Closed influence tactics: Do smugglers win in the long run?

A national random sample of industrial salespeople was surveyed to examine the manner in which closed influence tactics, such as ingratiation, moderate the effects of adaptive selling on salesperson goals. The results revealed that closed influence tactics strengthened the positive effect of adaptive selling on short-term salesperson goals, and weakened the positive effect of adaptive selling on long-term salesperson goals. Thus, smugglers of influence may win in the short run, but they are likely to lose in the long run. Given that adaptive selling is used by salespeople to manage their customer-salesperson relationships, the manner in which closed influence tactics alter the form of the relationship between adaptive selling and salesperson goals have implications for sales organizations. The managerial implications of these findings are discussed and future research directions are proposed.