Sales call anxiety: Exploring what it means when fear rules a sales encounter

The goal of this study is to develop and test a conceptualization of sales call anxiety (SCA) on the basis of current insights from the cognitive appr oach to social anxiety. Sales call anxiety is an irrepressible fear of bein g negatively evaluated and rejected by a customer, and it is coupled with a desire to avoid undertaking specific functional actions in selling situati ons. The authors present and test a model of SCA in two selling situations known to have threatening consequences for salespeople: canvasing and closi ng. The authors find that SCA consists of four components: negative self-ev aluations, negative evaluations from customers, awareness of physiological symptoms (e.g., a queasy stomach, shaky voice, blushing), and protective ac tions (e.g., avoiding eye contact, fiddling with the hands. shunning self-d isclosures). The authors show that these dimensions are functions of negati ve affectivity and anxiety-provoking contextual cues and that they negative ly influenced the performance of 189 mortgage salespeople.