THE NEED FOR SPEED: AGILITY SELLING Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • In turbulent business times, organizations have sought to become more agile. Organizational agility has been asserted to require workforce agility, but thus far, little focus has been given to workers. Traditionally, salespeople have sought ways to differentiate themselves and create advantage for customers. This paper asserts that, in order to continue this tradition of differentiation and advantage, salespeople must engage in agility thinking. Agility has been studied as it applies to manufacturing processes and other firm activities. Agile salespeople have a mental dexterity at the point of customer contact. They are quick to observe opportunities and are able to anticipate customers ever-changing needs, wants, and preferences. This paper presents a framework for agility selling, applying concepts from the agility manufacturing literature and proffering distinct characteristics of sales force agility. 2005 PSE National Educational Foundation. All rights reserved.

published proceedings

  • JOURNAL OF PERSONAL SELLING & SALES MANAGEMENT

author list (cited authors)

  • Chonko, L. B., & Jones, E.

citation count

  • 15

complete list of authors

  • Chonko, Lawrence B||Jones, Eli

publication date

  • January 2005