From emotions to mindset: cultivating personal resources in B2B salespeople

Business-to-business (B2B) salespeople experience demand stressors that can precipitate burnout, elevate churn rates, and diminish sales performance. Drawing from the Job Demands – Resources (JD – R) Theory and the Broaden-and-Build Theory of Positive Emotions, this research examines how positive emotional experiences cultivate personal resources that support optimal functioning in B2B salespeople. Within the JD-R framework, personal resources mitigate the adverse effects of job demands. The Broaden-and-Build Theory further illuminates how positive emotions broaden cognitive repertoires and foster the development of psychological capacities. A mixed-methods design is employed to investigate these dynamics. Study 1 provides qualitative insights from 29 B2B salespeople, generating themes that inform a model that explicates how positive emotions engender self-compassion, job growth mind-set, and psychological capital, which positively influence job performance. The model is tested using data from 277 B2B sales professionals. Implications for fostering positive emotional experiences and developing psychological resources in B2B sales environments are discussed.