The Role and Importance of the Salesperson in Creating a Competitive Advantage

Authors: John F. Tanner, Jr., Mary Anne Raymond
Year Published: 1994
Topics: Sales, Statistics

One of the key components of a firm’s strategy is how to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage. The role and importance of the salesperson in the distribution channel and salesperson access to the customer as a means of achieving competitive advantage is examined. Two direct selling firms who use or have used salespeople as their primary means of selling products are compared. Overall, 242 Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc. (MK) and 200 Fuller Brush Company (FB) sales representatives were surveyed. A total of 118 MK and 92 FB surveys were returned. Findings indicate that direct selling provides a competitive advantage when the salesperson helps customers try the product. Pushy salespeople, products that are not available and other problems may become competitive disadvantages. The product itself is an important part of the repeat purchase process but the salesperson is necessary because of access to the market.

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Keywords: Competitive advantage, Personal Selling, Roles, Salespeople, Statistical Analysis

The Relationship of Job Image, Performance, and Job Satisfaction to Inactivity-Proneness of Direct Salespeople

Authors: Thomas R. Wotruba
Year Published: 1990
Topics: Marketing, Statistics

A study attempts to ascertain whether the public image of the selling job as viewed by direct salespeople has an impact on their tendency to remain active or become inactive in that selling job. Questionnaires were mailed to 1,600 direct salespeople working with: 1. Mary Kay Cosmetics, 2. Saladmaster, 3. Tupperware, and 4. United Consumers Club. There were 491 usable replies. Respondents were divided into high-performance and low-performance categories. Job satisfaction was found to be related strongly to inactivity-proneness. Salespeople with more negative perceptions of the public image of their job had lower job satisfaction and were more prone to inactivity; however, the strength of these relationships varied between high and low performers. The view that poorer not better performers are more likely to become inactive was supported. Job image related positively to job satisfaction in the total sample and for each performance subgroup. In addition to differing on the basis of performance, salespeople also might differ in their reaction to image issues based on the length of time in the job, the expected career path, or other distinguishing factors.

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Keywords: Direct Selling, Effects, Employee turnover, Hypotheses, Image, Job satisfaction, Market research, Public, Salespeople, Statistical Analysis, Studies

The Capabilities and Performance Advantages of Market-Driven Firms

Authors: C. P. Rao, Douglas W. Vorhies, Michael Harker
Year Published: 1999
Topics: Marketing

Although progress has been made in understanding market-driven businesses from a theoretical perspective, relatively few empirical studies have addressed the capabilities needed to become market-driven and the performance advantages accruing to firms possessing these capabilities. One of the barriers faced has been in defining what is meant by the term “market-driven”. A study develops a multi-dimensional measure useful for assessing the degree to which a firm is market-driven. It presents evidence that marketdriven business units developed higher levels of six vital marketing capabilities (in the areas of market research, pricing, product development, channels, promotion, and market management) than their less market-driven rivals and significantly outperformed these rival business units on four measures of organizational performance.

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Keywords: Statistical Analysis, Strategies, Studies

Research Note: A Study of Direct Selling Perceptions in Australia

Authors: Richard A. Kustin, Robert A. Jones, PhD
Year Published: 1995
Topics: Consumers, Marketing

Direct selling as a type of non-store retailing continues to increase internationally and in Australia in its use and popularity. One non-store retailing method, multilevel marketing or network marketing, has recently incurred a degree of consumer suspicion and negative perceptions. A study was developed to investigate consumer perceptions and concerns in New South Wales and Victoria. Consumers were surveyed to determine their perception of direct selling and its relationship to consumer purchasing decisions. Responses indicate consumers had a negative perceptions towards network marketing, while holding a low positive view of direct selling. There appears to be no influence of network marketing on consumer purchase decisions.

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Keywords: Consumers, Global, Methods, Perceptions, Statistical Analysis, Studies

Network Marketing Organizations: Compensation Plans, Retail Network Growth, and Profitability

Authors: Anne T. Coughlan, Kent Grayson
Year Published: 1998
Topics: Marketing, Retail

Network marketing organizations, or NMOs, are retail selling channels that use independent distributors not only to buy and resell product at retail, but also to recruit new distributors into a growing network over time. Commissions and markups on personal sales volumes, and net commissions on the personal sales volume of downlines are the methods of compensation commonly used to motivate NMO distributors. A decision model of the growth of a retail NMO has been developed, analyzed and calibrated. Descriptive and prescriptive insights show how compensation and other model parameters affect distribution motivation, sales and network growth and profitability.

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Keywords: Direct Selling, Distribution, Marketing, Networking, Retail, Statistical Analysis, Studies

Network Marketing in South Africa: An Exploratory Study of Consumer Perceptions

Authors: Adrian Sargeant, Pumela Msweli
Year Published: 1999
Topics: Direct Sales, Global, Marketing

In global terms, the Network Marketing (NWM) industry continues to experience rapid growth. In South Africa, the absence of a need for high levels of infrastructure support and the fit with elements of traditional African culture, combine to make NWM one of the most significant avenues for growth within the post-apartheid economy. A study explores consumer perceptions of this category of organization. Perceptions of current customers were found to differ from non-customers and use of the statistical technique CHAID revealed distinct groups of attitudes related to purchase behavior.

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Keywords: Consumers, Direct Selling, Global, Marketing, Networking, Statistical Analysis, Studies

Measurement of Trust in Salesperson-Customer Relationships in Direct Selling

Authors: Gerald Albaum, Louise Young
Year Published: 2003
Topics: Company Relations, Consumers

No readily available scales exist that are appropriate to the measurement of trust in direct selling. This paper presents a conceptualization of trust that focuses on it nature and presents it as an effect – that is, a combination of attitudes and emotions. To develop a scale that reflects this approach, a two-country study was conducted looking at the perceptions of buyers regarding the trust they place in direct selling salespeople. Three distinct measures of trust and two related measures, based on scales developed for use in contexts other than direct selling, are utilized. The measurement properties of all five are shown to be adequate; however differences are apparent in their robustness and in the pattern of responses in the two countries. Moreover, one measure (Trust 3) is clearly inferior to the other measures.

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Keywords: Consumers, Salespeople, Statistical Analysis

Managing Direct Selling Activities in China: A Cultural Explanation

Authors: Lorna Fullgrabe, Sherriff T. K. Luk, Stephen C. Y. Li
Year Published: 1999
Topics: Direct Sales, Global

A study explores the market characteristics and the implications for effective selling strategies in the cosmetic industry in China. In particular, it focuses on explaining the reasons for success of those foreign cosmetic companies that adopt direct selling, which can be considered a type of relationship marketing, as their main selling strategy. Also explored are the explanatory factors for acceptance of relationship marketing by Chinese consumers against the background of economic development and infrastructure problems in China, as well as the particular characteristics of China’s cosmetic industry. As relationships rate highly in the Chinese context, the practice of direct selling has perhaps tapped into this important cultural aspect and traversed the barriers facing those doing business through traditional marketing channels.

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Keywords: Direct Selling, Global, Management, Marketing, Statistical Analysis, Strategy, Studies

Linking Perceived Service Quality and Service Loyalty: A Multi-Dimensional Perspective

Authors: Josee Bloemer, Ko de Ruyter, Martin Wetzels
Year Published: 1999
Topics: Consumers, Marketing

In recent research on service quality it has been argued that the relationship between perceived service quality and service loyalty is an issue which requires conceptual and empirical elaboration through replication and extension of current knowledge. A study focuses on the refinement of a scale for measuring service loyalty dimensions and the relationships between dimensions of service quality and these service loyalty dimensions. The results of an empirical study of a large sample of customers from four different service industries suggest that four dimensions of service loyalty can be identified: purchase intentions, word-of-mouth communication; price sensitivity; and complaining behaviour. Further analysis yields an intricate pattern of service quality-service loyalty relationships at the level of the individual dimensions with notable differences across industries.

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Keywords: Consumers, Effects, Feature, Loyalty, Market research, Marketing, Service industries, Statistical Analysis, Studies

Full-Time vs. Part-Time Salespeople: A Comparison on Job Satisfaction

Authors: Thomas R. Wotruba
Year Published: 1990
Topics: Direct Sales, Statistics

A study compared job satisfaction, performance, and turnover in direct selling between full-time and part-time salespeople. Mary Kay Cosmetics, Saladmaster, United Consumers Club, and Tupperware supplied the names and addresses of potential respondents who had begun selling within the past 6 to 12 months. A mail questionnaire was sent to 1,600 respondents throughout the US. The comparison revealed that part-time workers had greater job satisfaction and less propensity to quit; they also were better performers as measured by earnings per hour worked. When the same respondents were analyzed in terms of other jobs held simultaneously with their direct selling job, some evidence indicated that job satisfaction was lower, while earnings per hour and propensity to quit were greater to the extent that other outside employment was increased. The findings, which are consistent with social comparison and frame of reference theories, suggest that part-time employment for outside salespeople merits serious consideration by sales managers.

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Keywords: Comparative Analysis, Direct Selling, Employee turnover, Full time, Job satisfaction, Part time employment, Performance, Salespeople, Statistical Analysis