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Speak to us on how else you can leverage this content to benefit your organization. aShidler Ceollege of Business, University of Hawaii, 2404 Maile Way, Office C-501k, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA Find articles by Nathaniel N. Hartmann bHEC Montréal, 3000, chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montréal, QC H3T 2A7, Canada Find articles by Bruno Lussier Received 2020 Apr 7; Revised 2020 Apr 25; Accepted 2020 May 5. Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active. The COVID-19 pandemic is bringing about immediate, wide-ranging, and severe challenges for many B2B sales forces. Such challenges call attention to the importance of frameworks that can be applied to aid sales managers in understanding the impact of and responses to COVID-19. Leavitt's model of organizational change, and socio-technical systems theory, point to the importance of considering four inter-related social (i.e., human and structure) and technical (i.e., task and technology) variables when examining organizational change, and recognizing that change to one variable can be predicated upon and/or bring about change to other variables. We tailor Leavitt's model to the B2B sales context and recognize the potential for exogenous shocks such as COVID-19 to impact each variable. In doing so, we conduct a review of practitioner-oriented articles, interviews with key informants working for B2B organizations, and a webinar with sales professionals. These efforts lead to a rich discussion and set of considerations that can help B2B sales forces better understand and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and other crises. Keywords: Salespeople, Sales force change, Socio-technical systems theory, COVID-19, Crisis management Many sales managers and salespeople representing business-to-business (B2B) organizations would agree with Greek philosopher Heraclitus's statement “The only constant in life is change.” After all, B2B markets have experienced substantial ongoing change over the last several decades (Lussier & Hartmann, 2017). Over this time, there has been, for example, an increasing of stakeholder (e.g., customer, employee, investor) expectations, stakeholder knowledge and access to information, globalization, technological advancements, competitive offerings, complexity in buying and selling processes, among other changes (Arli, Bauer, & Palmatier, 2018; Hartmann, Wieland, & Vargo, 2018; Lim, 2020). While anticipated change can certainly lead to challenges and opportunities for B2B organizations and their respective sales forces, it is hasty unanticipated change that is most likely to leave organizations and their respective sales forces vulnerable and partially paralyzed (Williams, Gruber, Sutcliffe, Shepherd, & Zhao, 2017; Zoltners, Sinha, & Lorimer, 2008). The emergence and rapid spread of COVID-19 was unanticipated and, as of April 2020, has had immediate and severe impact on B2B sales forces. The COVID-19 pandemic is, for example, bringing about interrelated social, technological, and structural challenges for many B2B sales forces. These challenges include issues stemming from greater remote working and physical unavailability, cancellations and postponing of important meetings and events (e.g., tradeshows, conferences, customer meetings), travel restrictions and border shutdowns by different countries, an overwhelming number of COVID-19-related communications (some of which is speculation/or and irrelevant), and greater stakeholder mental (e.g., exhaustion, stress, anxiety) and physical (e.g., stress headaches) health issues. Such issues are affecting and being affected by inventory shortages, supply chain breakdowns, product delivery problems, general difficulty maintaining daily operations, new work arrangements (e.g., virtual selling, changes to information flows, contraction and expansion of roles), and threat of temporary or permanent dismissal. These immediate, severe, and wide-ranging challenges point to the managerial need for a framework that accounts for broad interrelated social, technological, and structural variables to understand the impact of and potential responses to the COVID-19 pandemic within the sales force. Socio-technical systems theory (Bostrom & Heinen, 1977) which emphasizes the importance of the interrelatedness of social (i.e., people and their interactions) and technical (i.e., procedures and related knowledge, including software and hardware) aspects to outcomes, and Leavitt's model of organizational change (1965) can, arguably, serve as such a foundation. Leavitt's model, upon which socio-technical systems theory is built (Seidel, Recker, & vom Brocke, 2013), proposes that four interrelated variables (e.g., human, task, structure, and technology) are critical to consider when examining organizational change and that change to one variable can be predicated upon and/or bring about change to one or more other variables (Leavitt, 1965). Socio-technical systems theory and Leavitt's model have been used, in combination, by scholars to examine various topics tied to organizational change (see Lyytinen & Newman, 2008; Seidel et al., 2013). In the remainder of this manuscript, we first introduce Leavitt's model of organizational change and overview requisite aspects of socio-technical systems theory. We then, consistent with the call for papers, illustrate the relevance of Leavitt's model of organizational change to informing understanding of the impact of and response to the COVID-19 pandemic within the B2B sales context. To inform and assess the relevance of applying Leavitt's model of organizational change to understanding the impact of and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic for the sales force, we conducted a review of over 35 practitioner-oriented web articles from highly regarded outlets (e.g., Forbes, Gartner, Harvard Business Review, McKinsey & Company, Salesforce, The Economist, ZS Associates), and 25–45 min interviews (video or phone-based) with 8 key informants working for B2B organizations in various capacities. These efforts lead to a rich discussion and set of managerial considerations that can help B2B organizations and sales forces more effectively and efficiently understand and respond to the challenges and opportunities brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Feedback received during a webinar led by one of the authors, attended by 15 sales professionals in various roles (various manager levels, salespeople), offered further support for the model and findings. In 1965, psychologist of management Harold Leavitt proposed a model of organizational change. This model (Leavitt, 1965) indicates that organizations are complex systems characterized by at least four broad interrelated sets of variables: human, task, technology, and structure. The human variable corresponds generally to people, encompassing sub-variables such as the number of employees as well as employee knowledge, skills, abilities, traits, states, and other characteristics. The task variable refers to the activities performed within the boundaries of an organization, including sub-variables such as marketing of offerings, selling of offerings, procurement of supplies, manufacturing of products, financing of operations, hiring and managing of employees, and so on. The technology variable refers to the useful tools and devices, including the sub-variables of hardware (e.g., computers, mobile devices), software (e.g., systems software programming, and applications software), private networks, and websites. The structure variable refers to the systems that coordinate and direct people, the tasks they perform, and the technologies they use. Structure, therefore, includes the sub-variables of compensation and incentive plans, rules, reporting relationships, and so on. Leavitt's model recognizes that organization's employees participate in purposeful organizational change to human, task, technology, and structure variables in order to bring about desired changes directly relating to these variables or grander outcomes (e.g., performance, retention, satisfaction, risk mitigation). Describing such, Leavitt (1965, p. 1145) indicates that “change in any one [human, task, technology, and structure variables] usually results in compensatory (or retaliatory) change in others…Sometimes, the aim may be to change one as an end in itself, sometimes as a mechanism for effecting changes in one or more of the others.” Socio-technical systems theory (Bostrom & Heinen, 1977), which builds on Leavitt's model of organizational change, emphasizes that organizational work design must consider both social and technical aspects in tandem (Seidel et al., 2013). Whereas the social aspect is represented by the human and structure variables of Leavitt's model, the technical aspect is represented by the task and technology variables (Seidel et al., 2013). These boundaries are socially constructed, and not inherently fixed (Lyytinen & Newman, 2008). Socio-technical systems theory emphasizes that the system can and does often change because of pressures exerted by the environment, the environment consisting of broad factors including economic conditions, industry competitiveness, government policies, political factors, customer and supplier power, and events (Porter, 2008). It, furthermore, emphasizes that the relationship within and between the social and technical as well as the environment are interdependent and often complex (Lyytinen & Newman, 2008; Seidel et al., 2013). That is, such relationships can exhibit dependencies, reciprocal effects, non-linear effects, and cascading effects (i.e., an effect which occurs as a result of another effect in the system), and give rise to higher-level outcomes (e.g., organizational or sales-force-level performance, retention, satisfaction, risk mitigation) not exhibited by or solely attributable to individual parts (Geels, 2004; Kingshott, Sharma, & Nair, 2020). To the best of our knowledge, scholarly research has not yet applied socio-technical systems theory and Leavitt's model, in combination, to either the B2B or sales context. However, scholarly research has identified either socio-technical systems theory or Leavitt's model as highly relevant to the study of various topics of interest to B2B practitioners and scholars including buyer customer behavior (Webster & Wind, 1972), business analytics (Vidgen, Shaw, & Grant, 2017), supply chain performance (Hult, Ketchen, & Chabowski, 2007), demand chain management (Jüttner, Christopher, & Baker, 2007), and information technology usage and employee roles (Haines & Lafleur, 2008), among many others. Moreover, scholarly research in other domains illustrates socio-technical systems theory and Leavitt's model, in combination, to be highly relevant and useful to uncovering insights regarding organizational change. See, for example, the work of Seidel et al. (2013) that applies socio-technical systems theory and Leavitt's model to explore a global company implementing sustainable business practices in response to environmental concerns, as well as that of Lyytinen and Newman, (2008) that applies the theory and model to understand change in information systems. Such research suggests that the current work offers the potential to inform sales and B2B scholars and practitioners of the usefulness of the theory and model to examine change affecting the sales force. We draw from Leavitt's model (1965), applying it to the B2B sales force given the importance of the sales force and salesperson-customer relationship to customer relationship quality, customer loyalty, and organization financial performance (Arli et al., 2018; Palmatier, Dant, Grewal, & Evans, 2006; Palmatier, Scheer, & Steenkamp, 2007). The model, which we tailor to the purpose of this research by recognizing the exogenous shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, sales force sub-variables, as well sales force and organization outcomes, is displayed in Fig. 1 . Importantly, the set of arrows signifies the interconnected nature of these sets of variables; a variable may affect and be affected by one or more other variables. Some of these relationships may, of course, be more impactful than others. For example, while sales force variables (e.g., shifting operations from physical to digital) may impact the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., reducing the number of cases), the impact is likely substantially less than the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on any of the sales force variables. The scope of the sub-variables pertaining to the four variables, environment, and sales force and organization outcomes is intended to be exemplative rather than comprehensive, as we recognize that many additional sub-variables for each exist.  Socio-technical model of sales force change. Below, we draw on information collected from our review of the practitioner-oriented articles and interviews with key B2B informants to discuss the effects of and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Whereas the review of the practitioner-oriented articles was performed to capture broad and numerous effects of and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, the interviews with key B2B informants permitted us to explore issues and concerns more deeply and evaluate whether there were relationships among the variables in the model. Our review of the practitioner-oriented articles and interviews with key B2B informants occurred concurrently, affording opportunity to approach each reading and interview with knowledge and insights gathered from the readings and interviews performed before. This concurrent approach also afforded the authors opportunity to iteratively and reciprocally move from data collection to synthesis, affording opportunities to re-examine, validate, and more richly extend findings and discussion. Table 1 offers information regarding the practitioner-oriented articles reviewed, and Table 2 offers information regarding the interviews performed. Relevant insights from practitioner-oriented articles.
Description of B2B Informants and Summary of Qualitative Insights From Interviews.
As the discussion below develops, the interrelated nature of the variables become more pronounced. Before discussing the model and findings, we emphasize that since each sales force and context is unique and relationships among the variables and environment complex, the impacts to and optimal responses of each B2B sales force will vary. Given the intended focus of this work on the sales force, we describe human as members of the sales force. Consistent with Leavitt (1965), our description of human extends to include the number of, knowledge, skills, abilities, traits, states, and other characteristics of the professionals comprising the sales force. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the sales force experiencing elevated levels of wellness issues (e.g., anxiety, exhaustion, stress). The issues incurred by salespeople can impact their ability and willingness to perform existing tasks and learn the knowledge, skills, and abilities that permit them to perform new tasks. Sales managers can respond by reassuring, increasing accommodations, providing regular updates, and being more patient with the salespeople with whom they interact. Sales force managers can also respond by reminding salespeople to take care of their physical and mental health, such as through the practice of regular hand-washing, exercise, meditation, limiting of caffeine and alcohol, regularly socializing with others (remotely, if needed), and seeing health care professionals as needed. The COVID-19 pandemic is also leading some B2B organizations to reduce the number of days and hours salespeople work. In addition, some organizations concerned about the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic are permanently or temporarily laying off their salespeople; there are also organizations, perhaps viewing the layoffs enacted by their competitors as an opportunity to employ additional talent, expanding their sales force numbers. We describe task to be the activities performed by the sales force. The COVID-19 pandemic is resulting in changes to the frequency and way with which some tasks are performed. Consider, for example, that as of April 2020, many salespeople are performing more tasks over digital channels due to social distancing and remote working spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic; there can be, for example, an increasing in reception and sending of emails, social media use, digitally mediated prospecting efforts, and virtual selling and meetings over a video communication platform. As tasks change in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance and relevance of some knowledge, skills, and abilities are increasing, and others are decreasing, which can bring about change to immediate training (and in some cases hiring) to match sales force knowledge, skills, and abilities to the new environment. There is, for example, an increasing emphasis of training on being able to use various digital technologies, and to do so in a way that conforms with policies, rules, regulations, and preferences. Such training can be formal or informal, such as through the sharing of how to guides and videos (e.g., how to use Zoom, Skype, Hangout, and/or particular features). In addition, as salespeople perform specific tasks, the practice of performing such tasks may aid them in developing relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities. That is, in the described model, the task variable can influence the human variable. Furthermore, many salespeople are also finding themselves performing higher levels of service-oriented behaviors (e.g., updating and reassuring customers on orders and temporary changes to selling organization operations; altering the delivery of products and services to meet prospective and current customers changing requirements; adopting a caring and supporting selling approach with prospective and existing customers; addressing queries redirected due to temporarily closed call centers), given prospective and current customers concerns and challenges regarding logistics, supply chain management, inventory management, anxiety, and others. Sales managers, in response, can introduce and accelerate digital self-service options (e.g., virtual agents) for customers. Managers and salespeople are also increasingly finding themselves rearranging scheduled tasks to optimize productivity. They are, for example, moving tasks initially intended to be performed in the future (e.g., routine online training or certification) to the present, working altered schedules so to balance pressing family and personal responsibilities (e.g., expanded care and education of children due to temporary closings of day care centers and schools) and filling empty time with tasks that were once deprioritized. Salespeople and sales force managers must also respond to an altering of customer needs and situations. This can mandate change to value propositions, reassessment of what offerings to emphasize in sales efforts, and reassessment to whom offerings might be valued. The information gathered suggested, for example, that reorienting value propositions towards reducing prospective customer risk, directing tasks towards offerings with stable or increasing demand, and directing efforts to prospective customers identified via a rethinking of purposes and markets for existing offerings could be valuable. Consider, for example, that the COVID-19 pandemic may increase the appeal of a medical supply provider altering its value proposition to emphasize the security of a local supply chain, increase the appeal of more comprehensive digital security suites given the increasing of information being shared digitally, and shift purchases made on differentiation to lower cost so to reduce expenses. The ability of the sales force to adjust to these and other tasks depends upon their knowledge, skills, and abilities, highlighting the dependency of the task variable on the human variable. Sales managers are also experiencing challenges in evaluating sales force activities and identifying to whom additional support should be provided. Since sales managers can no longer rely on in-person observation and conversations to gauge salesperson activities and needs, sales managers can rely more on technology (e.g., customer relationship management (CRM) systems tracking sales activities), more frequently reach out and offer assistance to salespeople, and encourage salespeople and customers to initiate contact with questions and concerns. Sales managers should also be soliciting rapid feedback from the sales force regarding changes so informed refinements can take place. For example, if a selling organization adds virtual agents to a website so customers can look up updates to shipping and logistics details, sales managers can ask salespeople to inform them immediately of any customer feedback the salesperson receives. We refer to technology as the useful knowledge exogenous to the sales force members that aids their efforts, such as tools and devices. The emphasis on social distancing and remote working is increasing sales force reliance on and need to access digital technologies. Consider, for example, that a salesperson working from home will often need access to a computer/and or mobile device, a scanner and/or app, a network connection (i.e., Wi-Fi) with an acceptable speed, a video communication platform, company intranet, and so on. There is also increasing emphasis on salespeople adopting and entering activities into CRM systems, for both communication and accountability purposes. This shifting of tasks to digital channels and shifting of tasks to the home environment is introducing additional sales force and other relevant stakeholder (e.g., customer service, engineering, prospects and customers) demands on technical support and training, so that tasks can be performed efficiently and effectively. After all, many salespeople and stakeholders have grown accustomed to accessing an organization-based office housed with many requisite technologies and convenient access to technicians. Of note, is that the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the sales force can limit which technologies, as well as the extent to which technologies, are adopted and effectively used. Furthermore, through use of technology and effective training, the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the sales force may be expanded which can improve the attractiveness of investments in additional technologies. Consider, for example, that as a sales force develops basic capabilities in virtual selling, the expected returns of investing in additional related technologies such as artificial intelligence to inform the salesperson's virtual sales call activities may increase. Of course, changes to technologies can eliminate or create the need to perform certain tasks, and/or re-arrange the order with which tasks are performed. That is, just as the previous paragraph illustrates dependencies between task and technology, there are dependencies between human and technology. The increasing of remote work and use of digital technologies brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic has led to greater concerns regarding cyber security, confidentiality of information, and privacy. There is, for example, concern that hacking attempts have increased since the COVID-19 pandemic and the haste transition to emphasize digital has created security vulnerabilities. In response, many organizations and sales managers are introducing additional cybersecurity measures (e.g., dual factor authentication, virus and malware protection, intranet, organization provided devices, encryption, and personnel access), and communicating the importance of following cybersecurity measures to the sales force. Some organizations have also requested greater access to salesperson communications with customers since the COVID-19 pandemic, invoking sales force privacy concerns. Structure refers to the systems or means that motivate and coordinate human, task, and technology variables within the sales force. The COVID-19 pandemic is bringing about substantial changes to structure. It is becoming apparent that quotas, workload expectations and activities, and incentives (e.g., incentive travel) created prior to the COVID-19 pandemic are often not as relevant or applicable in the current environment. This is often because many of the human, task, and technology changes mentioned above limit the efficiency, effectiveness, and extent with which salespeople can work; moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic is influencing the availability, responsiveness, preferences, and purchasing appetite of some prospective and current customers. Consequently, some sales managers and organizations, in response to concerns about maintaining motivation and promoting salesperson health, are revising or temporarily disbanding/introducing goals, quotas, workload expectations and activities, forecasts, and incentives. There can also be a rethinking of what sales performance is and entails during a crisis. Such change, of course, may then affect the task and human variable such that salespeople calibrate their activities and knowledge, skills, and abilities to that which is rewarded, producing intended and potentially unintended changes. Sales managers are also emphasizing the creation and following of new processes to ensure documents and information that would otherwise be exchanged physically and face-to-face are exchanged digitally. There is also increasing internal and external pressure on companies to develop continuity of operations plans should one or more senior executives or sales managers become unable to perform their duties. Thus, there are mutual dependencies between structure and human, task, and technology. Above, Leavitt's model of organizational change and requisite principles of socio-technical systems theory were overviewed. Then, the tailoring of the model that permits richer understanding of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on B2B sales forces as well as sales force responses were introduced. Information collected, through the review of 38 practitioner-oriented articles and interviews with 8 key informants, regarding the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on B2B sales forces and sales force responses was shared. Feedback received during a webinar conduced with 15 sales professionals in various roles, offered support to the model and information collected. Such model and information, presumably, further informs sales managers regarding how the COVID-19 pandemic may be impacting their sales force, as well as potential responses. The amount and extent of simultaneous change within the sales force that managers can effectively bring about is limited. Numerous wide-ranging changes can bring about resource (e.g., time, effort) tradeoffs, make it difficult to determine what is effective versus ineffective, extend the amount of time that is needed to effectively implement any changes, and introduce additional problems. Accordingly, we recommend that sales force managers initially focus on a small subset of impacts that they can respond to immediately, and then update their focus and response efforts as progress is made on the subset and additional information becomes available. Since the existing state of the environment, human, task, technology, and structure variables as well as other important considerations (e.g., firm resources, goals, positioning) will vary between sales forces, what as well as the number of focuses and response efforts prioritized should vary by sales forces and managers. In determining which focuses and response efforts to immediately prioritize, managers can give significant consideration to the meaningfulness of the outcomes expected to be brought about by specific changes, how long the outcomes of such change may take to occur, the amount of effort needed to produce the change, and the compatibility/dependencies of various change efforts. Below, we introduce several considerations, informed from the article review and interviews as well as the socio-technical literature, that sales managers can contemplate in planning and implementing responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. These considerations, as do the sales force responses indicated above, are characterized by a strong undertone of concern for others adaptability, agility, and resilience. The change model and relevant discussion highlights that the impact of and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic can ripple throughout the sales force (as well as organizations and the marketplace). That is, while there are immediate impacts and responses, such impacts and responses can lead to other impacts and responses. The direction, strength, and form of such relationships can vary according to the state of various variables. Further complicating matters is that the “bottom” is unknown and thus executives and sales managers do not know when the recovery and rebuilding will begin. This uncertainty, in the words of one key informant, differentiates the COVID-19 pandemic from September 11th 2001 and many other unexpected exogenous events which have a clear end and therefore enable more confident projections of how the future will unfold. Therefore, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sales force and its response can be much more complicated than what one may initially presume, and it may be impossible for managers to develop a full understanding of the chain of effects. However, executives and sales managers do need to respond. We propose that considering the range of particular futures which can unfold (e.g., pessimistic, neutral, optimistic) and the relative probabilities of each (e.g., low, medium, high), may serve valuable to informing changes to human, task, structure, and/or technology variables. Given that the “bottom” is unknown, sales managers can also consider discussing strategies to reduce cash burn rate with senior executives. Cash burn rate refers to the speed at which the cash reserves of the company are being used up. Reducing expense accounts, reducing travel incentive plans, as well as identifying unneeded services that can be cancelled and sharing such information with relevant parties are just some of the many ways that sales managers can reduce cash burn rate. There is also opportunity for sales managers to generate immediate additional capital. Sales managers can, for example, authorize salespeople to offer discounts or complementary products/services in return for immediate payment. Managers can also authorize salespeople to incentivize customers to pay for, and perhaps extend, subscriptions immediately with offers of discounted or free extended service in return for immediate payment (e.g., a salesperson for a software-as-a-service company can offer access to a solution for one year if the customer pays for 9-months upfront). The impact and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic will unfold throughout an extended time horizon. Our review of the practitioner-oriented articles and interviews with key informants suggests that sales managers are very focused on short-term impact and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This short-term emphasis is understandable and expected given the unanticipated, immediate, far-reaching, and severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just as employee needs and preferences are changing in the short-term in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, so to can customer needs and preferences. As mentioned, sales managers should recognize that value propositions may need to be tailored to account for the context, and that the appeal of some offerings may temporarily decrease (or increase). For example, due to concern regarding cash burn, customers may temporarily alter their buying criteria to increasingly emphasize the cost criterion. Sales managers should recognize that some of the short-term impacts and responses will persist over the long-term, and that there may be an unforeseen long-term impact and changes. Many of the financial and supply chain challenges B2B organizations are facing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic may, for example, shift long-term risk appetite, such to tradeoff greater profitability for reduced risk. Organizations may strive to reduce their risk by increasing the weight of variable components in determining salesperson pay but salespeople may come to increasingly prefer the security of fixed pay, buying organizations may seek suppliers with more resilient and domestic supply chains, and buying organizations may seek to purchase contracts which shift crisis risks to selling organizations. There may also be changes to how the sales force operates. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, B2B organizations were increasingly emphasizing inside sales forces, digital documents (e.g., digital contracts, digital expense reporting), virtual selling, and social media usage. The COVID-19 pandemic, arguably, offers the potential to escalate the rate and extent to which such shifting occurs if it brings about additional technological infrastructure, additional social change, and evidence of favorable benefit/cost tradeoffs to remote working and digitally mediated interactions. That is, the COVID-19 pandemic may bring about an increase in the prevalence of inside sales forces, and a blurring and blending of traditionally inside and outside sales forces and sales roles as outside salespeople increasingly perform tasks in a manner consistent with inside salespeople. The COVID-19 pandemic may also bring about changes to social practices surrounding work. It may, for example, call into question handshakes, potlucks, and family-style eating that have become customary or have been increasing in practice. While the COVID-19 pandemic presents a formidable challenge to many B2B organizations and their sales forces, sales managers can take some relief in recognizing that their competitors are also being impacted by and must respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales managers that approprietly balance the short-, medium- and long-term in designing human (e.g., hiring, training, and developing knowledge, skills, abilities, traits, and states; determining sales force size), task (e.g., prospecting, customer follow-up, virtual selling, training), technology (e.g., selecting and implementing digital and physical technologies), and structure (e.g., setting goals, objectives, workload expectations and activities, incentives) changes may increase the likelihood that their sales force improves, relative to the competition. To this point, there is substantial opportunity at this time for sales managers to build stronger relationships with their salespeople, customers, and other stakeholders. Many of the human, task, technology, and structure responses provide opportunities to build such relationships. Changes to structure, for example, to account for the COVID-19 pandemic can build trust with the sales force and customers, by appropriately directing salesperson efforts such that addressable customer outstanding needs are addressed, fair pricing and negotiations are practiced, customers are regularly updated, and key customers are prioritized. In addition, sales managers, when and how relevant, can use this time to hire highly capable salespeople who would otherwise not be available. Additionally, sales managers can approach responding to the COVID-19 pandemic with an analytical and experimental mindset, carefully evaluating which short-term changes may be in the best interest of the organization over a longer period of time. Changes to tasks, such as focusing on customers who may favor trusted partners and suppliers so to minimize risks may limit revenue declines. Furthermore, changes in tasks to emphasize prospecting and selling efforts directed towards prospects that might now be more receptive to particular value propositions (e.g., lower price, guaranteed delivery) and products (e.g., a retailer may now be more willing to create the shelf space for your toilet paper offering) may be effective, given changes to needs and preference. There is also opportunity to capitalize on the paralysis and shortcomings of competitors by targeting those customers that they may not be currently well suited to serve. In addition, there may be substantial opportunity for those sales forces able to create high levels of customer engagement virtually for those offerings that require more involved purchased processes. Lastly, there is also an opportunity to extend relationship and brand-building efforts, such as through the implementation of socially conscious decisions (e.g., donations, public education, shifting manufacturing to goods helpful in preventing or treating COVID-19) that respond directly to the COVID-19 pandemic. The framework, modified from the work of Leavitt, was applied to examine the impact of and response to exogenous shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the framework has broader relevance and can be used to examine change to human, task, technology, and structure variables independent of the presence of an exogenous shock. It can, for example, be used to examine wide-ranging changes including, but not limited to, training, hiring, salesperson roles, automation of tasks, sales force restructuring, digital transformation, and sales force contests. The COVID-19 pandemic was unanticipated and is resulting in immediate, far-reaching, and severe challenges for B2B organizations and sales forces. The nature of these challenges point to the importance of organizations responding in a manner that recognizes sociological, technological, and structural factors. We have argued that Leavitt's model of organizational change (1965), tailored to the sales context, and socio-technical systems theory and offers substantial potential to improve understanding of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as understanding of the effectiveness and application of potential sales force responses. The findings, derived from the review of practitioner-oriented articles and interviews with key informants of B2B companies, offer evidence of such potential. Several managerial considerations that flow from the theory and model are introduced to richen manager understanding and application.
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What has led to a fundamental rethinking of the strategic nature of the salespersons role?
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