A Triadic Analysis of the Relationship between Sales-Persons Characteristics, Sales-Persons-Customer Orientation and Firm Performance in Nigeria

Abstract

The triad of customer orientation, sales-person’s characteristics and firm performance was formed for survey data. This allowed for in-depth analysis of the sub-variables of these categorical indicators. The methodology was based on cross-sectional study of One thousand, two hundred and five (1205) Sales-persons. Customer orientation was measured using Narver and Slater’s (1990) scale of customer orientation fourteen indicator variables representing these dimensions. Drawing from personnel psychology and marketing literature (Kotler, 2000; Johnston & Marshall, 2003), sales-persons’ characteristics was operationalised by tapping into some personal characteristics exhibited by employees in the workplace. Firm performance was operationalised as a multi-item construct that combines two primary groups of variables that have been used in prior research (Narver & Slater, 1990; Slater & Narver, 1993).The multiple phases of instrument development and testing resulted in a significant degree of refinement and restructuring of the survey instrument besides establishing the initial content validity (Nunnally, 1978). Correlation analysis at sigma = 0.05 was used to establish the relationship between the three categorical variables. The results informed the need for a
fit between sales-person’ characteristics, customer orientation and firm performance. The results from the managerial perspective highlighted the importance of salespersons’ characteristics in strategic orientation of the firm. The results further suggested that firms can achieve better performance through the effective use of human element
personality fit with the strategic direction of the firm. Specifically, the findings indicated that management needs to encourage characters that are fitted for fulfilment of organizational goals and strategy.

Keywords: Customer orientation, sales-people characteristics, firm performance, marketing concepts, business strategy.