Salesperson Ambidexterity and Stress: The Hidden Cost of Doing it All
Real estate professionals are often expected to be masters of balance. On any given day, agents must prospect for new clients, nurture client and vendor relationships, manage listings, respond to service issues, and meet demanding performance targets. This ability to simultaneously pursue new business while maintaining existing relationships—what researchers call salesperson ambidexterity, or the hunter/farmer role—is widely viewed as a hallmark of successful real estate sales.
Prior research consistently shows that ambidextrous salespeople outperform their more specialized peers, generating higher revenues and delivering stronger results for their firms. As a result, many brokerages and sales managers actively encourage agents to “do it all.” However, this expectation may in fact come with a cost.
Across two field studies of business-to-business (B2B) salespeople, our research reveals a hidden downside of ambidexterity: higher levels of felt stress. When applied to real estate, these findings suggest that agents who balance constant prospecting with ongoing client management may experience greater strain—especially when additional service responsibilities and outcome-focused performance systems intensify job demands. Such increased strain may lead to job dissatisfaction.
Ambidexterity in Real Estate: Hunting and Farming
In real estate, “hunting” involves prospecting for new buyers and sellers, generating leads, and expanding one’s pipeline. “Farming,” by contrast, focuses on nurturing existing clients, managing active transactions, and maintaining long-term referral relationships. Many agents pride themselves on excelling at both–and brokerages often encourage this versatility.
Research has shown that ambidextrous selling can boost productivity, creativity, and customer satisfaction. Yet managing both types of activities simultaneously requires frequent task switching, which psychological research shows can drain cognitive resources and elevate stress. For real estate professionals, switching between prospecting calls, client negotiations, inspections, paperwork, and crisis management may leave little opportunity for mental recovery.
This concern is especially timely as recent industry surveys indicate that a majority of sales professionals report rising mental health challenges. These challenges suggest that performance pressures may be taking a growing toll.
Study 1: Doing More, but Feeling More Stress
Our first study examined whether salesperson ambidexterity is associated with greater felt stress. Using a national sample of experienced B2B salespeople across multiple industries, our results show a positive and significant relationship between ambidexterity and felt stress. Salespeople who were more oriented towards both hunting and farming activities reported higher psychological strain than their more mono-dexterous peers.
These findings suggest measurable cognitive and emotional demands for managing a complex customer portfolio over time. Even when salespeople voluntarily adopt an ambidextrous orientation, the mental resources required to continuously balance competing selling tasks can lead to meaningful strain.
Study 2: Boundary Conditions and Intensified Stress
The second study successfully replicated the findings of Study 1, and it examined two conditions that further intensify stress: non-selling service requirements and outcome-based managerial control systems. The results indicate that as customer service task requirements increase, the relationship between ambidexterity and felt stress becomes significantly stronger. Ambidextrous salespeople experience heightened strain as non-selling service responsibilities further fragment their attention and consume limited time and energy.
Stress levels increase even more when salespeople operate under outcome-focused managerial control systems, where evaluations, compensation, and recognition are tied primarily to results, such as closed transactions or revenue targets. Although outcome-based systems provide clear targets, they also intensify pressure. The combination of substantial service responsibilities and strongly outcome-focused managers produces the highest levels of felt stress among ambidextrous agents.
Stress Undermines Job Satisfaction
Stress does not just affect well-being; it also shapes how salespeople evaluate their work. Our findings reveal that felt stress mediates the relationship between salesperson ambidexterity and job satisfaction. While ambidexterity itself does not directly reduce satisfaction, the stress associated with balancing hunting, farming, service tasks, and outcome performance pressure significantly undermines how salespeople feel about their jobs.
Notably, this effect holds regardless of salesperson tenure. Even experienced professionals are not insulated from the psychological costs of ambidextrous roles.
Implications for Real Estate
Real estate firms depend on agents who can prospect, close, and sustain long-term relationships. While ambidexterity remains essential to success in real estate, these findings challenge the assumption that encouraging agents to take on more responsibilities will inevitably lead to better outcomes. Agents who prefer balancing hunting and farming may find it difficult to scale back either activity, even when demands exceed available resources. This constant tradeoff can leave agents with the perception that they never fully complete any task, contributing to chronic stress and reduced job satisfaction.
These findings from both studies highlight the importance of examining how real estate roles are structured and evaluated. Non-selling service requirements play a meaningful role in amplifying stress, particularly for ambidextrous agents. Streamlining administrative processes, reallocating service tasks, or providing greater support may help reduce unnecessary strain. In addition, firms that rely heavily on outcome-based compensation and evaluation systems should be mindful of how these controls interact with role complexity. When outcome pressure is combined with high service demands, stress levels increase substantially.
Addressing issues early on may help managers protect both performance and well-being. Without intervention, elevated stress may quietly erode satisfaction and increase the likelihood of turnover among high-performing agents.
Recommended Reading
McClure, Colleen E., Thomas E. DeCarlo, and John D. Hansen (2024), “The Dark Side of Salesperson Ambidexterity: How Salesperson Ambidexterity Increases Felt Stress,” Industrial Marketing Management, 122, 78-88.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2024.08.008
About the Authors
Colleen E. McClure, PhD
Assistant Professor of Marketing, Ohio University
Dr. Colleen E. McClure’s (PhD – Oklahoma State University) research focuses on salesperson well-being, B2B buyer–seller relationships, sales management, and the evolving role of frontline employees in increasingly digital sales environments. In particular, her work examines how salesperson behaviors, organizational structures, and emerging technologies such as AI shape both salesperson well-being and customer outcomes. Dr. McClure’s research has been published in leading journals, including the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Industrial Marketing Management, and the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. Her research provides actionable insights for scholars and practitioners seeking to design more effective, adaptive, and sustainable sales organizations while balancing sales performance with long-term employee well-being.
Thomas E. DeCarlo, PhD
Ben S. Weil Endowed Chair of Industrial Distribution and Professor of Marketing, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Dr. Thomas E. DeCarlo’s (PhD – University of Georgia) primary research interests deal with strategic issues in selling and sales force management, customer relationship management, and marketing communications. Dr. DeCarlo's research has been published in journals such as Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of International Business Studies, Marketing Letters, Journal of Service Research, Industrial Marketing Management, among others. He is also the co-author of Sales Management, a sales management textbook. Dr. DeCarlo has taught in executive MBA programs in China (Beijing, Chongqing), at Iowa State University, and at the University of Georgia, and has been recognized for his outstanding teaching and business impact on several occasions. Dr. DeCarlo has also conducted numerous seminars and research projects dealing with new product development, market analysis and segmentation, sales force and brand management for companies such as 3M, Agenta Biotechnologies, Lockheed Martin, Andersen Windows, Vermeer Manufacturing, among others.
John D. Hansen, PhD
Associate Dean and Professor of Marketing, University of Alabama at Birmingham
Dr. John D. Hansen’s (PhD – University of Alabama) research focuses on sales management, customer relationship management, and the strategic role of the sales force in driving firm performance. His work examines how salesperson decision-making, role expectations, and organizational systems influence customer outcomes and long-term relationship value. His research has been published in leading journals such as the Journal of Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and Industrial Marketing Management. Dr. Hansen’s work provides insights for both scholars and practitioners seeking to design effective and sustainable sales organizations.
