Title: Internal and external organisational strategies: repercussion of information management on relationship selling behaviour and salesforce performance

Authors: Sathish Mahendran; Natarajan Lakshmi Balasudarsun; Hari Sundar G. Ram; Karthikeyan Parthasarathy; Deena Roy

Addresses: Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM), Symbiosis International (Deemed) University (SIU), Bengaluru, Karnataka 560100, India ' Academies Australasia College, Middle Road, 188954, Singapore ' Musaliar Institute of Management (MIM), Kumbazha Malayapapuzha Road, Pathanamthitta, Kerala 689653, India ' School of Management Studies, Kongu Engineering College, Erode, Tamil Nadu 638060, India ' Department of Management Studies, Middle East College, Muscat, Sultan of Oman

Abstract: Organisational strategies always aim at maximising profit, one among the ways is to increase the sales, and ultimately the pressure falls on the salesforce. Personal selling of salesforce and has been considered as an internal and external strategy of any organisation. The organisation develops a relationship selling strategy by creating a personal rapport with customers by equipping the salesforce especially, in B2B sales. In this strategy, salesforce needs to manage numerous information about product profiles, customer basic information, competitor product portfolio, and external environment information. This study focuses on identifying the impact of information management on relationship selling behaviour and salesforce performance. Further, this study attempts to understand the direct link between information management (IM) and salesforce performance. Foundry raw materials manufacturing and trading industries were selected for the present study. The study identified that self-disclosure positively impacts relationship selling behaviour, and information management has a negative impact on salesforce performance. These findings will help the organisations frame internal and external strategies that improve the salesforce's selling behaviour, resulting in better performance and brand positioning.

Keywords: organisational strategy; OS; relationship selling behaviour; RSB; information management; IM; salesforce performance; SP; business to business sales; interaction intensity; self-disclosure; SD; foundry industry; customer disclosure; CD.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIPM.2023.129075

International Journal of Intellectual Property Management, 2023 Vol.13 No.1, pp.1 - 21

Received: 26 Jul 2021
Accepted: 08 Nov 2021
Published online: 17 Feb 2023 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article