The predictors of sales performance: a study with wholesale sellers/Os fatores preditores do desempenho de vendas: um estudo com vendedores atacadistas/Factores predictores del desempeño en ventas: un estudio con los vendedores al por mayor.
| Autor | Donassolo, Paulo Henrique |
I INTRODUCTION
The context related to personal sales environment is being consistently changed over time. Many of such changes might be motivated by a higher level of customers' demand, because they do not only want products, but rather wish solutions for their problems (Ingram et al., 2008). Verbeke, Dietz and Verwaal (2011) state that in the current knowledge economy customers are increasingly informed, which poses higher challenges to the salespeople, who should transfer knowledge to their customers.
The major challenge thus posed to the companies' business areas is to build up and keep relationships with customers, especially with those with better sales and profits generating potential (Ingram et al., 2008), and where such relationship might be transformed into competitive edge (CANON, PERREAULT JR., 1999). The buildup of relationships is fundamental to compete in the current world, and to that end, the company relies on salespeople (JARAMILLO, MULKI, 2008).
Sales literature acknowledges the relevance ofunderstanding factors that influence salespeople's performance and how such factors vary, in different contexts, and such understanding is fundamental both to managers and to researchers of sales and marketing (KRISHNAN, NETEMEYER, BOLES, 2002; VERBEKE, DIETZ, VERWAAL, 2011). Therefore, there is no consensus in the literature on which factors are more strongly related to the performance of salespeople. The meta-analysis conducted by Verbeke, Dietz, and Verwaal (2011), which complements Churchill Jr. et al. (1985), systematically reviews the various factors that might be regarded as influencing the salespeople's performance. Both studies come to the same conclusion: there is no consensus amongst authors studying the topic about how to define or measure such performance, especially about which main factors influence salespeople's performance.
Therefore, this study aims to test a model of the main factors influencing sales' performance, based on the study by Krishnan, Netemeyer, and Boles (2002). This study goes forward in relation to the previous one in testing self-efficacy and effort variables as constructs of second order, measured from latent factors already identified in literature, but in an isolated manner. Only the most recent study by Verbeke, Dietz, and Verwaal (2011) summarizes such factors, but the authors have based on a systematic review of literature. This study is based on primary data collected from salespeople of the Brazilian wholesale companies' business area. The wholesale segment is an important link between the retailer and the manufacturer, and therefore it is important to understand how wholesale salespeople vary in terms of sales performance, and which factors might be associated to such variation.
2 BACKGROUND OF SALES' PERFORMANCE
What are the main influencers or background of performance, and how the salespeople's performance should be measured are topics with little consensus amongst the authors researching such topics. In the beginning of this field theoretical development, the discussion was oriented towards the measurement of constructs, and in this regard the study by Churchill Jr., Ford, and Walker Jr. (1974) have contributed to develop and propose a scale to measure the satisfaction with industrial salespeople's work, which became known as INDSALES scale. Such authors though recognize that the relation between satisfaction with the work and the salespeople's performance is not direct, and intervening variables might help to better understand the sales' performance.
Subsequently, authors such as Walker Jr., Churchill Jr., and Ford (1977) suggest that the salespeople's performance is influenced by factors they can control: (1) the perception of their role, and on which activities they should be performed in order to obtain the desired performance; (2) the motivation influencing the amount of efforts used in performing the sales activities; and (3) the skill, which is the quality of such effort. Churchill Jr. et al. (1985), in their meta-analysis, classify the background of performance in increasing order of importance: personal factors, organizational and environmental factors; motivation; aptitude; levels of skills, and the perception of their role within the organization and within the sales process. Subsequently, the meta-analysis conducted by Verbeke, Dietz, and Verwaal (2011) shows the ambiguity of roles (r = -0.25, p < 0.05), the cognitive aptitude (r = 0.23, p < 0.05), the involvement in the work (r = 0.23, p < 0.05), the degree of adaptability (r = 0.27, p < 0.05), and the sales-related knowledge (r = 0.28, p < 0.05) as the main influencers of salespeople's performance.
We can also see in those studies the authors' preference in using factors such as the effort (BAGOZZI, 1980; JARAMILLO, MULKI, 2008) and sales skills (BEHRMAN, PERREAULT JR., 1984; SUJAN, WEITZ, KUMAR, 1994; KOHLI, SHERVANI, SHALLAGALLA, 1998; MATSUO, KUSUMI, 2002; WACHNER, PLOUFFE, GREGOIRE, 2009) and self-efficacy (JAWORSKI, KOHLI, 1991; KRISHNAN, NETEMEYER, BOLES, 2002) in the pursuit to understand which are the factors influencing the salespeople's performance.
In regard to the most appropriate way to obtain the information needed to measure and evaluate a salespeople's performance, Churchill Jr. et al. (1985) state that the main divergence between authors lies in the use of subjective or objective measures as the way of measuring and evaluating the salespeople's performance. The self-efficacy and self-informative measures, for being subjective, are failures since they can have an ascending self-valuation bias. Some authors though consider that such measures are useful, since this possible bias has no power to influence as to damage the evaluation (CHURCHILL JR. et al., 1985). Therefore, Churchill Jr. et al. (1985) conclude that the auto-efficacy and the numerical data are not much divergent when used as source of salespeople's performance appraisal.
In the path of the salespeople's self-efficacy, as a way of analyzing their own performance, Krishnan, Netemeyer, and Boles (2002) defend that the evaluation is related to the performance perception as for their sales in terms of value, of the quality of their relationship with customers, and the knowledge the salespeople have about products, market, competitors, and customers' needs. Sujan, Weitz, and Kumar (1994), and Wachner, Plouffe, and Gregoire (2009) use self-efficacy of salespeople in relation to the performance of their colleagues in regard to the fulfillment of quantitative and qualitative goals. Behrman and Perreault Jr. (1984) state that the sales performance can only be defined by considering a long term horizon, and using a high level of abstraction. Brown and Peterson (1994) add the evaluation of managers of skills and results obtained by the salespeople.
Chart 1 shows the summary of the works of main authors used in this work.
According to Krishnan, Netemeyer, and Boles (2002), previous studies on factors influencing salespeople's performance generally use a single analysis factor, such as the influence of leadership on the salespeople's guidance, or the knowledge and technical capacities of the salespeople. This study format, according to them, is not ideal--it leaves a gap, since it considers a factor alone, disregarding the others. The authors have then proposed in their study a model that consolidates several factors under three constructs: Self-efficacy, Competitiveness and Effort, as shown in Figure 1. This consolidation of various influencing factors under such three constructs was the starting point for this research. The constructs comprised by the conceptual model, as well as the research hypotheses, are described as follows. However, it is noteworthy that the main contribution of this research in view of the study by Krishnan, Netemeyer, and Boles (2002) is to measure the self-efficacy and the effort as second order constructs, based on the factors identified in literature, and which are discussed as follows.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
2.1 Competitiveness
Competitiveness is one of the main features of successful salespeople, being defined as the set of individual differences regarding the performance of interpersonal relations. The competition and the desire to win or to be better than the others (SPENCER;, HELMEREICH, 1983 apud KRISHNAN, NETEMEYER, BOLES, 2002) or the need for interpersonal competition, the desire to win and to be better than the others (BREWER, 1994) are the pleasure obtained by competing with other salespeople, and the desire to exceed then in performance (KRISHNAN, NETEMEYER, BOLES, 2002), which affects the effort of the salespeople (LOCKE, 1968), and is a feature of the individual which pushes him/her in the path of victory (BROWN, PETERSON, 1994).
In their work, Krishnan, Netemeyer, and Boles (2002) highlight that some authors such as Schwepker Jr. and Ingram (1994), and Brown and Peterson (1994), have found positive and significant influence of the competitiveness on performance, while others, such as Locke (1968), have noticed that the effect of the competitiveness on performance does not takes place directly, but rather through the effort. This indirect influence takes place within the understanding that the higher the competitiveness the higher the effort, and consequently the better the performance (LOCKE, 1968). Krishnan, Netemeyer, and Boles (2002) in their model have decided to use the conclusions of Locke (1968), considering the direct influence of the competitiveness on the salespeople's effort. Based on that, in this work the following hypotheses are proposed:
H1a--The salespeople's competitiveness is positively correlated to their auto-efficacy.
H1b--The salespeople's competitiveness positively influences their effort.
2.2 Self-efficacy
Self-efficacy can be defined as the salespeople's belief that they can manage to successfully perform their sales activities 0(KRISHNAN, NETEMEYER...
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