Influence of salesperson political skill: improving relationship building and reducing customer-directed deviance

The purpose of this research is to understand the use of political skill (PS) in the context of business-to-business seller’s relationship building and ethical decision-making. Drawing on social influence, relationship marketing, and ethical decision-making theories, a model and hypotheses are proposed to examine the impact of political skill, customer-relationship-building competence, and moral intensity, on the frequency of customer-directed deviance while considering the effects of neutralization techniques and consequences of unethical behavior. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze responses from 240 business-to-business salespeople. Findings suggest guidance for sales managers (e.g., training and coaching) to assist salespeople’s application of political skill to build customer relationships and reduce customer-directed deviance. While political skill has received limited analysis in the context of business-to-business salespeople, these findings suggest the direct and indirect effects of political skill are meaningful to sellers and researchers.