PROFESSIONAL SALES COACHING: AN INTEGRATIVE REVIEW AND RESEARCH AGENDA (original) (raw)
Dimensions of effective sales coaching: scale development and validation
Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 2019
Coaching is the most common intervention tool used by sales managers to develop their salespeople, and the ability to effectively coach others is often what makes a sales manager successful. While sales organizations recognize the importance and positive impact of sales coaching, the unfortunate reality is that most sales managers still lack the proper training to coach salespeople effectively. One reason for this is due to the lack of clarity on the sales coaching skills and abilities that drive and improve the sales coaching process. A first step in resolving this problem is to provide practitioners and researchers with a psychometrically-sound measure of effective sales coaching. Without an adequate sales coaching scale, prior sales-related coaching research has relied heavily on managerial coaching scales. Unfortunately, due to potential reliability and validity issues with the managerial coaching scales, the use of those managerial coaching scales may not be appropriate within a sales context. As a result, this study advances a three-factor, 14-item effective sales coaching (ESC) scale that is validated among a sample of B2B salespeople. The ESC scale contains three dimensions-adaptability, involvement, and rapport-that are shown to directly and indirectly influence sales performance. We also demonstrate the ESC scale's ability to explain more variance in sales performance than the most commonly used behavior-based managerial coaching scale.
Sales trainer roles, competencies, skills, and behaviors: A case study
Industrial Marketing Management, 2008
The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. All in-text references underlined in blue are added to the original document and are linked to publications on ResearchGate, letting you access and read them immediately. This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues.
2010
© 2010 PSE National Educational Foundation. All rights reserved. ISSN 0885-3134 / 2010 $9.50 + 0.00. DOI 10.2753/PSS0885-3134300402 Recent trends in the personal selling environment, such as advances in technology, customer relationship management, and globalization, have placed a premium on training programs designed to develop knowledgeable and effective sales managers (Deeter-Schmelz, Kennedy, and Goebel 2002; Jones et al. 2005; Magrath 1997; Marshall and Michaels 2001). Many firms have recognized that enhancing a sales manager’s working knowledge through training can be a source of a firm’s competitive advantage (Davenport and Prusak 1998). Indeed, there is evidence that employee intellectual capital constitutes up to 75 percent of a firm’s total balance sheet (Kust 2005). Given the increased focus on developing manager knowledge and recent advances in ways to deliver information over the past decade (e.g., technology), there is a need for understanding the current role and posi...
Shortcomings of sales training programs
Industrial Marketing Management, 1993
An investigation was conducted that examined the extent to which sales training objectives are used in conducting sales training programs. Findings suggest that specific training objectives are utilized by a proportion of companies to plan and manage sales training activities. However, the systematic setting of training objectives is not practiced by many firms. These firms allow one individual or functional area to set goals, fail to seek input from experienced sales people, set general objectives, and possess differing perceptions regarding what should be taught. Implications of these findings are discussed.
Traditional and high-tech sales training methods
1992
One of the most critical issues fucing today's sales manager is cost-effective sales truining. Many firms are substantially increasing investment in sales training; however, little research has studied the usage and effectiveness of various sales training methods. This article compares and contrasts the usuge and perceived effectiveness of high-tech and traditional approuches to sales training. Findings suggest that despite optimistic predictions, high-tech training methods have not been widely adopted and use of these methods is expected to increase only modestly in the next several years. Traditional sales training methods, such us role playing, continue to be widely used. In terms of perceived effectiveness, manugers rated methods high in participant involvement and truiner interaction us the most effective in achieving selected training objectives.
Journal of Marketing Education, 2014
Sales education is on the rise and for good reason. Statistics say that sales jobs will continue to grow at a rapid rate over the next few years. Many universities are preparing their students to start their careers in the professional selling function through the inclusion of sales education in their business curriculum. Yet little research exists that investigates the relationship between sales education and sales performance on graduating from a college of business. This article seeks to fill this void in the sale pedagogy literature by assessing, empirically, the relationship between what is learned in university sales programs and the actual selling behaviors of recent graduates from these programs (vs. students who did not receive formal sales education in their undergraduate programs). Likewise, the relationship between sales education and extrinsic and intrinsic performance indicators is investigated. The findings suggest that university sales education is a significant cont...
Effective Sales Management: What Do Sales People Think?
Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science, 2014
By understanding effective sales management from the perspective of sales people, this study adds a new dimension to our view of sales managers. Drawing from the sales literature, this research tests relationships between key variables identified as contributing to sales manager effectiveness from previous sales research. Listening skills, open communication, and effective feedback are positioned as antecedents to self-efficacy while customer relationship development, representative job performance, and satisfaction with one's sales manager represent the outcome variables. Results support the importance of listening skills and assert that self-efficacy plays a key role in each of the outcome variables.
The impact of salesperson’s training on organizational outcomes
Quality of human resource is an asset to organization. Consequently, quality training can promote both personal and organizational success. This study suggests that training on salesperson’s knowledge and skills can develop the positive beliefs and attitudes which lead to enhance organizational outcomes. Most organizations meet their needs for training in a haphazard way rather than design training in a rational way. The aim of the study is intended to investigate the impact of training on salespeople’s knowledge and skills for organizational benefits. Data were gathered by surveying 238 salespeople in the Malaysian major retail shopping malls. Data were analyzed using the partial least square technique. Training has significant impact on salesperson’s experience (salesperson’s knowledge and salesperson’s skills), while salesperson’s experience has positive impact on the three categories of organizational outcomes (i.e., productivity, effectiveness and performance). These findings have important implication for designing strategic plans for the Malaysian retail industry.
Sales Team Resources for Market-Driven Behaviors, Norms, and Performance: An Extended Abstract
2017
A recent survey of 1200 sales executives indicated that in order to improve sales performance, leaders must champion salesperson activities that (1) improve customer experiences and (2) support continuous improvement (Accenture CSO Insights 2013). This contemporary focus represents a shift away from a formal mapping of sales approaches and toward an emphasis on sales teams which promote a learning- and customer-centric environment (Bell and Kozlowski 2002) to attune themselves with the market. In line with this, research has shown that learning effort (Sujan et al. 1994) and commitment to customer service quality (Peccei and Rosenthal 1997) are key to developing this more market-driven capability for salesperson performance.
Global sales training: In search of antecedent, mediating, and consequence variables
Industrial Marketing Management, 2008
This study proposes a framework that identifies and explains the relationships of input, mediating, and output variables for global sales training programs. Input or antecedent variables include high-quality: determination of sales training needs, objective setting, designing/implementing the training program, and evaluating training outcomes. The mediating variable culture is measured by a latent indicator: managers' perceived importance/perceived adequacy. The output or consequence variable is the quantitative improvement a firm measures in sales force performance that results from global sales training in the form of increases in sales revenue, profitability, decreased customer complaints, and/or reduced selling expenses. This framework is an initial attempt to synthesize existing knowledge about how to conduct effective sales training programs in crosscultural settings. The article also offers research propositions that can be tested to advance our understanding of global sales training, discusses managerial implications, identifies limitations encountered by global sales training practitioners, and suggests future study opportunities for researchers.