Sales Person
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Journal of Managerial Psychology 15,1 68
Received August 1998 Revised May 1999 Accepted June 1999
Communication apprehension and perceptions of salesperson performance: a multinational perspective
Leyland F. Pitt, Pierre R. Berthon and Matthew J. Robson
Cardiff Business School, University of Wales, Cardiff, UK
Keywords Communication, Face-to-face communications, Sales, Salesforce, Performance Abstract While the effect of communication apprehension on a multitude of psychological and performance variables has been studied in many other disciplines, it has not been extensively examined by sales researchers. This article considers communication in the sales transaction from the perspective of communication apprehension, and investigates the role of communication apprehension as an indicator of a salesperson's performance. Using ordinal logistic regression, an attempt is made to predict a salesperson's performance based on the four contexts of communication apprehension, in a multicultural sample. The results show a small but significant effect of communication apprehension on the performance of salespersons, and some contexts of communication apprehension are found to be better predictors than others. The findings also indicate that the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension-24 scale is valid and reliable when used to establish international principles.
Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 15 No. 1, 2000, pp. 68-86. # MCB University Press, 0268-3946
Introduction One attribute of the successful salesperson would conceivably be an ability to ``talk'', or to have above average communication ability and willingness, since selling is a fundamental marketing communication activity. In fact, many believe the typical salesperson to be overly gifted with the gab, excessively glib and pushy, or, in the words of some of the respondents in Crawford and
Journal of Managerial Psychology 15,1 68
Received August 1998 Revised May 1999 Accepted June 1999
Communication apprehension and perceptions of salesperson performance: a multinational perspective
Leyland F. Pitt, Pierre R. Berthon and Matthew J. Robson
Cardiff Business School, University of Wales, Cardiff, UK
Keywords Communication, Face-to-face communications, Sales, Salesforce, Performance Abstract While the effect of communication apprehension on a multitude of psychological and performance variables has been studied in many other disciplines, it has not been extensively examined by sales researchers. This article considers communication in the sales transaction from the perspective of communication apprehension, and investigates the role of communication apprehension as an indicator of a salesperson's performance. Using ordinal logistic regression, an attempt is made to predict a salesperson's performance based on the four contexts of communication apprehension, in a multicultural sample. The results show a small but significant effect of communication apprehension on the performance of salespersons, and some contexts of communication apprehension are found to be better predictors than others. The findings also indicate that the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension-24 scale is valid and reliable when used to establish international principles.
Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vol. 15 No. 1, 2000, pp. 68-86. # MCB University Press, 0268-3946
Introduction One attribute of the successful salesperson would conceivably be an ability to ``talk'', or to have above average communication ability and willingness, since selling is a fundamental marketing communication activity. In fact, many believe the typical salesperson to be overly gifted with the gab, excessively glib and pushy, or, in the words of some of the respondents in Crawford and