Bruno Lussier
Impact of Emotional Intelligence, Attitudes and
Self-Efficacy on the Relationship Quality in
Pharmaceutical Marketing Exchanges
This research explores how sales professionals can use emotional intelligence (EI) to
obtain positive results for their companies, themselves, and, ultimately, their customers.
To our knowledge, no research has been done regarding the influence of EI
pharmaceutical sales exchanges. We will conduct two field studies to examine the
moderating impact of EI on salespeople’s self-efficacy and attitudes and the impact of
these two variables on
client relationship quality (satisfaction and trust) and sales
performance. The expected results are that EI is positively related to the performance of
pharmaceutical salespeople and, therefore, will have a positive effect on the perception of
relationship quality from the physician’s stand point. Sales professionals with higher EI
will not only have superior sales results but will also be better at retaining customers. We
also suggest that EI will positively impact key relationship marketing variables – selfefficacy and attitude toward selling – such that higher EI will increase the effect of selfefficacy and attitude toward selling. Finally, the expected results will also heighten
perceptions of relationship quality and, therefore, positively impact the physician’s
intention to prescribe, intention to spread positive word-of-mouth and the intention to
anticipate future interactions with the salesperson. These findings will have implications
on selection criteria and training programs for salespeople and, in the end, will improve
interactions between salespeople and physicians.
Keyword: emotional intelligence, salespeople, self-efficacy, attitude, relationship quality
Impact of Emotional Intelligence in Pharmaceutical Marketing Exchanges
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“Salespeople who are able to better perceive, use, understand, and manage emotions are likely to be
proficient sellers because they can go beyond the spoken or written word, read customers’ emotions, know
which emotions are appropriate in particular situations, understand how customers feel during and after
purchases, and effectively manage emotions to effect positive outcomes for both customers and
themselves.” (Kidwell, Hardestry, Murtha & Sheng, 2011)
INTRODUCTION
Sales professionals have been considered as the primary source of product information
for physicians and are one of the most pivotal contributors to the success of
pharmaceutical firms (Fu, Richards, Hughes, & Jones, 2010). Salespeople serve as
important intermediaries between the firm and its customers (Abramovici & BancelCharensol, 2004), they directly affect customer perception of products, and facilitate
customer adoption of new and innovative merchandise (Ahearne, Rapp, Hughes, &
Jindal, 2010).
As field salespeople work primarily in an autonomous environment
without any close monitoring of their day-to-day activities, there is a certain degree of
discretion in terms of what they focus on and what their attitude toward selling is
(Bradford et al., 2010). Ultimately, the impact of a salesperson’s success rests on his or
her decision to put forth the effort and the emotion necessary to sell (Fu, et al., 2010;
Kidwell, Hardesty, Murtha, & Sheng, 2011).
RESEARCH ISSUES, DEFINITIONS AND OBJECTIVES
Most research carried out in the pharmaceutical industry context has evaluated the
prescription behaviour of physicians as a consequence of salespeople’s individual
characteristics and detailing activities the detailing activities and of mixed marketing
variables of pharmaceutical salespeople such as quotas, number of visits, and expertise
(Singh, 2008). One of the variables neglected by marketers, but at the heart of the
Impact of Emotional Intelligence in Pharmaceutical Marketing Exchanges
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discipline, is the role of emotion in marketing exchanges and relationships (Bagozzi,
Gopinath, & Nyer, 1999).
Emotions produce unique signals and are powerful psychological forces that strongly
influence salespeople’s behaviour and performance (Brown, Cron, & Slocum Jr, 1997;
Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2004). Understanding and using emotion is particularly
important in pharmaceutical sales exchanges because it involves interactions with internal
and external clients, as well as with suppliers. Yet, understanding of how emotions are
perceived and used in relationship marketing remains surprisingly limited (Bagozzi, et
al., 1999).
Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive, to facilitate (use), to understand and to
manage ones emotions and those of others to achieve a desired outcome (Mayer &
Salovey, 1997). Recent research has demonstrated that 75% of Fortune 500 companies
promote EI and that 90% of top performers in practically all industries have high EI
(Talentsmart, 2009). Identifying and understanding emotions increases accuracy in
meeting customer needs (Homburg, Wieseke, & Bornemann, 2009). A person's ability to
process and use EI will also affect interactions with customers in a positive fashion
(Kidwell, et al., 2011). Unfortunately, little research has identified specific emotional
abilities that help in understanding and determining how to interpret emotions and use
them in relationship marketing exchanges to enhance performance (Palmatier, Jarvis,
Bechkoff, & Kardes, 2009). To our knowledge, no research has addressed salespeople’s
abilities to recognize and respond to their own and their customers’ emotions in a
pharmaceutical sales context.
Self-efficacy is the salesperson’s perception of their own ability or belief that they have
the skills necessary to sell or to do a task (Brown, et al., 1997). “Individuals who have
positive self-efficacy focus their attention and motivation on the task necessary to achieve
performance levels and persevere in the face of difficulties” (Brown, Jones, & Leigh,
2005). Attitude toward selling is defined as a salesperson’s degree of favourable or
unfavourable predisposition toward selling (Ajzen, 1991). In this study, we are not
Impact of Emotional Intelligence in Pharmaceutical Marketing Exchanges
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measuring the salesperson’s attitude in general but rather the salesperson’s attitude
toward selling. In assessing salespeople’s attitudes toward selling, we will observe their
personal evaluations, whether positive or negative, as related to the task of selling.
Relationship quality is a multi dimensional measure including client satisfaction and trust
(Leuthesser, 1997). Relationship satisfaction is defined as the customer’s affective or
emotional state in regard to a relationship (Crosby, Evans, & Cowles, 1990). On the other
hand, trust is defined as the extent to which the customer has confidence in the exchange
and the salesperson (Doney & Cannon, 1997). Previous research has demonstrated that
the two measures are highly correlated, forming a one-dimensional measure of
relationship quality (Leuthesser, 1997). In this research, relationship quality will be
analysed from the physicians’ perspective.
The purpose of this research is to measure the moderating impact of EI on important
relationship marketing variables of salespeople such as self-efficacy and attitude and to
determine the effect on the relationship quality perceived by physicians. We also want to
evaluate the relative impact of the relationship quality on a physicians’ intention to
prescribe, intention to spread positive word-of-mouth and intention to anticipate future
interactions with salespeople.
METHOD
Our current research consists of working with sales representatives and physicians in the
pharmaceutical industry. We would like to evaluate the recruitment and training criteria
for sales representatives. To understand the impact of the key marketing relationship
variables – attitude toward selling and self-efficacy– on the relationship quality (trust and
satisfaction) of physicians, we will measure the moderating role of emotional
intelligence. We will conduct two field studies to test our hypotheses.
In study 1, a survey will be distributed to pharmaceutical sales representatives. We want
to use the EI in marketing exchanges (EIME) measure, a new and innovative scale to
Impact of Emotional Intelligence in Pharmaceutical Marketing Exchanges
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measure the ability-based conceptualisation of EI specific to the marketing field. Selfefficacy and attitude towards selling of the salesperson will also be tested in this survey
as well as other control variables (ex: relationship duration, years of experience in sales,
etc.). We hope to work with 150 surveys completed by salespeople.
In study 2, we would also like to evaluate the impact of the relation quality (trust and
satisfaction) on the physicians’ intention to prescribe, intention to spread positive wordof-mouth and intention to anticipate future interactions with the salesperson. We will also
evaluate the impact of reputation and size of the firm on relationship quality. As with the
sales representatives, we hope to have 150 surveys completed by physicians.
CONCLUSION
Theoretical & Managerial Implications
The current research will overcome the gaps and contribute to the literature by
introducing the concept of EI in pharmaceutical sales exchanges. Second, we will
demonstrate that EI fits within the key relationship marketing exchange variables. Third,
we will show how EI positively interacts with self-effectiveness and attitude toward
selling to increase relationship quality and, therefore, increase physician intention to
prescribe, intention to spread positive word-of-mouth and intention to anticipate future
interactions with the salespeople.
Impact of Emotional Intelligence in Pharmaceutical Marketing Exchanges
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This research will also provide evidence that high-EI salespeople influence sales
performance and customer retention. Prior research has demonstrated that 1% retention
improvement can increase the value of a firm by 5% (Kumar, Venkatesan, & Reinartz,
2008). Our findings will potentially impact understanding the implications involved in
maintaining solid relationships with customers over time. Furthermore, sales managers
must select highly talented candidates. This is an obvious challenge given that sales
force turnover affects recruiting and selection cost (Darmon & Martin, 2011). Selecting
salespeople with high EI may have positive outcomes critical to sales results, such as
better communication with managers, teammates and customers; reduced conflict;
enhanced work environment resulting in lower turnover (Verbeke, 1997). Third, EI can
be taught (Mayer & Salovey, 1997). Training programs including EI could be developed
to help sales managers train salespeople improve their sales performance (Kumar, et al.,
2008).
Limitations and Directions for Further Research
The first limitation of this research is that we are restricting the evaluation of the key
relational variables to sales representatives and physicians in the pharmaceutical industry.
In the future, we think that these key relationship marketing variables should be measured
on different dyads within the pharmaceutical industry, such as medical science liaison
and key option leader (KOL), market access specialists and government officials, etc.
We also believe that researchers should evaluate EI in other marketing exchange
contexts, such as service-oriented and product sales in other industries. Third, salespeople
with higher EI could have larger territories, more lucrative clients or limited access to
customers thus impacting results making the objective comparison difficult. We will add
several controls, such as sales experience, relationship duration and interaction frequency
to diminish this limitation. Future research should focus on salespeople with similar
geographic areas and populations.
With this research, we hope that researchers will be encouraged to further study the role
of emotional intelligence in sales exchanges.
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