Submit your papersSubmit Now
For Enquiries: [email protected]
IIARD LogoIIARD

Sales Performance of Fastmoving Consumer Goods (FMCG): Do Behavioural Traits of The Sales Force Matter?

Christian Amadi Ph.D and Emmanuel Nwokah Ph.D

Abstract

The term "suit and hard sell tactics" does not adequately describe effective sales techniques. When it comes to FMCG manufacturing, in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, there are a lot of factors that affect sales performance and that separates good salespeople from bad ones. This calls for research on the behavioral traits of salespeople in this industry. The research utilised a descriptive survey approach. From a total population of 3838 people, 370 were selected as a sample using the Taro Yamane methodology. Sales managers and salespeople from fast-moving consumer goods companies in the Port Harcourt metropolitan area were among the 370 respondents who filled out the structured questionnaire. The validity of the instrument was done using construct validity and for the reliability, cronbach alpha and composite reliability were used. In analyzing the data for the hypotheses, Structural Equation Model (SEM) was adopted with the aid of Smart-PLSv3. The sales performance of fast-moving consumer commodities in the Port Harcourt metropolis of Rivers State is influenced positively by the sales persons’ beheahioural trait of agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, and extraversion, and adversely by neuroticism. The study revealed that the behavioural characteristics had a noteworthy influence on the sales performance of Fast- Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) in the Port Harcourt metropolitan area. The study recommended that organisation should give attention to agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, neuroticism and extraversion to determine its effect on sales performance. That further research on the elements of behavioural traits on firm’s performance should be investigated.

Keywords

Behavioural traitAgreeablenessConscientiousnessOpennessExtraversionSales performance

References

Abeysekera, N, Wickramasinghe, A, (2013). Relationship marketing and customer ori- entation of salespeople: learning from banks. Int. J. Financ. Serv. Manag. 6 (1), 79–91. Adullah, I, Rashid, Y., & Omar, R. (2013). Effect of personality on job performance of employees: Empirical Evidence from Banking Sector of Pakistan. Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research, 17(12), 1735- 741. Ahearne, M., Gruen, T.W, Jarvis, C.B. , (1999). If looks could sell: moderation and medi- ation of the attractiveness effect on salespersons performance. Int. J. Res. Mark. 16 (6), 269–284. Ahearne, M. , Jones, E , Rapp, A. , Mathieu, J. , (2008). High touch through high tech: the impact of salespersons technology usage on sales performance via mediating mechanisms. Manag. Sci. 54 (4), 671–685. Ahearne, M., Rapp, A. , 2010. The role of technology at the interface between sales- people and consumers. J. Pers. Sell. Sales Manag. 30 (2), 109–118. Barrick, M. and Mount, M. (1991), "The big five personality dimensions and job performance: A meta-analysis”, Personnel Psychology, 44 (1) 1-26. Bandura, A., and Locke, E. A. (2003). Negative self-efficacy and goal effects revisited. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(1), 87-99 Borghans, L., Duckworth, A. L., Heckman, J. J., & Ter Weel, B. (2008). The economics and psychology of personality traits. Journal of Human Resources, 43(4), 972-1059 Chakrabarty, S., Oubre, D.T. , Brown, G. , (2008). The impact of supervisory adaptive selling & supervisory feedback on salesperson performance. Ind. Mark. Manag. 37 (4), 447–454 . Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences New jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers. Costa, P.T., McCrae, R. R., & Dye, D. A. (2006). Facet scales for agreeableness and conscientiousness: A revision of the NEO Personality Inventory. Personality and Individual differences, 12(9), 887-898 Keck,K.L;Thomas and James G.L (1995).Critical success factors in captive, multi-line insurance agency sales. J. Personal selling sales manage,15 (10), 17-34 Kotler, P. (2002) Marketing Management Analysis, planning, implementation and control. New Jersey: Prentice hall Lamont. L. M., and Lundstrom, W. J. (1977), “Identifying Successful Industrial Salesmen by Personality and Personal Characteristics”, Journal of Marketing Research, 14(11), 517-529. Locke, E. A., and Latham, G. P. (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9), 707-717. 55 Luthans, F. and Peterson, S. (2002) Employee engagement and manager self-efficacy Journal of Management Development. 21(5), 376 - 387 Majeed, S. (2011) The impact of competitive advantage on organizational performance. Eur. .J. Bus. Magt.3(6), 150 - 173 Malik, M.E, Naeem ,B. and Ahmad, W.(2012) Role of optimism subculture and optimism in sales force creative performance; Empirical evidence from pharmaceutical industry in Pakistan World applied science journal 24(8), 1037 -1043 McCrae, R. R. and Costa, P. T. (1992). Personality trait structure as human universal. American Psychologist, 52 (5), 509-516.? Miao,C.F.,Evans K.R and Shaoming, S.(2007).The role of Sales person motivation in sales control Systems- intrinsic and extrinsic motivation revisited j.Bus,Res;60:417-425? Mount, M.K, Witt A and Barrick, M.R (2000) “Incremental Validity of Empirically Keyed Biographical Scales over GMA and the Big Five Personality Constructs,” Personnel Psychology, 53(2), 299-323. Cron, W.L., Slocum, J.W., (1986). The influence of career stages on salespersons’ job attitudes, work perceptions and performance. J. Mark. Res. 23 (2), 119–129. Evans, K.R., McFarland, R.G. , Dietz, B. , Jaramillo, F. , (2012). Advancing sales performance research: a focus on five under researched topic areas. J. Pers. Sell. Sales Manag. 32 (1), 89–105. Franklin, D., Marshall, R., (2018). Adding co-creation as an antecedent condition leading to trust in business-to-business relationships. Ind. Mark. 15(24), 126- 1143 Friedman, H. (2016). Personality: classic theories and modern research. University of California, Riverside: Pearson. Friedman, M, Howard, S. Schustack, O. & Miriam, C. (2016). Personality: theories and modern research, New York: Pearson Helmreich, Robert L., William E. Beane, G. William Lucker, and Karen A. Matthews (1980), “Making It in Academic Psychology: Demographic and Personality Correlates of Attainment,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39 (5), 896-908. Lind, D.A, Marchal, W.G, & Wathen, S.A. (2013). Statistical techniques in business and economics. New Delhi: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, Miao, C.F. & Kenneth, R.E. (2013). The interactive effects of sales control systems on salesperson performance: a job demand-resources perspective. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 4(1), 73-90 Pilling,B.K,Donthu N. and Henson S, (1999) Accounting for the impact of territory characteristics on sales performance: Relative efficiency as a measure of sales person performance. Personal selling sales manage, 19:35-45.? Rahman, M.K, HK, Al-Mamun, A. & Abdul, J. (2014). Ethical implications of sales promotion in Malaysia: Islamic perspective. Journal of Business Law and Ethics, 2(1), 13-27. Verbeke, W., Dietz, B., Verwaal, E., (2011). Drivers of sales performance: a contemporary meta- analysis. Have salespeople become knowledge brokers? J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 39 (3), 407– 428 Poropat, A.E (2009) “A Meta-Analysis of the Five-Factor Model of Personality and Academic Performance,” Psy-chological Bulletin, 135(2), 322-338.? Sawyerr, O. O., Srinivas, S. and Wang, S. (2009). Call centre employee personality factors and service performance. Journal of Services Marketing, 23(5), 301-307.? Wanberg, C., Kanfer, R. and Banas, J. (2000), "Predictors and outcomes of networking intensity among unemployed job seekers", Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(4), 491-503. Walker, Orville C., Gilbert A. Churchill, and (1979), "Where Do We Go from Here? Some Selected Conceptual and Empirical Issues Concerning the Motivation and Performance of the Industrial Salesforce," State of the Art and Future Research Needs, Eugene, OR: University of Oregon. Walker, Orville C., Gilbert A. Churchill, and Neil M. Ford (1977), "Motivation and Performance in Industrial Selling: Present Knowledge and Needed Research," Journal of Marketing Research, 14 (5), 156-168. Will, k., Gordon, S. & Vikki, V. (2024). Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Industry: Definition, Types, and Profitability. Retrieve from: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fastmoving-consumer-goods-fmcg.asp Wiley, C. and Carolyn, E. (1997), “What Motives Employees According to Over 40 Years of Motivation Surveys,” International Journal of Manpower, 18, 263-281. Zhang, A.L., Glynn, M.S. , (2015). Toward a framework of a salespersons’ resource facilitation and interaction. Mark. J. 23 (2), 124–131. Zhang, A.L., Baxter, R., Glynn, M.S., (2013). How salespeople facilitate buyers’ re- source availability to enhance seller outcomes. Ind. mark. Manag. 42 (7), 1121–1130.

More Articles from INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES

Clickbait Strategies and Influence on Consumer Trust and Behavior

Author: Alaba Tobin-West Diamond, Stella. C. Enyindah PhD, Oyinkepreye Brisibe PhD

Digital Public Relations and Corporate Reputation Management Strategies of Oando, Seplat and Renaissance Africa Energy Companies in Nigeria

Author: Dickson, Lauren Dawari, Prof. Godwin B. Okon, Prof. Richard N. Amadi, Dr. Itieke-Idamieba Harry

Evaluating the Influence of Strategic Health Communication Campaign on Vaccine Hesitancy in Rural Rivers State Communities

Author: Gabriel, Obokuru, Prof. Nsereka, Barigbon Gbara, Dike, Harcourt Whyte PhD, Nwankpa Nduka N. PhD

Integrated Marketing Communications and Subscriber Growth in A Sub-Saharan Telecom Sub-Brand

Author: Rita Korkor Agyei1, Ogochukwu T. Izuchukwu2, Dominic Feboh3, Abiola Idowu4