The Effect of Door-to-Door Salespeople’s Individual Sales Capabilities on Selling Behavior and Performance: The Moderating Effect of Competitive Intensity

Abstract

The present study investigates the effect of salespeople’s individual sales capabilities on selling behaviors and sales performance in door-to-door personal selling channels. The data are gathered from 219 South Korean salespeople. The hypotheses are tested using the structural equation modeling technique. The study finds that salespeople's individual sales capabilities have a greater impact on customer-oriented selling behavior than sales-oriented selling behavior. Similarly, both sales-oriented and customer-oriented selling behaviors have significant positive effects on sales performance. The study also discovers that competitive intensity moderates the relationship between customer-oriented selling behavior and sales performance, but has no significant effect on the relationship between sales-oriented selling behavior and sales performance. The current research only looks at door-to-door personal selling channels in South Korea. The implication is that the impacts of individual selling capabilities may differ in other contexts. The current study demonstrates that competitive intensity can reduce the impact that a “customer orientation” has on sales performance, and thus a blend of the two orientations (SOCO) is recommended for desired performance outcomes in the face of competition. Additionally, firms should focus on creating a culture that builds and enriches the sales capabilities of salespeople.