Tweet

Mother of a sales performance

Written by: Sue Barrett

Article Overview: As the New York Stock Exchange is now looking at "employee engagement" as a significant predictor of higher share value and market return, and given we are all competing, not just for clients and market share but for good employee talent, maybe a key performance indicator for sales management could be in Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB).

Mother of a sales performance

As the New York Stock Exchange is now looking at "employee engagement" as a significant predictor of higher share value and market return, and given we are all competing, not just for clients and market share but for good employee talent, maybe a key performance indicator for sales management could be in Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB). I came across some recent research into sales management, and it got me thinking about how team leaders were not allowed to "mother" their sales teams.

A loaded term, "mothering", and without proper definition creates myths and innuendo where none should exist. The following research piece might surprise you - then again it may not.

The research, conducted by Piercy, Lane and Cravens, examines the gender issue across multiple companies from the perspective of sales managers.

What the research found was that, by and large, sales units led by female managers who had higher levels of behaviour control activities displayed higher effectiveness in terms of better job satisfaction and job involvement; lower role ambiguity, job anxiety, and burnout; higher organisational commitment; and with a lower propensity to leave.

Behaviour control activities include monitoring, directing, evaluating and rewarding people. The research says, in part: "Female sales managers perform significantly higher levels of behaviour-based control activities and display higher competence in this management approach, compared to male counterparts."

Subsequent analyses of the same salesperson study (Piercy, Lane, and Cravens 2002) examined sales manager gender as a predictor of sales team Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB).

The results show that sales teams led by female managers display significantly higher levels of civic virtue, sportsmanship, altruism, courtesy, cheerleading, peacemaking, and overall citizenship. This suggests the management style of female managers (perhaps most particularly, their higher levels of behaviour control activity) encourages and facilitates higher OCB among salespeople working in the sales unit.

While the research showed that both female and male sales managers were able to achieve comparable sales performance, the effect that sales management behaviour control practices (as described above) had on OCB was positively linked to critical factors such as:

• Superior performance with customers
• High sales unit performance
• Helping with work-related problems
• Effective organisational performance
• Higher employee retention

Interestingly the research did not provide support for the "nurturing and caring" stereotype that suggests female managers will lead by supportive and facilitative behaviours, often referred in derogatory terms as "mothering". However, female sales managers appear to "go the extra mile" in terms of conscientiousness.

It was reported that female sales managers spend more time monitoring, directing, evaluating and rewarding control activities in their sales teams than their male counterparts.

One of the benefits of a behaviour-based approach to sales management control is that sales managers work more closely with sales people and gain a greater understanding of the weaknesses of their salespeople - important areas that need to be improved - and provide strategies on how to help them improve their performance. If that's mothering, then I'm all for it.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Related Articles
  Get To Or Got To?
  Privacy, Investing Alpha, and the CEO's Mother-in-Law
  You ARE a GREAT Mother (even if you don’t have kids)!
  Connecting with a purpose Part III
  From Tupperware to Bookkeeping

Article Tags: altruism, behaviour control, civic virtue, cravens, employee engagement, female managers, gender issue, innuendo, job satisfaction, key performance indicator, male counterparts, management approach, management style, multiple companies, new york stock, new york stock exchange, role ambiguity, sales managers, share value, york stock exchange



Related Forum Posts
Re: Can you really get google ads for free? - This has A LOT to do with existing relationship you'd already have with the market, too. Honestly, if someone I trust produces a product and I am SOLD on his/her credibility based on their past performance, I don't need to read their sales letter whether it's short or long. It's the same way people buy Mariah Carey's CDs before they even listen to her new album, the same way people know Tom Cruise's new movie will be box office sell out. If there is NO trust simply because we don't know the marketer, then it doesn't matter short or long, it'll all look the same. That's not because what it says on the sales page, but the trust level of its approach.
Laptop v PC - My ten cents worth. I switched from PC to laptop and have never looked back, the freedom to work anywhere is fantastic, you can be totally untethered from the office, especially with wireless broadband. Some observations regarding AMD vs Intel Inspiron debate. While there are few office based real world performance issues between the two machines, the AMD initial cost versus its performance is excellent. And it seems to be quieter too.
Re: Happy Mother's Day - We also celebrate Mother day in South Africa on Sunday. This mean we celebrate it the same day with the Americans
Re: Are you a Blue, Red, or Green? - My Structogram self analysis showed I'm majority Red-Green with a fair bit of Blue. While our crew at Happy Worker found this intriguing by itself, what I've been most excited about is the potential for improving our sales process results. For example, we've heard of a retail chain that redesigned their store layouts based on Structogram profiles. They strategically displayed certain areas of their stores to fit different personalities - e.g. Red areas featured the most high end/hip designs with best of strength/speed/performance summarized, Blue areas had lots of technical analysis and comparisons, and Greens saw the products used in social settings with its human/ergonomic features emphasized. The cool part of course is that the chain was able to have their prospects self-categorize themselves by what area of the store they were attracted to, and their sales staff were trained in identifying and working with each type of person. Which unsurprisingly led to a significant increase in sales. In our new sales process we've included several questions and actions to help hypothesize our prospects' Structogram type, to help us best support them through the rest of the pathway. We're also looking at what web site changes we can make to ensure we're appealing to and supporting all types!
Putting your money where you mouth is ... - Recently I had a series of sales calls from an specialized online directory (more like a community) which will remain nameless. For the low price of just under $500 dollars I could be listed on their site for two years. The site seemed like the right fit - I would be exposed to both buyers and sellers of training. Just one or two new training vendors per year would more than recover the cost. Needless to say they were confident that the 200,000 + visitors they get every month would turn into traffic for me. I was a little hesitant so I made a simple proposition. I would go ahead and sign up on the condition that I am happy with the traffic after the first month or else I would get a refund. It turns out that was impossible for this vendor. Why is that? I remember back when I was in sales I had to do a lot of demonstrations and proposals. I had to PROVE that my products, and my company, were a right fit for the client. I had to build relationships first. Where is that gone? I have noticed this tendency for young business owners to feel like they 'deserve' the business at whatever price - without earning it. Personally I walk away from people like that. I want do deal with someone who WANTS to do business with me enough that they will try and earn it. I want to work with people who put their money where their mouth is. Am I asking to much? Why are people afraid to back up their performance promises with guarantees?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Download a template or see a lawyer?

Email Marketing Made Easy #11 - Avoiding Spam

Local Marketing: 3 Simple Low-Cost Strategies

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.