Age, Tenure, General Self-Efficacy, and Sales Performance of Salespeople

• Main Author: Suhonen, Juhani
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: ScholarWorks 2019
• Subjects: Face-to-Face Salespeople; General Self-Efficacy; Information Technology; Sales Performance; Worldwide; Business
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/7956; https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=9228&context=dissertations

Companies worldwide spend millions of dollars on sales training but often fail to address the significant effect of personal attributes of salespeople on sales performance. Grounded in Bandura's self-efficacy theory, the purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the relationship between age, tenure, general self-efficacy, and sales performance among face-to-face salespeople of technology companies worldwide. Understanding this relationship is important to sales managers for predicting sales performance to enhance sustainability. Data were collected from 103 participants between July and September 2019 via a survey link in the largest IT sales professional LinkedIn group. Multiple hierarchical linear regression analysis indicated a significant relationship, F(3,92) = 8.64, p < .001, R2 = .22, between age, length of tenure, general self-efficacy, and sales performance of salespeople. Implications for positive social change include the potential for sales managers to understand the correlates of sales performance better to contribute to the reduction of discrimination when recruiting salespeople of various ages and experience.