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

Abstract

Currently, businesses in the United States spend more than $7 billion on various personnel administration activities. Of this total, a substantial amount is spent on recruiting and training salespeople. A Sales and Marketing Management survey (1983) indicated that the average cost of training for industrial salespeople is $22,480, for consumer salespeople the cost is $15,090, and in the service sector the figure is $14,720. These costs represent an overall increase of 8.5% since 1981. While some of these costs are necessary, some may represent dollars wasted on poor hiring practices. Consequently, it seems desirable to examine ways to increase efficiency in recruiting salespeople and decrease the cost associated with training them. Therefore, knowing how to characterize salespeople who will be successful in specific selling situations offers the potential for increased efficiency in recruiting as well as lower salesforce turnover rates. The net result could mean lower recruiting and training costs.