B to B Sellers' Skill Level in Sales Performance - Frameworks and Findings

This study focuses on a framework of sales performance drivers, considering four areas of seller skills, and seven dimensions that the literature generally recognizes as affecting sales performance in B2B settings. The four areas and seven dimension of seller skill level are as follows: (i) interpersonal abilities, including communication as well as presentation skills; (ii) degree of adaptiveness, considering seller ability to modify both the sales approach and the sales behavior; (iii) selling-related knowledge, covering product and market-knowledge skills; and (iv) sellers' use of technology. As a whole, assuming a pivotal role played by seller skills, the research objective is to empirically verify a conceptual framework based on B2B seller skills in the context of sales performance. This study responds to a recent call to use meta-analyses to increase research-based knowledge in the sales domain. This study offers an empirical testing of a research framework for the identification and understanding of those skills that sellers need to embrace handling and increasing value in business relationships with customers in B2B settings of tangible products. The methodology relies on a questionnaire survey using a deductive approach. A total of 315 companies were ultimately selected to take part in the study, so as to represent a range of companies from different industries and corporate sizes within the product-oriented business sector of Norway (i.e. services-oriented companies are not included). The companies were identified from the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC 2007). A total of 236 questionnaires out of 315 were returned, generating a response rate of 74.9%. Methodology/Approach An exploratory factor analysis was undertaken to falsify or confirm the seven-dimensional framework of skill level. The initial factor analysis consisted of 21 items with three per dimension. The principal component method was applied to reveal the pattern in the factor solution. An orthogonal approach (varimax rotation) was applied to rotate the factor solution. The multi-item measures of each dimension were selected and modified from various sources. The empirical findings provide a foundation for further studies on sales performance. In particular, the findings can be used to assess the relationship between seller skill dimensions on sellers' objective and subjective performance in B2B sales settings. The findings can also be used to assess the relationship between t