When the team potency needs self-efficacy and adaptive selling

Given the competitive landscape in the sales field, more companies need to worry about training their salespeople, especially in cases which salespeople work together. The Team Effectiveness Theory has shown that team potency positively increases individual performance, yet little is known about its influence on group performance. In this work, we suggest that the effect of team potency on performance is not only direct, but also mediated by the mechanisms of self-efficacy and adaptive selling. The Cognitive Social Theory explains this mediation in series, since the individual who has beliefs in his sales skills (self-efficacy), shapes his behavior congruent to that of the client (adaptive selling), increasing sales outcomes. Data were collected from front-line employees in the banking segment, which confirm the authors' expectations for individual and team performance.