Salesperson behavior, objective measures of performance, and managerial evaluations of salesperson performance: An empirical investigation

Although academic researchers and management practitioners have long recognized the need to improve our understanding of the behavioral antecedents of salespersons' performance appraisal, this important topic has received only scant attention in the marketing literature to-date. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to develop and empirically test a theoretical model of the behavioral and quantitative antecedents of salespersons' performance appraisal. Based upon a review of the literature in marketing and organizational behavior, along with depth interviews with a sample of purchasing agents, sales managers, and salespeople, four categories of salesperson behavior were identified: (1) work-directed behavior, role-prescribed activities directed at members of a salesperson's firm, (2) sales-directed behavior, role-prescribed activities directed at members of a customer's firm, (3) organizational citizenship behavior, extra-role activities intended to benefit members of the salesperson's firm, or his/her firm in general, and (4) customer-oriented behavior, extra-role behaviors intended for the benefit of members of a customer's firm. Organizational citizenship and customer-oriented behavior were conceptualized and operationalized as multi-dimensional constructs.; A field investigation (mail survey) was conducted with the cooperation of a major industrial chemical distributor. Sales managers evaluated their salespeople on each of the behavioral categories, and they provided an overall evaluation of each salesperson. Percent-of-quota achieved was obtained from the sponsoring company's archival accounting records. 81% or the sales managers returned usable surveys (i.e., 55 out of 61), providing evaluations on 275 salespeople (80% of sponsor's salesforce).; The theoretical model posited that all of the salesperson behavior categories and percent-of-quota achieved would positively influence managerial evaluations of salesperson performance, and that two of the behavior categories, sales-directed behavior and customer-oriented behavior, would positively influence percent-of-quota achieved. Most of the research hypotheses were supported. A manager's evaluation of salesperson performance is positively influenced by a salesperson's level of percent-of-quota achieved, work-directed behavior, sales-directed behavior, and organizational citizenship behavior (helping and sportsmanship). Somewhat surprisingly, a salesperson's level of sales-directed behavior has a much stronger effect than other salesperson behaviors on managerial evaluations of salesperson performance. Contrary to the hypotheses, neither civic virtue (one of the organizational citizenship behavior dimensions), nor customer-oriented behavior were found to influence the evaluation. Only one of the hypothesized antecedents of percent-of-quota achieved, acting on behalf of the buyer, was empirically supported.; The results of this research suggest that, while sales managers give some consideration to a broad spectrum of activities when evaluating their salespeople, they (i.e., sales managers) continue to place especially heavy emphasis on activities geared toward "getting the order," (i.e., sales-directed behavior), despite the fact that these activities were not found to positively influence a salesperson's quantitative performance (i.e., percent-of-quota achieved).