Adapting Sales with Micromanagement and Creativity During Disruption
Market disruptions like COVID-19 severely impact the normal functioning of global and local markets and players, including salespeople. These unprecedented situations can complicate salespeople’s ability to thrive and meet sales targets. To navigate these challenging times, salespeople often adjust their customer engagement strategy to fit changing circumstances, known as adaptive selling. This ability to adjust selling approach depends on a salesperson’s ability to think outside the box and find novel solutions to problems, which reflects creativity.
In addition to a salesperson’s own effort in adaptive selling and creativity, sales managers can provide guidance and close oversight through micromanagement. Such micromanagement can have both positive and negative effects—while it may support adaptive selling, it can also hinder creativity.
To understand the mechanisms and tools that empower salespeople to leverage market disruptions, we study the impact of market disruption and sales managers’ micromanagement on adaptive selling and salesperson creativity. Then, we offer a fresh perspective on leadership by highlighting the dual impact of micromanagement during disruptions. Despite the negative notion that micromanagement stifles sales performance and impacts salespeople's creativity, we demonstrate that it can deliver positive results under chaotic and evolving conditions through positive impact on adaptive selling and salesperson creativity. Consequently, real estate sales performance can be boosted when agents accept disruption as a challenge and adapt their approaches creatively, while managers provide clear direction and coaching without imposing their ideas or methods.
Understanding Disruption in Sales
We adopt existing concepts to explain how salespeople and sales managers can respond to the challenges and demands of disruptive events, such as pandemics, natural disasters, economic crises, or technological shifts, and the role of micromanagement in shaping sales efforts. Chaos theory describes how firms, managers and individuals can address disruptions and restore order by reassessing their strategies and adjusting systems and processes. The Job Demands-Resource (JD-R) framework explains that when salespeople face challenges in the sales environment (job demands), their morale can decline—but support from both individual strengths and organizational resources (job resources) can help restore and sustain it. Hence, we propose that salespeople who tap into their own creativity to resolve problems are better equipped to adapt and succeed over time. And, when disruption hits, close guidance from managers can reduce confusion and empower salespeople to adapt quickly.
Sales literature has often portrayed micromanagement as detrimental to sales because it indicates mistrust, creates anxiety, suppresses autonomy, and reduces productivity. However, recent studies suggest that micromanagement can help to clarify expectations, provide oversight for completing tasks effectively and direct salespeople’s efforts toward higher-value opportunities. We further demonstrate that micromanagement can also help organizations navigate disruption by providing structure and guidance when it is needed most.
Findings from our Study
In our first study, we used established scales to measure all the constructs from our conceptual model—market disruption, salesperson creativity, micromanagement, and adaptive selling. Then, we collected data from a broad range of 377 B2B salespeople to examine how micromanagement and salesperson creativity influence adaptive selling during market disruptions. Particularly, we asked respondents to reflect on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their sales environment. Also, we controlled for variables that could influence the results, including age, gender, education, sales experience, organizational tenure, and industry.
Our analysis reveals several insights. First, market disruption has a significant positive impact on adaptive selling, supporting the idea that change can drive flexibility in sales behavior. Second, disruption sparks creativity in salespeople, and creativity helps them adapt their approach more effectively, so creativity favors adaptive selling during market disruptions. Third, micromanagement proves valuable because it helps salespeople adjust their approach without limiting their creativity, thereby strengthening the relationship between disruption and adaptive selling.
Then, we conducted a follow-up study by statistically controlling for additional measures—sales self-efficacy and transformational leadership. We assessed their effects on salesperson creativity and adaptive selling, and not surprisingly, the results validated our initial results. Although transformational leadership helps salespeople adapt their selling approaches during market disruptions, it also reduces their creativity in those same situations. This suggests that while transformational leadership can be useful, it may also limit salespeople’s creative thinking during disruptions.
Why It Matters for the Real Estate Industry
Real estate professionals operate in a market that is increasingly subject to disruption—from economic downturn to pandemic, technological shifts or sudden shifts in buyer behavior. While disruptions can be threatening, seeing disruption as a challenge, not a setback, can improve real estate outcomes. Sales performance can be boosted when agents become more adaptable and creative in their approach. Real estate agents can creatively adjust their communication and strategies to suit each client’s unique situation, especially when showing properties, presenting options, or communicating value. Consequently, agents are better positioned to meet client needs and close deals, even in uncertain times.
Micromanagement can also be used selectively to improve adaptive selling during disruptions. Real estate managers can provide structured directives or closer oversight during a market crisis to help their agents stay focused, overcome uncertainty and adapt sales strategies quickly. However, managers must understand that creativity thrives best when agents have freedom and flexibility, so managers should avoid unduly imposing their ideas or methods. They can encourage creativity through training sessions, brainstorming workshops, or simply by giving agents space to test new approaches to client engagement and property presentation.
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Recommended Reading
Kumar, Binay, Aditya Gupta, and Ravi Agarwal (2025), “Can Micromanagement be Beneficial for Adaptive Selling? Role of Salesperson Creativity and Managerial Micromanagement During Disruption,” Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 45(3), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/08853134.2024.2444209
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About the Authors
Binay Kumar, PhD
Assistant Professor, Appalachian State University
Dr. Binay Kumar’s (PhD – Georgia State University) research focuses on sales force effectiveness, adaptive selling, salesperson creativity, and the impact of emerging technologies on marketing and sales. His work explores how salespeople and managers navigate disruption and accountability in dynamic environments, as well as how sales professionals act as knowledge managers in an era of digital transformation. Dr. Kumar’s research has appeared in leading journals such as the Journal of Business Research, European Journal of Marketing, and Production and Operations Management. He has been recognized as a finalist for the ISBM Doctoral Dissertation Award and has received institutional honors for his scholarly contributions during his doctoral training. At Appalachian State University, Dr. Kumar teaches courses in marketing and sales, preparing students to apply innovative and research-driven approaches to real-world business challenges.
Aditya Gupta, PhD
Associate Professor, Texas State University
Dr. Aditya Gupta (PhD – Pennsylvania State University) has taught at the collegiate level since completing his PhD in Marketing. His research focuses on sales management, business-to-business (B2B) marketing, leadership in sales contexts, and the influence of social networks in industrial markets. Through his work, he examines how managerial practices and leadership styles shape salesperson behavior, motivation, and performance. He has been published in journals such as Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Production and Operations Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and Journal of Business Ethics. He teaches courses in marketing and sales strategy, equipping students with the skills and insights to excel in complex and evolving business environments.
Ravi Agarwal, PhD
Assistant Professor, San José State University
Dr. Ravi Agarwal (PhD – University of Nebraska–Lincoln) focuses on interfirm relationships, sales management, and marketing strategy, with particular attention to how firms design and manage portfolios of exchange ties and how salesperson incentives shape adaptive behavior. He has also been recognized at the dissertation stage (e.g. ISBM Doctoral Dissertation Award) and holds academic honors in both research and teaching at his institution. He has been published in leading journals such as International Journal of Research in Marketing and Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. His dissertation was recognized with the ISBM Doctoral Dissertation Award. Before his academic career, he gained experience in business development and consulting, which informs both his teaching and applied research. He teaches courses in marketing and sales management, preparing students to succeed in dynamic and competitive business environments.
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KCRR 2026 June - Adapting Sales with Micromanagement and Creativity during Disruption (Gupta)
