Sales technology research: a review and future research agenda

Abstract

Abstract Expecting improvements in productivity and performance, organizations continue to invest considerably in sales technology tools and platforms such as customer relationship management, social media, and artificial intelligence. Accordingly, scholars in this area have produced a rich literature stream. Nevertheless, a fragmented picture remains regarding sales technology’s role within the sales process and the factors leading to its adoption, use, and subsequent effectiveness. Hence, synthesizing extant scholarship that can be easily approached by managers and which can offer a guide for future research represents a worthy scholarly endeavor. In this study, we comprehensively (e.g. 115 articles) review the sales technology literature covering over fifty years (1971 to 2023). In so doing, we identify themes from past research and discuss implications for sales managers in the current technological era while offering potential research avenues that speculate on the future of the sales technology landscape.