Salesperson lifecycle management: Challenges and research priorities

Abstract

In today’s “war for talent,” effectively managing the salesperson lifecycle is more crucial than ever. This process, which encompasses hiring, onboarding, managing, developing, retaining, and terminating salespeople, is fraught with many challenges that have been neglected by academic research. This special issue helps to close the prevailing research gaps through six high-quality articles about salesperson lifecycle management, answering important research questions related to the stages of hiring, onboarding, managing, and retaining. In addition, this editorial outlines key managerial challenges and emerging research priorities, laying the foundation for future research on salesperson lifecycle management. It also presents the results of a survey conducted with sales managers, confirming the challenges they face and the importance of the proposed research priorities. Future articles can draw on these statistics to find and motivate research topics worthy of investigation.