With the “war for talent’’ raging and the aging and shrinking sales force, the recruitment and long-term retention of skilled and motivated sales employees is currently a key challenge for organizations. While hiring and retaining high performing salespeople has always been crucial for organizations, the current state of the labor market is particularly problem laden.

First, sales organizations urgently require new sales talent to survive and fortify their businesses in the current turbulent market environments.

Second, even if sales organizations manage to hire new sales recruits, it may constitute a risky, difficult endeavor and sustainable performance is not assured.

Third, younger generations of salespeople have different expectations regarding their work and are motivated differently. So-called millennials no longer conceive work as just a way to earn money, but also as an opportunity to contribute to society.

The goal of the special issue in JPSSM is to explore these important questions and give a forum both for outstanding cutting-edge empirical and theoretical research.

Further information on the paper and the submission can be found here.