Models of Salesperson Performance

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The rest of the semester

Well address more tactical issues in sales force management Performance Drivers & Evaluation Motivation & Compensation Selection & Training Sales Force Automation/E-commerce Pulling it all together (Digital Think, Group Projects)
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Components of Performance
Role perceptions Aptitude & Personality Skill Level Motivation Level Organizational/environmental variables Rewards

Role Perceptions
A primary influence on how salespeople perform is their perceptions of the demands placed upon them A role is a prescription:
it tells you the activities and behavior that are expected of anyone in a position

Role partners
communicate expectations pressure salespeople to meet them

A role partner is anyone with a vested interest in how a salesperson does the job, such as:
the boss, the customers, other executives, other salespeople and support people, people who are significant in the sales reps 4 personal life

Role Stress
Role stress is like a disease; most reps suffer complications of role stress Why?
Sales is at the boundary of the firm; salespeople are boundary spanners, which means lots of role partners Salespeople often have to be creative; find solutions; reconcile needs A sales reps performance affects performance of lots of other people Sales reps personify the cruel voice of the marketplace (scapegoat- kill the messenger) Time and resource constraints necessitate tradeoffs between role partners expectations
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Role Stress (continued)

Day after day, salespeople grapple with the messages their role partners send them and the pressures role partners put on them. Two things create role stress (create problems that eventually will make the salesperson miserable):
Perceived Role Conflict Perceived Role Ambiguity

Perceived Role Conflict:

you feel that the demands of your role partners are incompatible. To make one happy, you have to upset another (perceived). Upshot: misery & poor motivation

Perceived Role Ambiguity:

You feel you dont have the information to cope with your job demands
dont know how to do a task dont know what role partners expect dont know how your performance is being evaluated dont have clear objectives SUM: unsure how youre doing and what to do next

How to reduce Role Stress

Communicate! Give feedback! Even bad news is better than no news Salespeople must have accurate expectancies & instrumentalities Training and encouragement: increase expectancies for desired levels of performance- people who believe they can, often do Accept that some role stress is normal (even desirable) but be especially alert for dysfunctional levels of role stress in inexperienced people
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Sales Manager Atmosphere Creation

Traditional Approach
Authoritative management Emphasis on rewards the manager gives out:
pay promotion recognition of achievement

Leading to:
Motivation to work harder: intensity, persistence

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Non-traditional atmosphere
Participatory leadership Emphasis on intrinsic rewards & motivation people work because selling satisfies them with:
challenges pride in serving customers pride in skills

Warm Culture
informal sense of shared values identify with company long-term employment
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Aptitude & Personality

Intelligence, cognitive abilities, verbal intelligence, math ability, sales aptitude Responsibility, dominance, sociability, self-esteem, creativity/flexibility, need for achievement/intrinsic rewards, need for power/extrinsic rewards Focus on these during selection decisions
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Skill Level
vocational skills sales presentation skills general management interpersonal vocational esteem Focus on these via training

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Motivation & Rewards

Expectancies: salespersons estimates of the probability that effort will lead to improved performance on a specific dimension Instrumentalities: salespersons estimates that improved performance will lead to increased rewards Valence for reward: how much the salesperson wants the reward Deal with this in designing the compensation package
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Can we predict who will be a good performer?

Variables Affecting Performance Number of Correlations Reported Weighted Mean Correlation Coefficient (R) .138 .161 .268 .294 .184 .104 Percent of Variance in Performance Explained (R)2 .019 .026 .072 .086 .034 .011

1. Aptitude 2. Personal Characteristics 3. Skill Levels 4. Role Perceptions 5. Motivation 6. Organizational/Environmental Factors

820 407 178 59 126 51

SOURCE: Adapted from Gilbert A. Churchill, Jr., Neil M. Ford, Steven W. Hartley, and Orville
C. Walker, Jr., The Determinants of Salesperson Performance: A Meta-Analysis, Journal of Marketing Research (May 1985), p. 107. 15

Nevertheless, we think we can

Characteristics of a Successful Salesperson (percent of all characteristics cited; multiple responses were possible
Attitude Committed to quality and customer service, aggressiveness, persistent, self-confident 48%

Skills

Sales, problem-solving, communication, time management

25%

Knowledge

Product, industry, market 13%

Sales Record

Meets objectives

11% 4%
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Other

Completes paperwork, political acumen

Summary
This model gives us a framework to address various components of performance Overall, we might not find strong relationships, but on a company by company basis there are probably some indicators of success

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