Drug Abuse in the Sales Force

Drug abuse in the workplace is a national problem of frightening proportions and there is no reason to suspect that the nations's sales forces should be immune. This study examines the problem of sales force drug abuse and reports the findings of a nationwide survey of field sales managers concerning the extent of drug abuse in the nation's sales forces, the methods of dealing with the problem, and factors related to drug abuse problems in the sales force. Implications for sales managers, sales management educators and trainers, and researchers in the field of sales and sales management are also discussed.     

Gender Differences in Attitudes Toward Women as Sales Managers in the People's Republic of China

The present study promulgates a research stream in the area of understanding women's position in the management of the Chinese sales force. The study investigates attitudes toward women as sales managers held by Chinese salespeople. Male salespeople consistently rated the female sales managers lower than did female salespeople on three sets of attitude items. This finding indicates the presence of male resistance to women in sales management positions.     

Evaluation of Selling Performance: A Study of Current Practices

Abstract

Performance evaluation of salespeople is particularly important in this era of escalating costs and concern with productivity. This study of 213 sales executives indicated that sales managers tended to rely on qualitative bases for evaluation, used only a narrow set of quantitative bases, and evaluated salespeople over only a narrow range of selling activities. Suggestions for improving performance evaluation are provided. Findings of the study indicate that salesforce evaluation procedures utilized in practice differ from those provided in the sales management literature.     

It is all in good humor? Examining the impact of salesperson evaluations of leader humor on salesperson job satisfaction and job stress

Abstract

Salesperson job stress and job satisfaction have been identified as critical factors affecting job performance. Academic research suggests that sales managers can influence salesperson job stress and job satisfaction. Interestingly, a review of the sales literature finds very little research on the impact of sales leader humor usage on the stress and satisfaction of salespeople. Consequently, we explore how salespeople’s evaluation of their manager’s use of humor influences their individual levels of job stress and satisfaction. We investigate both the positive and negative roles of humor by analyzing the impact of salesperson evaluations of their managers’ use of affiliative and aggressive humor on their job stress and job satisfaction. Furthermore, we examine the mechanism by which these evaluations affect salesperson stress and satisfaction by identifying two critical mediating variables – social loneliness and willingness to cooperate. Using a sample of 299 professional salespeople, we empirically test this process model to find that affiliative humor usage by sales managers, as evaluated by salespeople, reduces social loneliness and stress for salespeople while also increasing followers’ acceptance of cooperation. Evaluations of aggressive humor, on the other hand, increase stress levels among salespeople. Both social loneliness and acceptance of cooperation, in turn, significantly affect job satisfaction.     

Marketing Control and Sales Force Customer Orientation

This study is predicated on the premise that internal sales force control mechanisms are strategic and operational forces that directly affect the behaviors of the sales force and their accompanying orientation toward customers. Sales managers represent a very different component of the sales force than salespeople. Their motivations, interests, role, and methods of operations all represent different approaches than those embraced by their coworkers: salespeople. Yet, although sales managers operate under an outcome-based control system and can be expected, to some degree, to be motivated by selfinterest (Oliver and Anderson 1994), upper management expects managers to be directed by organizational needs. However, in a results-oriented environment, the foundation of many compensation systems, sales quotas can focus sellers and managers in a direction inconsistent with customer-oriented selling (particularly if this behavior is deemed necessary to achieve quota). Based on this premise, this study examines the influence of sales managers’ quotas on their response to salespeople’s unethical behavior and its resulting effect on the customer orientation of the sales force. To fully explore this condition, this study also examines the role of an important formal process control, the ethical climate (e.g., rules and regulations), in influencing customer orientation. Providing important implications to sales organizations, results indicat that sales quotas can negatively affect sales force customer orientation via their effect on sales managers’ responses to salespeople’s selling behaviors. Interestingly, however, the company’s ethical climate was found to positively influence sales force customer orientation.     

Congruence in Sales Force Evaluations: Relation to Sales Force Perceptions of Conflict and Ambiguity

Abstract

This research examined the relationship between salespersons' perceptions of role conflict and role ambiquity from various sources and the degree of agreement between salespeople and sales managers on salesperson performance. Three sources of role ambiguity were found to explain the most variance in performance congruence. Implications for management are discussed.     

The Manager-Salesperson Relationship: an Exploratory Examination of the Vertical-Dyad Linkage Model

Abstract

The Vertical-Dyad-Linkage Model (VDL) is offered as a tool to explore the infrastructure of a sales team. Building on the philosophy found in most sales management literature that salespersons are to be managed as individuals, VDL theory allows an exploration of the underlying social organization that is present in all sales forces. Thus, the style that a manager uses with a particular salesperson will vary depending on the exchange relationship established (cadres, hired hands). The objectives of the paper are to explore the general tenets of VDL theory, to assimilate the theory in sales management, to provide implications for sales managers and salespeople, and to discuss the important implications for sales management research.     

Career Path Charting: Framework for Sales Force Evaluation

The authors compare several approaches to the evaluation of field salespeople to see if an improved analytical framework can be created. Based on performance data from 56 industrial salespeople, results suggest sales increase with experience and with the number of customer calls. The findings also provide support for the sales force career cycle and a new multi-attribute performance matrix. The use of a matrix approach allows managers to review and compare the accomplishments of the sales force along several dimensions at the same time.     

The Selling Situation as a Moderator of the Personality-Sales Performance Relationship: an Empirical Investigation

Abstract

The lack of consistent success in using personality traits to predict the performance of salespeople is attributed to the cross-sectional nature of previous research. In this study, greater predictive accuracy and explanatory power is achieved when the selling situation is used as a moderating variable. The results are presented and the implications for sales force management and future research are considered.     

Prioritizing Sales Force Decision Areas for Productivity Improvements using a Core Sales Response Function

The time and budgets that managers can devote to enhancing sales force productivity are limited, so sales managers must decide where it is worthwhile to invest in productivity improvements—to improve salespeople’s current effort allocation, realign territories, enhance sales force sizing, or provide more training. To prioritize these alternatives, management must assess the outcomes of investments on the basis of a common metric—profit. This paper proposes to estimate a core sales response function that allows for quantifying the profits derived from each possible action and demonstrates the benefits of this approach through an actual case study.     

Moral Philosophy,Ethical Evaluations,and Sales Manager Hiring Intentions

A growing body of evidence shows an influence of moral philosophies on ethical decision-making. Despite the importance of ethical considerations in sales force selection, the influence of sales managers’ ethical evaluations on hiring practices has received scant attention. This study examines sales managers’ ideological orientations, ethical evaluations of hypothetical salespeople portrayed in scenarios, and the effect of such evaluations on the intent to hire salespeople. Results of a cluster analysis highlight that four ideology-based segments of sales managers exist, with absolutists dominating the 268 sales executives surveyed. Furthermore, it was found that ideological relativism influences managers’ judgments of ethical behavior and hiring intentions, but idealism did not play a role. In turn, ethical judgments of justness, fairness, moral rightness, and acceptability influence hiring intentions.     

How to Retain Real Estate Sales People: What Things Work

Abstract

This study examines the residential real estate salesperson as one population and the real estate sales manager as a second population in an effort to identify those rewards important to successful sales and career development, as well as retention. Indepth interviews were conducted in order to provide more reliable results for this career field. It was determined that the management of real estate salespeople can be improved by focusing upon selection procedures as well as by developing a greater identification of the salesperson with the firm.     

Drivers and outcomes of salespersons’ value opportunity recognition competence in solution selling

Abstract

In B2B markets, firms seek to provide customer solutions instead of merely selling goods or services. As boundary-spanners, salespeople are pivotal for implementing this strategic shift. Yet, extant literature provides limited insights into salesperson’s resources and competencies required for customer solutions, particularly in the early phases of solution selling. This research focuses on salesperson’s value opportunity recognition competence (VOR), which is a central requirement for salespeople to be able to navigate the early phases of solution selling. Analyzing large-scale, multi-level data of 799 salespeople and their respective sales managers in 29 sales organizations, the authors investigate the role of different salesperson resources and work environment characteristics for strengthening their VOR. The authors find that salespeople need both customer and technical knowledge, but customer knowledge is more important. Salespeople also can substitute individual technical knowledge with strong internal relations, but strong customer relations are no substitute for individual knowledge about customers’ business models and processes. Formalization turned out to be a double-edged sword in the context of VOR development, while transformational leadership has positive effects only. The findings bear concrete implications for improving the selection, training, and work environment of solution salespeople.     

Differences In the Importance of Selling Techniques Between Consumer and Industrial Salespeople

Abstract

The techniques involved in the personal selling process have been well documented in numerous sources over the years, but little research-based guidance has been provided to aid professional salespeople in the implementation of such techniques. The purpose of this research study is to examine the importance of 84 selling techniques, and cite the similarities and differences between consumer and industrial salespeople. The results indicate that consumer salespeople tend to rely more on other people, community contact, and standardized sales presentations than do industrial salespeople, while the latter rely more on company-supplied resources and partially standardized presentation styles.     

The Role of Culture Strength in Shaping Sales Force Outcomes

Although a strong culture has been widely acknowledged as a defining characteristic of successful firms, past research has failed to examine the influence it exerts on the attitudes and behavior of salespeople. In a two-sample study, we measure culture strength and explore its relationship to value congruity and to three sales force outcomes that define the sales management research tradition: role stress, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. Within the contexts of the sales subculture of a Fortune 500 firm (Study 1) and specialized sales organizations (Study 2), the results reveal a compelling portrait of the forces that shape salesperson–culture fit. Specifically, the results of both studies indicate that a strong culture leads to higher levels of value congruity, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment, and lower levels of role stress. Key implications are highlighted for sales managers and for researchers.     

A within-person theoretical perspective in sales research: outlining recommendations for adoption and consideration of boundary conditions

Abstract

In the sales literature it is standard practice for researchers to collect cross-sectional data from multiple salespeople, and to compare those salespeople on the data obtained. This between-person approach is suitable for research aiming to draw conclusions between salespeople. However, many salesperson processes are dynamic and vary within salespeople over time, requiring datasets with repeated-measures. This article highlights the need to adopt a within-person theoretical perspective in sales research. Critically, the article shows how our present understanding of boundary conditions may change depending on whether a between-person or within-person level of analysis is adopted. Using examples from the sales literature, we show how the practical implications from between-persons research designs do not necessarily generalize to the within-person level. Further, we explain the methodological and analytical considerations that researchers must account for when undertaking within-person research. Furthermore, the article provides decision criteria that help to identify when within-person analysis should be conducted, outlining analysis tools that are capable of correctly estimating within-person effects without bias. Examples of how within-person research can enhance theory within future sales research, and how within-person research may influence management implications are also discussed. Finally, potential remedies to within-person research barriers are given.     

Compensation and Control Systems: A New Application of Vertical Dyad Linkage Theory

Compensation and control systems offer much for study. In this paper, we provide directions for future research by considering the system of influences that operate to shape salesperson behavior in the presence of formal and informal systems attempting to influence behaviors and outcomes. By applying vertical dyad linkage theory to the issue of control, we illustrate how the field remains fertile for continued study to improve the understanding of how incentives influence sales managers, salespeople, and customers. Of particular interest is the interplay between superiors and subordinates across sales force management layers and in the context of compensation/control. Further, the chain of linkages extends to customers, also providing fruitful opportunities for research.     

Important First-line Sales Management Qualifications: What Sales Executives Think

Abstract

What personal characteristics and performance dimensions are important in determining who is promoted to first-line sales management positions? This question concerns those who aspire to sales management positions, as well as managers who are involved in the first-line sales management process. Despite the significance of the topic, virtually no published research has examined this issue. This paper reports the results of a nationwide survey of senior-level sales executives that focused on criteria that are important in the selection of first-line managers.