Independent sales agents in B2B markets: analyzing activities and performance gaps with customers and principals

Independent sales agents (ISAs) are a viable go-to-market option for many business-to-business (B2B) suppliers/principals. Despite their widespread presence in B2B markets, academic research on these channel partners remains limited. Moreover, as the B2B sales process continues to evolve, greater attention is needed to understand how ISAs manage sales-related activities toward customers while balancing their obligations toward their principals. To address this gap, this paper focuses on the specific activities undertaken by independent sales agents toward both customers and principals. Basing ourselves on two studies involving sales agents in Western Europe, we identify (a) 8 sets of activities undertaken by sales agents to manage their relationships with their customers and (b) 5 sets of activities toward their suppliers/principal. We also measure the perceptions of the ISAs on how well they are performing these activities. We go on to discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our research.