The effect of recruitment and selection on salesperson performance of a vehicle manufacturing company in Nigeria
-
DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.21511/im.19(2).2023.10
-
Article InfoVolume 19 2023, Issue #2, pp. 115-128
- Cited by
- 513 Views
-
412 Downloads
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Organizations should equip human resources and sales managers with the vital information and knowledge needed to recruit and select salespersons with the required qualities to help them achieve improved sales performance. This paper aims to determine a salesperson’s educational qualification, selling experience, and persuasive ability and their effect on the salesperson’s performance at Innoson Motors Manufacturing Company Ltd. The study surveyed 131 company staff to collect the data; only 120 questionnaires were correctly filled and returned. First, the study checked the instrument’s reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.982). Data were then analyzed using a simple linear regression analysis. The findings revealed that salesperson educational qualification has a significant positive effect on salesperson performance (r = 0.944; t = 54.251; F = 2943.209; p < 0.05). Next, salesperson selling experience was found to have a significant positive effect on salesperson performance (r = 0.964; t = 68.905; F = 4747.922; p < 0.05). Finally, salesperson persuasive ability was found to have a significant positive effect on salesperson performance (r = 0.960; t = 64.812; F = 4200.634; p < 0.05). Hence, company managers can use the findings of this paper to understand that employing highly educated, experienced, and persuasive salespersons will lead to improved salesperson performance.
Acknowledgment
We wish to appreciate the good work done by some of the researchers who contributed immensely to the development of the study’s framework and methodology. Among them: Professor Gerald Nebo, Associate Professor Chinedum Obikeze, Dr. John Anetoh and Dr. Wali Kemkamma. We also commend the effort of Mrs. Okolo Jennifer for typing and editing the work. In a similar tone, we wish to thank our respondents for equipping us with the required information that made this study a success.
- Keywords
-
JEL Classification (Paper profile tab)M31, O15
-
References51
-
Tables12
-
Figures1
-
- Figure 1. Hypothetical causal model results
-
- Table 1. Salespersons’ educational qualification and performance
- Table 2. Model summary
- Table 3. ANOVAa
- Table 4. Coefficients
- Table 5. Salesperson’s selling experience and performance
- Table 6. Model summary
- Table 7. ANOVAa
- Table 8. Coefficients
- Table 9. Salespersons’ persuasive ability and performance
- Table 10. Model summary
- Table 11. ANOVAa
- Table 12. Coefficients
-
- Abdolvand, M. A., & Farzaneh, S. (2013). Impact of sales experience and training on sales presentation skills between industrial salespersons. Research Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology, 5(8), 2661-2670.
- Abiaziem, F. U., & Bako, Z. F. (2019). Effective personal selling strategies as panacea to customer retention in Access Bank Plc, Ilaro, Ogun State. 1st National Conference of WITED, Ilaro Chapter (pp. 84-94). The Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro.
- Ahmad, B., & Akbar, M. I. U. D. (2020). Key drivers of salesperson performance: The role of sales antecedents and moderating effect of customer directed extra role behavior. Asian Journal of Economics, Business and Accounting, 15(1), 22-34.
- Ahmed, A., Khuwaja, F. M., Brohi, N. A., & Othman, I. L. (2018). Organizational factors and organizational performance: A resource-based view and social exchange theory viewpoint. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(3), 594-614.
- Al-Kassem, A. H. (2017). Recruitment and selection practices in business process outsourcing industry. Archives of Business Research, 5(3), 40-52.
- Almarri, K., & Gardiner, P. (2014). Application of resource-based view to project management research: Supporters and opponents. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 119, 437-445.
- Amoako, G. K., & Okpattah, B. K. (2018). Unleashing salesforce performance: The impacts of personal branding and technology in an emerging market. Technology in Society, 54, 20-26.
- Anyadighibe, J. A., Awara, N. F., & Esu, B. B. (2014). The impact of personal selling on the productivity of selected banks in Calabar Metropolis. International Journal of Development and Sustainability, 3(8), 1697-1708.
- Aqmala, D., & Ardyan, E. (2019). How does a salesperson improve their performance? The important role of their customer smart response capability. Gadjah Mada International Journal of Business, 21(2), 223-241.
- Aqmala, D., Ardyan, E., & Putra, F. I. F. S. (2021). Increasing salesperson performance through relational penetration capability: The implementation of insurance service company distribution. Journal of Distribution Science, 19(5), 35-48.
- Barney, J. B. (2001). Resource-based theories of competitive advantage: A ten-year retrospective on the resource-based view. Journal of Management, 27(6), 643-650.
- Bolander, W., Bonney, L., & Satornino, C. (2014). Sales education efficacy: Examining the relationship between sales education and sales success. Journal of Marketing Education, 36(2), 169-181.
- Calixto, N., & Ferreira, J. (2020). Salespeople performance evaluation with predictive analytics in B2B. Applied Sciences, 10(11), 4036.
- Chidi, O. C. (2013). Recruitment practices and performance of unionized organizations in the food, beverage and tobacco industry in Lagos State, Nigeria. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 5(6), 358-384.
- Chung, D. J., & Narayandas, D. (2017). The effects of quota frequency on sales force performance: Evidence from a field experiment (Harvard Business School Working Paper No. 17-059).
- Claro, D. P., & Laban Neto, S. A. (2011). Social networks and sales performance. Revista De Administração Contemporânea, 15(3), 498-512.
- Coffman, L., & Niehaus, P. (2020). Pathways of persuasion. Games and Economic Behavior, 124, 239-253.
- Davis, G. F., & DeWitt, T. (2021). Organization theory and the resource-based view of the firm: The great divide. Journal of Management, 47(7), 1684-1697.
- Gadzhiyeva, N. M., & Sager, K. L. (2017). Maximizing the persuasiveness of a salesperson: An exploratory study of the effects of nonverbal immediacy and language power on the extent of persuasion. Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 33(2), 83-93.
- Herjanto, H., & Franklin, D. (2019). Investigating salesperson performance factors: A systematic review of the literature on the characteristics of effective salespersons. Australasian Marketing Journal, 27(2), 104-112.
- Hitt, M. A., Xu, K., & Carnes, C. M. (2016). Resource based theory in operations management research. Journal of Operations Management, 41(1), 77-94.
- Huang, D. (2019). A study on persuasive language in personal selling. International Journal of English Linguistics, 9(2), 353-363.
- Inyang, A. E. (2017). Three essays on the role of sales strategy in salesperson performance. The University of Texas at Arlington.
- Islam, M., Paul, S. K., Nasira, S., Pritom, S. T., & E-Rabbi, R. (2016). Exploring the relative effects of selling skills on customer satisfaction: A study on SMEs of IT hardware industry in Bangladesh. International Journal of Business and Management Invention, 5(1), 45-58.
- Jobber, D., Lancaster, G., & Meunier-FitzHugh, K. L. (2019). Selling and sales management (11th ed.). England: Pearson Education Limited.
- Kavoosi, S., Sadeghian, S., & Mahmudi, K. (2014). An empirical investigation of the impact of customer orientation, adaptive selling behaviors, and job satisfaction on salespeople’s performance: The moderating role of selling experience. International Journal of Research in Management, 3(4), 74-89.
- Ko, D. G., & Dennis, A. R. (2013). Sales force automation and sales performance: Do experience and expertise matter? The Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 24(4), 311-322.
- Koponen, J., Julkunen, S., & Asai, A. (2019). Sales communication competence in international B2B solution selling. Industrial Marketing Management, 82, 238-252.
- Madhani, P. M. (2017). A salesperson’s future value and training needs: A model-driven approach. World at Work Journal, 26(1), 38-48.
- Magandini, M., & Ngwenya, T. (2015). The effects of salesman personality on sales performance of internet service provider in the telecommunication industry: Zimbabwean perspective. British Journal of Marketing Studies, 3(1), 11-22.
- Manzoor, A., & Manzoor, K. (2017). Determinants of salesperson performance in selling new products. International Journal of Economics, Finance and Business Management Studies, 3(1), 53-62.
- Muzumdar, P., Basyal, G. P., & Vyas, P. (2021). Moderating effects of retail operations and hard-sell sales techniques on salesperson’s interpersonal skills and customer repurchase intention. Journal of Management Research, 13(1), 21-42.
- Oaya, Z. C. T., Ogbu, O. J., & Remilekun, O. G. (2017). Impact of recruitment and selection strategy on employees’ performance: A study of three selected manufacturing companies in Nigeria. International Journal of Innovation and Economic Development, 3(3), 32-43.
- Okolo, V. O., Nebo, G. N., Okafor, J. N., Farayola, S. O., Obikeze, C. O., & Nwodo, S. I. (2016). Implications of sales force recruitment and selection for successful operations of sales force structures in industrial marketing: A study of Innoson vehicle manufacturing company Nigeria limited. Journal of Business and Management, 18(1), 54-67.
- Olawoyin, O. (2021). Nigeria’s huge unemployment problem has left millions of graduates at the mercy of unscrupulous recruitment firms who charge applicants money but hardly give jobs. Premium Times.
- Otoo, I. C., Assuming, J., & Agyei, P. M. (2018). Effectiveness of recruitment and selection practices in public sector higher education institutions: Evidence from Ghana. European Scientific Journal, 14(13), 199-214.
- Penrose, E. T. (1959). The theory of the growth of the firm. New York: Wiley.
- Punwatkar, S., & Varghese, M. (2014). Impact of competencies on sales performance: Empirical evidence on salesmen at a furniture mart in Central India. Pacific Business Review International, 6(12), 80-86.
- Salleh, F. B., & Kamaruddin, A. R. B. (2011). The effects of personality factors on sales performance of Takaful (Islamic insurance) agents in Malaysia. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(S5), 259-265.
- Sing, S., Marinova, D., Singh, J., & Evans, K. R. (2018). Customer query handling in sales interactions. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 46, 837-856.
- Singh, R., & Das, G. (2013). The impact of job satisfaction, adaptive selling behaviors and customer orientation on salesperson’s performance: Exploring the moderating role of selling experience. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 28(7), 554-564.
- Singh, R., Kumar, N., & Puri, S. (2017). Thought self-leadership strategies and sales performance: Integrating selling skills and adaptive selling behavior as missing links. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 32(5), 652-663.
- Singh, V. L., Manrai A. K., & Manrai, L. A. (2015). Sales training: A state of the art and contemporary review. Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Science, 20(38), 54-71.
- Sunardi, O., Widyarini, M., & Tjarkraatmadja, G. H. (2012). The impact of sales forces training program to employees’ behaviour styles (A quasi-experimental case study in a medium sized enterprise). Procedia Economics and Finance, 4, 264-273.
- Terho, H., Kairisto-Mertanen, L., Bellenger, D., & Johnston, W. (2013). Salesperson goal orientations and the selling performance relationship: The critical role of mediation and moderation. Journal of Business Market Management, 6(2), 70-90.
- Uduji, I. U., & Onwumere, J. U. J. (2013). Sales people recruitment and selection for enhances sales performance: An exploratory study. Information and Knowledge Management, 3(6), 55-61.
- Uduji, J. I., & Nnabuko, J. O. (2008). Strategic Salesforce Management. Enugu: New Generation Books.
- Wardoyo, P., Rusdianti, E., & Purwantini, S. (2019). Sales force performance of rural bank: the impact of sales training and experience selling. International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research, 8(9), 1078-1087.
- Yeo, C., Hur, C., & Ji, S. (2019). The customer orientation of salesperson for performance in Korean market case: A relationship between customer orientation and adaptive selling. Sustainability, 11, 6115.
- Yi, H.-T., Cha, Y.-B., & Amenuvor, F. E. (2021). Effects of sales-related capabilities of personal selling organizations on individual sales capability, sales behaviors and sales performance in cosmetics personal selling channels. Sustainability, 13(7), 3937.
- Zeithaml, V. A., Bitner, M., & Gremler, D. (2018). Services marketing: Integrating customer focus across the firm (7th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Education.