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.