Alleviating The Negative Effects Of Salesperson Depression on Performance During A Crisis: Examining The Role Of Job Resources

Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2023.02.009

During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, many salespeople were thrown off by the realization that they would be working from home and unable to visit customers. Similarly, many customers were scrambling to transition to a work-from-home setting that pulled them away from working with salespeople face to face.

This disruption likely led to a drop in performance for salespeople during this time and put many of them in a mentally vulnerable position. The pandemic changed demands both at work (e.g., understanding how to work with new virtual selling platforms) and at home (e.g., homeschooling children). It also disrupted the established means of receiving social support from colleagues and friends, leaving more depressed salespeople with fewer resources to meet these increased demands.

A working paper explores the influence of depression levels on declining salesperson performance during the first three months of 2020. The authors ask: as job demands increased (and performance decreased) throughout the escalation of the pandemic, how did depression levels interact with resources to influence salesperson performance?

The study considers the following job resources for which the recent crisis brought immediate, wide-ranging, and severe challenges for many salespeople:

1. Salesperson work adaptability – A crisis mandates that salespeople alter the way they work and work adaptability could be a key internal resource that salespeople could use to mitigate the negative effect of depression levels on salesperson performance.
2. Family work support – In times of crisis, family members serve as pseudo-co-workers in many social aspects (e.g., venting and encouragement).
3. Supervisor support – A crisis environment may lead to supervisors being one of the primary means of communication during crisis escalation (owing to limited lines of communication with other co-workers).

The paper offers the following lessons for Chief Sales Officers:

• Firms truly invested in preventing negative outcomes associated with mental health should invest in programs with a long-term focus, such as health insurance with no or low out-of-pocket costs for mental health counseling.
• Firms should cultivate a “family-friendly” work culture (e.g., minimizing late-afternoon meetings for parents who may have childcare responsibilities, providing leave for employees to take care of the elderly or sick, and/or hosting social functions where the whole family is involved).
• Firms could offer workshops on depression and stress management tactics, and provide spaces at work for relaxation or mediation. These initiatives nurture mindfulness, autonomy, and confidence that salespeople can deploy when crises arise
• Firms must note that supervisor support may not be beneficial at the onset of a crisis. At these times, supervisors must listen and direct the concerned salesperson to available resources, and know when to step back, allowing the salesperson the time and opportunity to use the resources as they see fit.