Ambiversion In Sales Performance

In Sales Performance

Daniel MaurathMay 08, 2013Research Methods 770San Francisco State University

Background

BIG 5 PERSONALITY

1 Extraversion

2 Conscientiousn

ess

3 Agreeableness

4 Neuroticism

5 Openness

.24

PERSONALITY-JOB PERFORMANCECORRELATION

(Tett, Jackon & Rothstein, 1991)

Extraverted:definition: tendency to be sociable, assertive, expressive and active.

LEVEL OF EXTRAVERSION


Introverteddefinition: tendency to focus on internal thoughts and experiences



Introverteddefinition: tendency to focus on internal thoughts and experiences

Ambiverteddefinition: one who falls into midrange on the Introversion-Extraversion (IE) scale


Past Research

Why Sales?• 1.46 million or 10% of employed adults in the US

(2010) work in sales (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013)

Why Sales?• 1.46 million or 10% of employed adults in the US (2010) work in

sales (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013)

• Success of a sales organization dependent on the performance of its sales force (Cravens, Ingram, LaForge, & Young, 1993)




• Sales people turnover at rates estimated to be as high as 2X the national average (Boles, Dudley, Onyemah, Rouziès & Weeks, 2012)





• Turnover costs 200% of salary (Boles, Dudley, Onyemah, Rouziès & Weeks, 2012)





• Turnover costs 200% of salary (Boles, Dudley, Onyemah, Rouziès & Weeks, 2012)

• Payoff for selecting successful salespersons is greater than for other occupations (Vinchur, Schippmann, Switzer, and Roth, 1998)

Extraversion & Sales PerformanceExtraversion related:

• training proficiency (.26) (Barrick and Mount, 1991)

• supervisor ratings (.18) and sales performance (.22) (Vinchur, Schippmann, Switzer, and Roth, 1998)

• supervisor ratings (.28) and sales performance (.26)(Hough, 1992; Hough; Vinchur et al., 1998)





Extraversion UNrelated:

• wholesale manufacturing sales

(Barrick, Mount, & Strauss, 1993)

• business to business sales (Stewart, 1996)

• health and fitness sales (Furnham & Fudge, 2008)

• Extraversion and sales performance only .07 (insignificant) in 3 Meta-Analyses(Barrick et al., 2001)





Extraversion Unrelated:

• wholesale manufacturing sales

(Barrick, Mount, & Strauss, 1993)

• business to business sales (Stewart, 1996)

• health and fitness sales (Furnham & Fudge, 2008)

• Extraversion and sales performance only .07 (insignificant) in 3 Meta-Analyses(Barrick et al., 2001)

In Sum:Extraversion-Sales Performance Relationship is inconclusive.

Ambiversion & Sales Performance

(Grant, 2013)

Ambiverted salespeople performed better introverted or extraverted salespeople.

$4000 more in revenue.

Sales Mgrs. & Sales Performance• Numerous research supports sales

managers influence on sales people performance (Bragg, 1988; Davis et al., 2000; Deeter-Schmelz et al.,2012; Jaworski & Kohli 1991; Kohli 1985; Podsakoff, 1982; Rich, 1997; Sujan et al.,1988;)

Do sales people perform better under introverted, extraverted or ambiverted managers?

HypothesesHypothesis #1: - Ambiverted salespeople will perform better than extraverted or introverted salespeople. (replication of Grant, 2013)

Hypothesis #2: - Salespeople led by ambiverted managers will have higher sales revenue than teams led by either introverted or extraverted sales managers.

Method

Participants• Convenient sample

from large Bay Area sales organizations.

• 100 Sales Managers & Sales Teams

Total N of ~1,100

Correlational Study

source: xkcd.com

Study Overview

Managers and Salespeople take personality survey

Prior to Study

3 MONTHS

End Of Fiscal Quarter

Managers and Salespeople sign up for and consent to study

Supervisor collects and gives revenue data to researcher

Start of Fiscal

Quarter

20-Item Personality Scale10 minute requirement

Donnellan, M. B., Oswald, F. L., Baird, B. M., & Lucas, R. E. (2006). The mini-IPIP scales: Tiny-yet- effective measures of the Big Five factors of personality. Psychological Assessment, 18, 192-203.

Data Analysis +Results

Data AnalysisHierarchical Multiple Regression to • test replication of sales person ambiversion-

performance relationship (Hypothesis 1)

• test manager ambiversion-sales performance relationship (Hypothesis 2)

Results• Add predictor at each step

• Significant change in R2 between steps indicates significant contribution of the variable added

Implications PRACTICAL

• Sales manager selection

• Sales manager and sales person performance management

• Sales team assembly and selection

ACADEMIC• Replication of the Grant

(2013) study

• Adds to extraversion-job performance literature

• Adds to general personality literature

Thank You.Questions?

References• Barrick, M. R., & Mount, M. K. (1991). The big five personality dimensions and job performance: A meta- analysis. Personnel

Psychology, 44, 1–26.

• Barrick, M. R., Mount, M. K., & Strauss, J. P. (1993). Conscientiousness and performance of sales representatives: Test of the mediating effects of goal setting. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 715-722.

• Barrick, M. R., Mount, M. K., & Judge, T. A. (2001). Personality and performance at the beginning of the new millennium: What do we know and where do we go next?. International Journal of Selection and Assessment 9, 9–30.

• Barry, B., & Stewart, G. L. (1997). Composition, process, and performance and in self-managed groups: The role of personality. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 62–78.

• Boles, J. S., Dudley, G. W., Onyemah, V., Rouziès, D., & Weeks, W. A. (2012). Sales force turnover and retention: A research agenda. Journal Of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 32(1), 131-140

• Bragg, Arthur. 1988. "Are Good Salespeople Born or Made?" Sales & MarketingManagement140 (September): 74-78.

• Cable, D. M., & Judge, T. A. (2003). Managers' upward influence tactic strategies: the role of manager personality and supervisor leadership style. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 24(2), 197–214.

• Cohen, D., & Schmidt, J. P. (1979). Ambiversion: Characteristics of Midrange Responders on the Introversion-Extraversion Continuum. Journal Of Personality Assessment, 43(5), 514.

• Cravens, D. W, Ingram, T. N., LaForge, R. W, & Young, C. E. (1993). Behavior-based and outcome-based salesforce control systems. Journal of Marketing, 57, 47-59.

• Deeter-Schmelz, D. R., Kennedy, K. N., & Goebel, D. J. (2002). Understanding sales manager effectiveness: Linking attributes to sales force values. Industrial Marketing Management, 31(7), 617-626.

• Davis, J. H., Schoorman, F. D., Mayer, R. C., & Tan, H. H. (2000). The trusted general manager and business unit performance: Empirical evidence of a competitive advantage. Strategic Management Journal, 21(5), 563-576.

• Donnellan, M. B., Oswald, F. L., Baird, B. M., & Lucas, R. E. (2006). The mini-IPIP scales: Tiny-yet-effective measures of the Big Five factors of personality. Psychological Assessment, 18, 192-203.

• Eysenck, H. J., & Eysenck, S. (1964). Manual of the Eysenck Personality Inventory. London: Hodder & Stoughton.

• Furnham, A., & Fudge, C. (2008). The five factor model of personality and sales performance. Journal of Individual Differences, 29, 11-16.

References (continued)• Grant, A. M. 2013. Rethinking the extraverted sales ideal: The ambivert advantage. Forthcoming in Psychological Science

• Hough, L. M. (1992). The "Big-Five" personality variable- construct confusion: Description versus prediction. Human Performance, 5, 139-155.

• Hough, L. M., Eaton, N. K., Dunnette, M. D., Kamp, J. D., & McCloy, R. A. (1990). Criterion-related validities of personality constructs and the effect of response distortion on those validities. Journal of Applied Psychology, 75, 581-595.

• Jaworski, Bernard and Ajay K. Kohli. 1991. "Supervisory Feedback: Alternative Types and Their Impact on Salespeople's Performanc eand Satisfaction.Journal of Marketing Research 28 (May): 190-201.

• Kohli, Ajay K. 1985. "Some Unexplored Supervisory Behaviors and Their Influence on Salespeople's Role Clarity, Specific Self-Esteem, JobSatisfaction, andMotivation.Journal of Marketing Research 22 (November): 424-433.

• Podsakoff, Philip M. 1982. "Determinants of a Supervisor's Use of Rewards and Punishments." Organizational Behavior and Human Performance29(January): 58-82.

• Rich, G. A. (1997). The sales manager as a role model: Effects on trust, job satisfaction, and performance of salespeople. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 25(4), 319-328.

• Stewart, G. L. (1996). Reward structure as a moderator of the relationship between extraversion and sales performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81, 619-627.

• Sujan, Harish, Barton A. Weitz, and Mita Sujan. 1988. "Increasing Sales Productivity by Getting Salespeople to Work Smarter." Journalof PersonalSellingandSalesManagement8(August): 9-19.

• Tett, R. T , Jackson, D. N., & Rothstein, M. (1991). Personality measures as predictors of job performance: A meta-analytic review. Personnel Psychology, 44, 703-742.

• U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2013). Employment situation summary. Retrieved from website: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

• Vinchur, A. J., Schippmann, J. S., & Switzer III, F. S., and Roth, PL (1998). A meta-analytical view of job performance for salespeople. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84(4), 586-597.

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