Salesperson knowledge distinctions and sales performance

Abstract

AbstractAlthough it is conceptually and practically posited that salesperson knowledge has a direct relationship to performance, empirical research concerning this topic has been limited. In a free elicitation study of 150 multi-line insurance agents, the authors demonstrate that higher performing sales personnel have more elaborate, contingent and context-specific procedural knowledge than that of less effective agents. Moreover, higher performing sales personnel's contingent knowledge is shown to be more relevant to the sales call and more adaptive or responsive to the specific contingency than lower performers. In addition, higher performers have more intermediary and indirect goals prior to initially contacting a prospect. These results fuel a call for further research concerning the procedural knowledge roots underlying sales performance, as well as the practical exigencies involved in developing, managing and retaining the knowledge resource of the sales force as a firm-level asset.Keywords: procedural knowledgecontingent knowledgegoalssalesperson performance Group norm coding proceduresFor the telephone sales call context, a total of 1,172 activities or events, or 8.8 per sales agent, were elicited. Of these, 1,113, or 94.9%, were successfully coded. The achieved group norms across all sales agents included 854, or 72.9%, of the activities identified; it includes 17 activities at the 20%, and 10 at the 30%, criterion for norm inclusion, respectively.For the personal office sales context, a total of 2,669 activities or events, or an average of more than 20 per sales agent, were elicited. Of these, 2,547, or 95.4%, were successfully classified. The achieved group norms across all sales agents included 1,879, or 70.4%, of the activities provided. The personal office sales call group norm includes a total of 43 activities at the 20%, and 22 activities at the 30%, criterion for norm inclusion, respectively.The coding process was similarly effective for each of the sales agent performance groups with the percent of the activities successfully coded exceeding 93% in each case. Furthermore, the percent of the total activities or events included in these respective group norms ranged from 70.5% to 81.3%. In sum, these procedural group norm results demonstrate credibility and relevancy of the coding process to the sales call contexts examined.Notes1. All analyses were also repeated using just the life insurance sales performance categories. Specifically, four distinct performance categories were developed based on a salesperson's life insurance sales production over the preceding two-and-a-half year period. In general, the results between the cross-product and life insurance performance models are comparable.2. Full group-norm results, which show significant differences in length and content of the procedural group norms by performance, are available from the lead author upon request. See the Appendix for group norm coding procedures and results.