Journal of Selling

Special Issue Call for Papers – Deadline for submissions – 1 September 2018

The Sales Leadership Development Research Gap

Guest Editor: Michael L. Mallin, The University of Toledo

Today’s sales leaders face a fiercely competitive environment in a constant state of flux. The environment contains rapidly changing competitors and technology, more demanding and knowledgeable customers, diminishing customer and employee loyalty, and increasing consolidation in many industries.   

The sales manager, just one of numerous titles designating sales leadership responsibility, is the primary director of critical business decision making as he/she is responsible for managing and leading one of the firm’s most important business development assets.  The challenges facing individuals involved in sales management are substantial.  Sales managers must possess not only a more sophisticated knowledge base, but also far greater professional skills and managerial competencies than required in the past.

Understanding what makes sales leaders effective and ways that organizations can foster leadership effectiveness is an issue of paramount importance, yet the academic literature has offered limited guidance and has been somewhat sparse (Anderson, Mehta, and Strong 1997).  The Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov – last accessed 8/22/2017) indicates there are currently over 376,000 managers.  Given a pending leadership gap due to retirements and 19,000 new sales management positions coming online over the next few years, the issue of developing the next generation of effective sales leaders deserves attention.  To address this (Sales Leadership Development) research gap, we invite article submissions of empirical, practical application, and/or conceptual papers that offer considerable contributions.

Topics of interest for this issue include (but are not limited to):

• The Emerging Sales Leader:  Process and Approaches
• Leading Change in The Sales Organization
• Understanding Sales Enablement
• Building Morale within The Sales Team
• Ethical and Legal Responsibilities of Sales Managers
• Strategic and Operational Sales Planning
• Using Sales Analytics for Better Forecasting of Sales and Territory Potential
• Analyzing Customer Profitability
• Planning and Implementing Sales Force Automation
• Sales Leadership In A Digital World
• Integrating Multiple Sales Channels
• Sales Talent Development and Management
• Sales Coaching and Performance Management
• Leading and Managing across Generations
• Managing Sales Force Reward Systems and Motivation Programs

Contact information for the Special Issue Editor:

Michael L. Mallin, Ph.D.
Edward H. Schmidt School of Professional Sales
College of Business & Innovation
The University of Toledo
2801 W. Bancroft St., Toledo, OH 43606
419-530-4737, Michael.Mallin@Utoledo.edu 

Submission Information:

Each electronic submission should contain two Microsoft WORD files (no PDFs please). The cover page document should include the title of the paper (upper/lower case), name, position and complete contact information for each author. The other document should contain the manuscript without any author-identifying information. Journal of Selling manuscripts must contain a “managerial implications” section. Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with Journal of Selling author guidelines found at http://www.cob.niu.edu/departments/marketing/sales/journal-of-selling/. Papers should be submitted directly to the special issue editor.

References:

Anderson, Rolph, E., Rajiv Mehta, and James Strong (1997), “An Empirical Investigation of Sales Management Training Programs for Sales Managers,” Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 17(3), 53-66.

Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/sales-managers.htm, accessed 8/22/2017.

---