Empathy and affect in B2B salesperson performance

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore salesperson empathy and the moderating impact of positive/negative affect on a salesperson’s listening and adaptive selling behaviors. It also seeks to identify whether and how empathy influences performance. Design/methodology/approach: The study’s hypothesis was analyzed using data collected from business-to-business salespeople working for a manufacturing firm. A partial least squares analysis was used to test the study’s proposed hypotheses. Findings: The results of this study show that empathy and the moderating role of positive affect foster desirable sales behaviors (listening and adaptive selling behaviors) that subsequently enhance in-role (expected) and extra-role (discretionary) performance. Originality/value: Contributions from the findings enhance the literature through its consideration of how the direct effect of empathy on sales behaviors (a salesperson’s listening and adapting selling behavior) is moderated by the salesperson’s positive and negative affect and how sales behaviors impact final sales outcomes (in-role and extra-role performance).