Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing

A review of the interactive marketing literature in the context of personal selling and
sales management: A research agenda
Michael Rodriguez Andrea L. Dixon James W. Peltier

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JRIM
8,4

294

A review of the interactive

marketing literature in the
context of personal selling and
sales management
A research agenda

Received 18 June 2014

Revised 24 July 2014
Accepted 28 July 2014

Michael Rodriguez

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Department of Marketing, Elon University, Elon, North Carolina, USA

Andrea L. Dixon
Department of Marketing, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, USA, and

James W. Peltier
Department of Marketing, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater,
Whitewater, Wisconsin, USA
Abstract

Journal of Research in Interactive

Marketing
Vol. 8 No. 4, 2014
pp. 294-308
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
2040-7122
DOI 10.1108/JRIM-06-2014-0035

Purpose The purpose of this 16-year review is to summarize interactive marketing literature in
the context of personal selling and sales management. This paper serves as precursor to the Special
Issue on the Convergence of Interactive Marketing and Personal Selling and Sales Management to
be published by the Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing. Key research needs are identified.
Design/methodology/approach A content analysis was performed on 106 articles categorized
over 1998-2013. Ebsco Host was used as the database search engine, running impendent searches
using personal selling, professional selling and sales management as identifiers across a variety of
interactive marketing topics identified by Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing (JRIM)s
Editorial Board.
Findings The examination of the convergence of interactive marketing in a personal selling/sales
management context revealed 106 articles, with approximately 60 per cent being published in the past
eight years. Although the interactive marking field is growing, there is clearly a significant opportunity
for scholarly work across wide-ranging personal selling and sales management topics, and specifically
in the areas of performance indices, evolving technologies, social media and tactical sales and
management issues.
Practical implications The paper reviews personal selling and sales management articles that
have been published in the time period of 1998-2013 across marketing, business and non-business
journals. While the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management has been the dominant outlet,
other marketing and non-marketing journals are increasing their exposure in these areas.
Originality/value The study provides both academics and practitioners with an updated review of
the interactive marketing literature along with a sense of how personal selling and sales management
research is evolving. This review offers value as a standalone article and as input for scholars
submitting manuscripts to JRIMs Special Issue on the Convergence of Interactive Marketing and
Personal Selling and Sales Management.
Keywords Social media marketing, CRM, Internal marketing, Sales force management
Paper type Literature review

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Introduction
Over the past two decades, the Internet, as a communication and relationship-building
platform, has received considerable attention in the academic literature and the business
press. In their 20-year review of the Internet literature, Pomirleanu et al. (2013)
documented nearly 2,900 Internet-based journal articles published between 1995 and
2012; nearly 70 per cent of which were published since 2005. Recent research interest is
driven, in part, by the world-wide growth in the number of Web sites and users, from 130
Web sites and 14 million users in 1993 to almost 673 million Web sites and 2.8 billion
users in 2013 (Internet live statistics, 2014). Internet-related academic research has
proliferated across an expanding spectrum of interest areas including consumer
behavior, marketing communications, product and brand, distribution, search-engine
optimization, pricing, legal/privacy issues, social media and mobile marketing among
many other topical areas (Cho and Khang, 2006; Cummins et al., 2013; Doherty and
Ellis-Chadwick, 2010; Ngai, 2003; Pomirleanu et al., 2013; Schibrowsky et al., 2007).
Evolving Internet, social media and other technology-enabled tools and the
interaction patterns being created by such tools are transforming how salespeople
interact with prospects and customers, and how organizations manage their
salesforce (Dixon and Tanner, 2012). Managing the organizations or an individuals
presence across multiple platforms has been revolutionized to relatively simple
processes with the advent of social media management tools (e.g. Hootsuite, Buffer,
TweetDeck, SproutSocial) and mobile technologies (Andzulis et al., 2012). Emergent
buyerseller interactions, engagement platforms and sales technologies have
important ramifications for the value-creation process for consumers, salespeople
and the organization (Kuruzovich, 2013).
Despite the growing interest in Internet-based research, the sales literature is
relatively underdeveloped in terms of not only the number of articles published but also
in terms of conceptual frameworks needed for advancing firm performance (Trainor,
2012). As evidence, Pomirleanu et al. (2013) found that only a small per cent of Internet
articles primarily focused on personal selling and sales management issues. Because of
this dearth, the authors urged researches to augment the business-to-business
marketing literature through a greater understanding of how the Internet impacts
engagement, strengthens relationships and enhances firm performance vis-a`-vis
improved selling and sales management practices. In response, the Journal of Research
in Interactive Marketing (JRIM) will be publishing a Special Issue on the Convergence of
Interactive Marketing and Personal Selling and Sales Management, October, 2015 (see
Call for Papers elsewhere in this journal issue).
As a precursor to the special issue, we present a review of personal selling and sales
management research published within the Internet marketing literature in the
following pages. First, we discuss the method used to categorize the personal selling and
sales management research with the Internet marketing literature. Because the Internet
marketing literature itself has gone through various evolutionary stages, we first
summarize sales and sales management literature from 1998-2013, followed by a
discussion of published papers across two eight-year research eras: introduction
(1998-2005) and growth (2006-2013). While commercial and trade articles and
whitepapers exist, consistent with past review articles, we focus only on scholarly
peer-reviewed publications. We conclude by offering suggestions for conceptual and
empirical research needs. Given the important role that the salesforce has for driving

Interactive
marketing
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296

firm profitability (Lassk et al., 2012) and the evolving state of Internet marketing
(Cummins et al., 2013), we encourage readers to consider submitting a manuscript for the
October, 2015 Special Issue on the Convergence of Interactive Marketing and Personal
Selling and Sales Management.
Method
A four-step process was used to identify, select and categorize articles, including:
(1) a web-based survey of the JRIM Editorial Board members to identify topical
areas to search;
(2) a detailed protocol to identify potentially relevant articles;
(3) reduction of initial list of articles based on relevancy; and
(4) categorization of articles.
Editorial board member results
Members of the JRIM Editorial Board received a link to a web-based survey asking them
to identify potential search terms relevant to the use of interactive marketing in a
personal selling, professional selling or sales management context. Table I presents the
alphabetical listing of responses that received at least two mentions by the Editorial
Board.
Protocol to identify potentially relevant articles
Consistent with Pomirleanu et al. (2013), a key word approach was utilized based
on the search terms shown in Table I. One of the authors trained three graduate
assistants (from the same university) on the search protocol. The training was
conducted face-to-face, and the protocol was also provided in written form. Serving
as the supervisor for the graduate assistants, the same author met with each
graduate assistant after he/she completed the first hour of work to debrief the
process. The author recounted the questions/answers across the team of graduate
assistants to ensure consistency in response. EBSCO host was selected as the search
database because of its range of journals and its link to ABI/INFORM articles not
found in EBSCO. Only peer-reviewed academic (scholarly) articles were included in
the search. Each of the topical Internet-related terms was searched three times in
conjunction with three sales search terms as co-identifiers: personal selling,
professional selling and sales management. Interactive marketing articles not
associated with one of these three search terms and were thus not captured in the
data set.

Table I.
JRIM editorial board
members recommended
search terms

Automation
Cloud computing
Content marketing
Customer experience management
Customer relationship management
Customization
Database marketing
Direct marketing

Electronic customer relationship

management
Information privacy
Interactive marketing
Internet
Mobile applications
Mobile marketing
Multi-channel

One-to-one marketing
Online analytics
Online communities
Social media
Technology
Virtual teams

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For each of these three searches, the following information was recorded:
which of the three sales search terms (personal selling, professional selling or sales
management) was used to identify the article;
title of the article;
abstract of the article;
full name of the journal;
volume number and issue number;
page range;
full set of author names;
keywords assigned to the article (Table I);
author-identified key words;
type of article (conceptual or pure literature review, key informant data only,
empirical survey data, customer relationship management (CRM) or company
data, experiment);
type of setting (business-to-business, business-to-consumer, both); and
if paper included some type of performance variable (sales or profitability),
graduate assistants ascertained if the performance measures were direct (coming
from the companys system), indirect (reported by the sales representative or the
sales manager), both direct and indirect, unclear or nothing reported.
In addition to codifying this information, the graduate assistants uploaded copies of the
articles to a drop box having shared access with the author team.
Reduction of initial list of articles based on relevancy
At the close of the initial search process (which was based on whether an article was
captured by one of the sales search teams identified in Table I), the graduate assistants
conducted a redundancy check to determine if any of the articles were identified by more
than one of the sales search terms. After this redundancy check, the net result was a total of
396 individual articles that were identified. Based on reviewing the article title, abstract,
search terms and reading the article (if necessary), the graduate assistants indicated whether
they felt the article was relevant for inclusion (yes/no) in the final data set. For example,
sales or selling articles frequently surfaced that were related to Internet sales and not
personal or professional selling or sales management. Another common situation involved
articles that were relevant to personal selling, professional selling or sales management yet
were outside of an interactive marketing context (i.e. where the article dealt only with
face-to-face selling).
At this stage, two other authors independently examined the set of 396 articles for
relevancy to personal selling, professional selling or sales management in an interactive
marketing context. This independent review yielded approximately 95 per cent
agreement for inclusion/exclusion of the articles. The 5 per cent or remaining articles
where disagreement initially surfaced were discussed and 100 per cent agreement was
reached. Of the initial set of 396 articles, only 108 were deemed to be relevant to
interactive marketing and personal selling, professional selling or sales management.

Interactive
marketing
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298

This number is consistent in light of Pomirleanu et al. (2013) and their assertion of a
dearth of articles in this area.
Categorization of articles
For the next step in the process, two authors independently categorized each of the 108
articles based on the search terms found in Table I, as well as on the basis of the
author-identified search terms or key words listed in each article. Following Gray et al. (2012)
and Cummins et al. (2013), each article was coded independently by two authors for its
primary, secondary and tertiary topics (Tables II and III). The initial topical codes were then
reviewed jointly by the two authors. The initial codes offered a starting point for determining
content patterns across the array of articles. Only limited discussion was needed to resolve
categorization conflicts (e.g. one discussion concerned whether an article concerned the
General Use of Technology or, more specifically, Sales Force Automation (SFA) software).
Two rounds of discussions achieved 100 per cent agreement.
Primary topics

Descriptions

Exemplars

General technology

Focus on broader technology

issues rather that specific
areas

Sales force automation

Specific mention of
salesforce automation SFA is
subset of technology
Specific mention of CRM
CRM is a subset of
Technology and SFA
Broad use of the Internet
rather than specific
applications

Salesperson acceptance of
technology Salesperson
use of technology
Attitudes toward
technology
Contact management
systems Attitudes toward
SFA
CRM and customer
loyalty targeting and
differentiation
Salesperson attitudes
toward Internet use for
selling/sales management
Internet for sales lead
generation, email
marketing

Customer relationship management

Internet

Social media
Table II.
Primary topics,
descriptions and
exemplars

Table III.
Secondary topics,
descriptions and
exemplars

Direct marketing

Focus on the role of social

media in sales and sales
management
Traditional direct marketing
applications

Direct mail

Secondary topics

Descriptions

Adoption
Implementation
Performance
Frameworks
Selling process
Virtual

Bringing technology and other primary topics into the organization

How technology and other primary topics are integrated and utilization
Adoption/implementation success measures
Broad-based conceptual frameworks for driving future research
Role of interactive marketing in various stages of the selling process
Internet-based face-to-face communications

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Aggregated results 1998-2013

First, we present the results in terms of an overview of the total frequency of categorical
coverage, including primary topics, secondary sub-topics, performance metrics used,
and targeted customer groups (business-to-business [B2B] vs business-to-consumer
[B2C]). This discussion is followed by an assessment of the evolution of conceptual and
empirical work across the two eras.
Overall summary of publications by Category 1998-2013
Table IV provides the number of articles by primary topic categories. Somewhat of a
surprise to the research team, the first article published that met our search standards
was in 1998, offering evidence that interactive marketing in personal selling and sales
management contexts is still a relatively new field of inquiry. In total, 106 articles were
identified using for the years 1998-2013 that included the search terms discussed in the
method section (indexed as personal selling, professional selling or sales management).
Many early articles focused on adoption and implementation of interactive marketing
strategies which appears as a prominent theme in the database. In terms of primary
topics, General Technology issues had the most published articles (n 31), followed by
SFA (n 22), Customer Relationship Management (n 19), Internet (n 14), Social
Media (n 8), Direct Marketing (n 3) and other (n 9). As we show in the next section,
the bulk of this research has been on the adoption and organizational implementation of
information technologies.

Interactive
marketing
literature
299

Secondary and sub-topics, 1998-2013

The primary topics were, for the most part, based on a range of channel and platform
issues. Once the top-level categories were established, we turned to further segmenting
these topical categories based on more specific sub-topical foci. As shown in Table V, the
Primary topics
Technology
SFA
CRM
Internet
Social media
Direct marketing
Other
Total articles published 1998-2103

Secondary/sub-topics
Adoption
Performance
Implementation
Frameworks
Selling process
Virtual

No. of articles
31
22
19
14
11
3
9
106

Table IV.
Article counts by primary
topics 1998-2013

No. of articles
22
22
21
10
3
3

Table V.
Article counts by
secondary/sub-topics
1998-2013

JRIM
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300

Adoption of interactive marketing tools and platforms (n 22), Performance (n 22)

and Implementation (n 21) issues were addressed most frequently across the set of
secondary topics. Except for lower overall frequency, this pattern aligns closely with the
general marketing literature with regard to new technologies and communication
platforms. Somewhat surprising is that only ten of the articles focused heavily on
developing the theoretical frameworks for the use of interactive marketing in personal
selling and sales management. The remaining articles were spread across a variety of
specific sub-topics, with the Selling Process (n 3) and Virtual Selling (n 3) having
the most counts amongst a relatively underdeveloped set of important issues relevant to
the sales force and sales managers. These data suggest great opportunity for future
research endeavors.

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Performance metrics
Research paradigms in their early state commonly focus on qualitative investigations
over more empirical research. This general principle aligns with the set of articles posted
for 1998-2013, with approximately 54 per cent being qualitative in nature.
Targeted customer group: B2B vs B2C
We were also interested in better understanding which target customer group was most
heavily investigated. Of the articles that could be classified, 32 placed a heavy emphasis
in B2B customers, 22 on B2C and 12 addressed both customer groups. The remainder
had relatively little in the way of target-specific hypotheses and issues.
Comparison of Published articles 1998-2005, 2006-2013
Our data set captured articles over a 16-year period, which we divided into two 8-year
eras introduction (1998-2005) and growth (2006-2013). Figure 1 presents the number of
articles by year. In presenting the results, we summarize the studys findings across the
two eras in three ways:
(1) the number of interactive marketing articles focused in the area of personal
selling and sales management;
(2) emerging topics within Technology, SFA, CRM, Social Media and Direct
Marketing focus; and
(3) where articles in personal selling and sales management are published.

Figure 1.
Articles published by
year: 1998-2013

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Interactive marketing in personal selling and sales management

As noted, a total of 106 published articles were identified for 1998 to 2013 based on the
suggested search terms with 60 per cent of articles published between 2006 and 2013
(Table VI). The average number of published articles per year was 5.25 for 1998-2005
and 8.0 for 2006-2013. Despite this growth, it is clear that there is a considerable
scholarly opportunity for interactive marketing articles, focusing specifically on
personal selling and sales management issues. A closer look at the era comparison
findings in Table VI, which shows that differences exist in the types of articles
published between 1998-2005 and 2006-2013. The greatest increases were in the areas of
technology and social media. Specifically, general technology articles more than
doubled from 6 in 1998-2005 to 16 for 2006-2013. This increase was attributed mostly to
articles focusing on technology adoption and performance-related metrics. As would be
expected, given the general literature, research on social media was virtually
non-existent for 1998-2005, increasing to eight articles for 2006-2013 (with most
published over the last few years). Four of the social media articles focused on
frameworks and literature reviews.
Table VII offers some additional evolutionary transitions as well. First, there has
been an increase in the number of articles utilizing objective performance indices, with
a mere four from 1998-2005 to 14 for 2006-2013. Second, CRM articles continue to grow,
from 7 to 12 articles, with an increased focus on direct performance indices. Third, while
the number of Internet articles remained constant, the breadth of this publication stream
is quite diverse. Fourth, SFA continues as a popular topic and has remained relatively
constant in terms of coverage. Finally, while never a prominent topic, traditional direct
marketing articles have gone silent.

Interactive
marketing
literature
301

Publication outlets
We were also interested in identifying where interactive marketing and sales articles
have been published. As shown in Table VIII, the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales
Management was the most popular choice, with 44 articles, 29 of which were published
since 2006. As a B2B journal, Industrial Marketing Management was second on the list,
although with decreased frequency across the introduction and growth era.
Surprisingly silent were top-tier marketing journals. Although they publish articles on
CRM, Internet, technology, etc., they have not been identified in the context a of sales or
sales management domain. As Table VII also notes, non-marketing journals are
increasingly publishing interactive marketing articles in sales/sales management.
Topic area
Technology
Sales force automation
CRM
Internet
Social media
Direct marketing
Other
Total

1998-2005

2006-2013

Total articles published

10
10
8
7
0
3
4
42
39.62%

21
12
11
7
8
0
5
64
60.38%

31
22
19
14
8
3
9
106

Table VI.
Sixteen years of
interactive marketing in
personal selling and sales
management

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302

General technology

Total articles

6
2
1
2
5
16

9
3
3
2
5

0
6
19.35%
51.61%

SFA
Adoption
Implementation
Performance
Total
% published 1998-2005
% published 2006-2013

4
4
1
9
40.91%
45.45%

4
4
2
10

8
8
3

CRM
Implementation
Adoption
Performance
Total
% published 1998-2005
% published 2006-2013

5
0
2
7
36.84%
63.16%

4
2
6
12

9
2
8

Social media
Literature review
Adoption
Performance
Descriptive study

3
1
2

2006-2013

Adoption
Implementation
Literature review
Selling process
Performance
Total
% Published 1998-2005
% Published 2006-2013

Internet
Usage by sales force (SF)
Electronic markets
Information use
Recruiting
Implementation
Selling process
Virtual
SF conflict
Virtual
WOM
Reverse auctions
Negotiation
CRM
Lead generation
Total
% published 1998-2005
% published 2006-2013

Table VII.
Breakout of topical and
sub-topical areas 19982005 vs 2006-2013

1998-2005

1
1
1
1
1
1
1

7
50.00%
50.00%
0
0

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
7

4
1
1
1

4
1
1
1
(continued)

General technology
Special issue intro
Total
% published 1998-2005
% published 2006-2013

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Direct marketing
Internet
Channel integration
Total
% Published 1999-2005
% Published 2006-2013
Performance
Outcome based
Relationship
Usage
Task
Productivity
Total
% published 1999-2005
% published 2006-2013

1998-2005

2006-2013

Total articles

1
8

Interactive
marketing
literature

100

303
1
1
2
66.67%
0

2
0

7
6
1
0
0
14

1
1
4
22.22%
77.78%

Journal
Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management
Industrial Marketing Management
Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing
Journal of Marketing
Journal of Marketing Management
Marketing Management Journal
Other Marketing Journals
NON-Marketing Journals
Total

9
6
1
1
1

Table VII.

1998-2005

2006-2013

Total

15
9
0
1
3
3
8
4
43

29
4
3
1
2
2
10
12
64

44
13
3
2
5
5
18
16
106

Conclusion
In their updated review of the Internet marketing literature, Pomirleanu et al. (2013)
noted that the interactive marketing literature on sales and sales management is
limited. Our systematic review of the literature supports this contention. As our
review finds, and as might be expected, given its relative infancy as a field of
inquiry, a very high percentage of published articles have focused on the adoption
and implementation of interactive marketing by salespeople and sales managers.
For many of these articles, the emphasis is on user perceptions and attitudes, and a
limited set of subjective performance indices. While the extant literature in this area
has value, moving forward, marketing and sales scholars need to offer conceptual
and empirical research that goes beyond mere adoption and implementation to
higher-level theories, strategies and tactics. We thus conclude by proposing a

Table VIII.
Publication outlets for
interactive marketing
articles in sales/Sales
management

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304

number of critical topics to explore not only for the JRIM Special Issue on
Convergence of Interactive Marketing and Personal Selling and Sales Management,
but for other potential outlets as well.
Conceptual frameworks
While a number of scholars propose frameworks for conceptualizing the
implementation of interactive marketing in selling organizations, relatively few
frameworks exist that encompass a broad understanding of theoretical models for
understanding the intersection of interactive technologies across multiple channels,
including sales and other media platforms. Although multi-channel retailing has
received increased conceptual attention, there is a general lack of theoretical
frameworks in a B2B professional selling context. Because consumers and businesses
begin are starting to transition to an Omni-channel relationship orientation, research
that provides big picture research agendas is warranted. Specific research questions
might include:
RQ1. What is the role of evolving technologies in a professional selling and sales
management organizations?
RQ2. How will the intersection of interactive technologies change and improve
buyer-seller relationships?
RQ3. How do sales technologies and the sales force work together in the process of
creating customer and organizational value?
RQ4. What lies ahead for selling and sales management practices with the continued
evolution of informational technologies and interactive relationship-building
methodologies?
Missing from the literature are conceptual and empirical frameworks for investigating
ethical issues that may surface relative to organizational and customer relationships,
including information privacy, data sharing and related issues.
Direct performance measures
To date, the bulk of empirical research in this area utilizes self-reported perceptual
performance measures. While self-reported measures of performance, satisfaction,
perceptions, attitudes, etc., will continue to add value to the literature, research that
connects strategic and tactical utilization of interactive technologies by salespeople and
sales managers to objective measures of performance will be especially noteworthy.
Although not meant to be exhaustive, research utilizing measures such as salesforce
retention, sales and margin analyses, ROI, customer retention and growth, new
customer acquisition, is particularly desirable. Examples of specific research priorities
include:
RQ1. What are effective strategies and tactics for driving the use of interactive
marketing tools?
RQ2. What is the appropriate resource allocation mix needed to support interactive
technologies leading to sales success at various stages of the selling process?
RQ3. What are effective monetization strategies and tactics and how can managers
best monitor their salesforce?

Customer expectations and desired relationships

The vast majority of the reviewed studies focused on interactive marketing from the
perspective of the selling organization. As with the general sales literature with its
increased focus on dyadic relationships, interactive marketing scholars are encouraged
to examine a wide range of issues from the perspective of prospects and customers,
including buyerseller dyads. Specific examples include:

Interactive
marketing
literature

RQ1. How do buyers and sellers views align regarding interactive marketing
platforms?

305

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RQ2. What are the opportunities and challenges related to the effective collection,
utilization, and transfer of information between buyers and sellers?
RQ3. What are the most effective strategies and tactics for understanding and
delivering after-sale support?
RQ4. How can advancing technologies be used to enhance customer relationships
through effective information sharing activities?
Multi-channel/omni-channel marketing
In addition to a lack of general frameworks for understanding cross-platform strategic
initiatives, virtually missing in a professional selling context are empirical studies
investigating how to best integrate varied communication and interaction technologies.
For example:
RQ1. How do mobile and static technology platforms merge across the selling
process?
RQ2. How do customer sequencing patterns of channel use impact the role of the
sales force?
RQ3. What is the appropriate sequencing of varied communication platforms and
for what activity are they best suited?
RQ4. What is the role of sales managers for encouraging the salesforce to utilize
cross-channel technologies?
Social media
Although the use of social media platforms in a professional selling context is receiving
increased exposure in the literature, we have barely scratched the surface of needed
knowledge. Targeted research needs include:
RQ1. How can salespeople and the selling organization best utilize evolving social
media technologies?
RQ2. What are the most effective strategies and tactics for enhancing customer
engagement?
RQ3. How might sales managers use social media to engage their sales force?
RQ4. Which types of social media platforms are most effective and at which stages
in the selling process?

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RQ5. How do customer expectations in the area of social media impact the selling
process?
RQ6. How do social media efforts driven by the organization impact customers
differentially than those efforts driven by a sales representative?

306

Mobile marketing
Despite its rapid ascension in the general marketing literature, mobile marketing as a
professional selling and sales management tool is relatively silent. Unexplored are
research topics such as:
RQ1. How do interactive or mobile marketing and sales force management
align?

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RQ2. As a hub in a multi-channel and Omni-channel framework, how is mobile

marketing best utilized in terms increased customer and sales force
engagement, sales, time management, and related issues?
RQ3. Which types of communication, engagement and sales objectives are best
achieved vis-a`-vis different mobile platforms?
RQ4. What is the role of virtual sales calls, synchronous or asynchronous) in shaping
customer outcomes vis-a`-vis face-to-face, on-location synchronous
communications strategies?

Figure 2.
Research framework

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In conclusion, Figure 2 provides a framework for studying key interactive

marketing issues in a professional selling and sales management context. Most
broadly, conceptual models offering frameworks are needed for driving evolving
research in these areas. Tier 2 areas of inquiry call for higher level integration of
varied channels and how this integration enhances customer and sales force
engagement. Tier 3 research suggests that research investigating any of a wide
array of specific interactive marketing platforms is needed and such research might
focus on how these specific applications are utilized to drive successful strategies
and tactics. At a more granular level, Tier 4 calls for research that goes beyond
indirect measures of performance to those linked to direct measures such as sales,
sales growth, ROI, margin, etc. At the other end of the continuum, our review
focused on articles that noted a sales focus relative to interactive marketing (via
search terms and/or author identified). We acknowledge, however, that there exists
a broader set of literature which is connected with sales and sales management.
Research that expands direct and interactive marketing into such areas as logistics,
supply chain management, operations and other related contexts is encouraged.
Finally, at the core is research that focuses both independently on
personal/professional sales and sales management issues and that converge
vis-a`-vis the co-creation of organizational and customer value.

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