the threat or their ability to overcome it, so their anxiety remains.
  
  
• A repertoire of responses: It is often customary not to acknowledge an event that triggered self-conscious emotions during an encounter. On the other hand, salespeople can develop emotional intelligence that enables them to detect and respond appropriately to non-verbal signals that convey disapproval. They also can develop scripts and practice responses to potentially difficult exchanges in order to sidestep the urge to avoid the interaction.
  
  
• Reduce approval seeking: For salespeople with a high need for approval, the less likely they are to ask for it and the more likely they are to evaluate themselves negatively. Sales managers can help them understand what their self-worth is based on and teach them to focus on knowledge of the customer and the product and not to overemphasize the need for approval for its own sake.