Navigating the AI wave for sales management: The mediating role of marketing agility

Sales management has undergone significant transformations in response to the changing external environment and the adoption of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including Seamless AI and Einstein (Sales AI). These technological advancements have reshaped the industrial sales management landscape and customer journeys. To thrive in this evolving environment, industrial firms must embrace marketing agility, characterized by proactiveness, responsiveness, flexibility, and speed. This study explores business-to-business (B2B) firms' challenges when integrating AI into their sales management processes. Based on the dynamic capabilities literature, we argue that marketing agility plays a mediating role in the adoption of AI technology and sales team performance in uncertain business contexts. Additionally, we investigate the moderating effects of marketing influence and internal organizational climate on the relationship among AI technology adoption, agility, and performance. We collected data from B2B sales managers from companies generating at least $5 million in annual revenues and employing more than 100 individuals. Our findings underscore the necessity for aligning strategic decisions, such as technology adoption (and use), with marketing agility to affect firm performance positively. Theoretically, this study contributes to the emerging literature on the facilitators of marketing agility in B2B firms.