What Drives Sales Success?: A Closer Look into Salespeople’s Genetic Make-up and Personality

Christian Winter; Nicolas Zacharias; Ad de Jong; Johannes Habel

What Drives Sales Success? A Closer Look into Salespeople’s Genetic Make-up and Personality

Christian Winter, Nicolas Zacharias, Ad de Jong, Johannes Habel

Department of Marketing

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference abstract in proceedings › Research › peer-review

Abstract

Canvassing and closing – the beginning and the end of the sales cycle – are moments of potential rejection and involve significant amounts of stress for salespeople. Some salespeople react with procrastination and absenteeism, while others do not. Drawing on differential susceptibility theory and stress research, this study investigates which combinations of carrying the Serotonin Transporter Gene S allele (SERT S) and the psychological traits of sensation seeking and neuroticism are beneficial in sales contexts. Based on a rich sample of genetic information and survey data from 594 salespeople, the empirical results confirm the hypotheses that carrying SERT S only yields positive effects on canvassing and closing if sensation seeking is high. If neuroticism is high, the effect of carrying SERT S is negative. Thereby, the study contributes to psychological stress research and provides actionable implications for sales managers and HR professionals.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy (EMAC) Conference 2021 : Marketing for Growth
Editors	Abel Monfort
Number of pages	1
Place of Publication	Brussels
Publisher	European Marketing Academy. EMAC
Publication date	2021
Article number	93457
Publication status	Published - 2021
Event	The 50th EMAC Annual Conference 2021 - ESIC Business & Marketing School, Madrid, Spain Duration: 25 May 2021 → 28 May 2021 Conference number: 50 http://www.emac2021conference.org/

Conference

Conference	The 50th EMAC Annual Conference 2021
Number	50
Location	ESIC Business & Marketing School
Country/Territory	Spain
City	Madrid
Period	25/05/2021 → 28/05/2021
Internet address	http://www.emac2021conference.org/

Keywords

Serotonin transporter gene (SERT)
Personality
Eustress

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http://proceedings.emac-online.org/pdfs/A2021-93457.pdfLicence: Unspecified

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Cite this

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title = "What Drives Sales Success?: A Closer Look into Salespeople{\textquoteright}s Genetic Make-up and Personality",

abstract = "Canvassing and closing – the beginning and the end of the sales cycle – are moments of potential rejection and involve significant amounts of stress for salespeople. Some salespeople react with procrastination and absenteeism, while others do not. Drawing on differential susceptibility theory and stress research, this study investigates which combinations of carrying the Serotonin Transporter Gene S allele (SERT S) and the psychological traits of sensation seeking and neuroticism are beneficial in sales contexts. Based on a rich sample of genetic information and survey data from 594 salespeople, the empirical results confirm the hypotheses that carrying SERT S only yields positive effects on canvassing and closing if sensation seeking is high. If neuroticism is high, the effect of carrying SERT S is negative. Thereby, the study contributes to psychological stress research and provides actionable implications for sales managers and HR professionals.",

keywords = "Serotonin transporter gene (SERT), Personality, Eustress, Serotonin transporter gene (SERT), Personality, Eustress",

author = "Christian Winter and Nicolas Zacharias and {de Jong}, Ad and Johannes Habel",

year = "2021",

language = "English",

editor = "Abel Monfort",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy (EMAC) Conference 2021",

publisher = "European Marketing Academy. EMAC",

note = "The 50th EMAC Annual Conference 2021, EMAC2021 ; Conference date: 25-05-2021 Through 28-05-2021",

url = "http://www.emac2021conference.org/",

}

Winter, C, Zacharias, N, de Jong, A & Habel, J 2021, What Drives Sales Success? A Closer Look into Salespeople’s Genetic Make-up and Personality. in A Monfort (ed.), Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy (EMAC) Conference 2021: Marketing for Growth., 93457, European Marketing Academy. EMAC, Brussels, The 50th EMAC Annual Conference 2021, Madrid, Spain, 25/05/2021. <http://proceedings.emac-online.org/pdfs/A2021-93457.pdf>

What Drives Sales Success? A Closer Look into Salespeople’s Genetic Make-up and Personality. / Winter, Christian; Zacharias, Nicolas; de Jong, Ad et al.

Proceedings of the European Marketing Academy (EMAC) Conference 2021: Marketing for Growth. ed. / Abel Monfort. Brussels : European Marketing Academy. EMAC, 2021. 93457.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference abstract in proceedings › Research › peer-review

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AB - Canvassing and closing – the beginning and the end of the sales cycle – are moments of potential rejection and involve significant amounts of stress for salespeople. Some salespeople react with procrastination and absenteeism, while others do not. Drawing on differential susceptibility theory and stress research, this study investigates which combinations of carrying the Serotonin Transporter Gene S allele (SERT S) and the psychological traits of sensation seeking and neuroticism are beneficial in sales contexts. Based on a rich sample of genetic information and survey data from 594 salespeople, the empirical results confirm the hypotheses that carrying SERT S only yields positive effects on canvassing and closing if sensation seeking is high. If neuroticism is high, the effect of carrying SERT S is negative. Thereby, the study contributes to psychological stress research and provides actionable implications for sales managers and HR professionals.

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KW - Eustress

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