Transformation of Personal Selling During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The personal selling process (PSP) has experienced dramatic changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the transition from face-to-face presentations to online presentations and from paperwork to e-processes, and from the delivery of printed product materials to the provision of softcopies. Sudden changes to the PSP have affected salespeople differently and how salespeople have transformed themselves to cope with the challenges is the main concern of this chapter. After analyzing changes to the PSP due to changes in Malaysia's external environment, we propose a personal selling transformation framework to assist salespeople to cope with the “new normal” way of conducting business. The proposed framework aims to help salespeople overcome sales challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it suggests that salespeople should develop a long-term strategy to achieve better work performance after the end of the pandemic. The framework consists of four interconnected components: psychological capital, learning orientation, work process, and the use of technology. The effectiveness in enacting one component may influence the effectiveness of the others, thus, an integrated approach to effectuate these components may produce an overall positive impact on the performance of salespeople during and after the pandemic. The conceptual framework contributes to the extant literature by extending the socio-technical model of sales force change from an organizational level to an individual level. The framework also focuses on the B2C rather than B2B context. In particular, the framework highlights the importance of hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism (HERO) in psychological capital, learning orientation, a hybrid work process, and the use of appropriate technology to enhance job performance. The implications of the framework are also discussed in this chapter.