Influence of salesperson political skill: improving relationship building and reducing customer-directed deviance

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to understand the use of political skill (PS) in the context of business-to-business seller’s relationship building and ethical decision-making. Drawing on social influence, relationship marketing, and ethical decision-making theories, a model and hypotheses are proposed to examine the impact of political skill, customer-relationship-building competence, and moral intensity, on the frequency of customer-directed deviance while considering the effects of neutralization techniques and consequences of unethical behavior. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze responses from 240 business-to-business salespeople. Findings suggest guidance for sales managers (e.g., training and coaching) to assist salespeople’s application of political skill to build customer relationships and reduce customer-directed deviance. While political skill has received limited analysis in the context of business-to-business salespeople, these findings suggest the direct and indirect effects of political skill are meaningful to sellers and researchers.

Keywords:

• B2B sales
• political skill
• customer relationship building
• moral intensity
• customer-directed deviance
• neutralization techniques
• consequences of unethical behavior

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express our appreciation for the anonymous reviewers and editor, whose input contributed considerably to the development of the final manuscript.