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The purpose of this article is to improve the sales training process by gaining a deeper understanding of the first two levels – reaction and learning.

A total of 79 sales supervisors of a US firm operating in Egypt participated in the study. They evaluated level 1 (reaction) by rating the design and operation of their sales training programs. Level 2 measured the value of information gained from training topics.

Trainees stated that the training either helped or solved sales and non‐sales problems. Data from both training levels were factored analyzed and each resulted in a two‐factor solution.

This research offers advice for setting standards for evaluating sales training programs. Knowledge gained is more important to determining if sales training has been effective. Learning evaluation showed that trainees believed the value of selling skills, company information, and behavioral training topics were valuable and the role of the instructor was important.

This research offers advice for setting standards for evaluating sales training programs. Knowledge gained is more important to determining if sales training has been effective. Learning evaluation showed that trainees believed the value of selling skills company information and behavioral training topics were valuable and the role of the instructor was important.

Since global firms devote significant sums of time and money training their sales forces, the greater understanding of the process results in improved effectiveness of sales training programs.

The purpose of this paper is to decipher the possibility of ensuring the effectiveness of sales training by focusing on selected organization-related variables and thereafter aims at making recommendations for enhancing the overall sales training effectiveness. Variables that are under organizations’ control, like training transfer climate, training evaluation and degree of choice (mandatory or by choice) were selected for this study. The study also attempted to understand how these variables influence at pre-training stage and post-training stage.

This cross-sectional research involved both exploratory and conclusive phases. To test the postulated hypotheses, data were collected in two phases from sales executives of a large oil and gas petrochemical company having the presence across India. A total of 370 sales executives, who were the part of a sales training program, were approached twice, one before the training and once after the eight weeks of training. Data from the respondents who completed both pre- and post-training survey (255) were used for analyses.

The results indicate that all the three predictor variables – training awareness, perceived transfer climate and the presence of an appropriate training evaluation mechanism, influence trainees’ motivation to learn. The results depict that motivation to learn mediates the association between the predictor variables and the resultant variable. Also, degree of choice was found to moderate the association between motivation to learn and sales training effectiveness. The research reinforces the significance of pre-training factors in designing sales training programs to ensure its better effectiveness.

The present study captures organizational-level variables as they are under the control of the organization and can be managed. The study included both motivation to learn and training effectiveness in the hypothesized model to understand the motivational issues in a holistic perspective. The outcomes of this research strengthen the role of trainees’ motivation to learn as a connecting variable between organizational-level variables and sales training effectiveness. Thus, the outcome of this study contributes to the literature on training motivation as well as training effectiveness.

The findings of this study are significant for sales organizations or the organizations offering sales training aiming to enhance overall training effectiveness. Training managers must focus on these factors and ensure that all the pre-training organizational-level variables are very well-taken care of. This implies that the trainees need to be well informed about the training calendar, training policies, training content, expectations from them and how the program will be evaluated after training, along with appropriate positive transfer climate. Organizations should also include proper training evaluation mechanism to measure training at different levels.

This study is an attempt to decipher the possibility of ensuring the effectiveness of sales training by focusing on select organization-related variables, and thereafter aims at making recommendations for enhancing the overall sales training effectiveness. The study’s uniqueness lies in simultaneous examination of influence of various variables, and that too at two different points of time (before and after the training). These two perspectives are apparently missing in the existing sales training literature.

This case was written to help students develop their analytical and decision-making skills with regard to sales force evaluation. It identifies a variety of issues – in the Pakistani context particularly – within the sales force environment, including union representation, sales force team conflicts and power dynamics between superiors and subordinates. The various case lessons will enhance students’ analytical, negotiation and team-management skills. This case can be used to discuss the following issues: the complexity of objective and subjective evaluations of a sales force, sales force perceptions and cultural nuances for succeeding in Pakistan. Distribution structures and management in Pakistan. Characteristic features of the Pakistani pharmaceutical market. Students will be able to explain how salesperson performance information can be used to identify problems, determine their causes and suggest sales management actions to solve them. Students will be able to differentiate between an outcome-based and a behaviour-based perspective for evaluating and controlling salesperson performance. Students will understand how to control one’s behaviour in conflict situations by identifying common interests and achieving a “win-win” situation.

The Al-Ain case describes sales force management and sales force evaluation in a situation that involves a high-performing team operating in a hostile environment. Al-Ain eye centre (Al-Ain), located in the city of Karachi in Sindh state of Southern Pakistan, is a small-scale hospital that has diversified into the pharmaceutical business. Al-Ain’s product portfolio includes analgesics, antibiotics, ophthalmology products and cardiology products. This case focusses on team management and the relationship between a sales manager and subordinate salespeople in the context of Pakistani culture. A sales representative has received a poor performance assessment, which he perceives to be an unfair evaluation of his efforts. As a result of the situation, he subsequently joins a union and creates problems for his superiors. As they explore these management issues within a sales force, students will develop an appreciation for objective methods of sales force evaluation, as well as for the complexity of handling high-performing teams, the importance of employee perceptions and the scope of subjective biases in sales force evaluation that can emerge in practice.

The case is suited to undergraduate or MBA courses on sales management, organizational behaviour, distribution management, marketing/strategy and pharmaceutical industries. It addresses issues of sales force management, sales territory allocations, sales target fixation, team conflict, promotion, team bonus and distribution management in the pharmaceutical industry in Pakistan.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

This study seeks to investigate causal relationships between sales management programs designed to build customer relationships by solving customer problems and selling firm performance.

Hypotheses were developed and supported based on theories developed from the market orientation and sales management literature. Using survey results from sales managers and reported profitability data, those hypotheses were tested using multiple regression.

Results indicate that consulting‐oriented post‐sales training and consulting‐oriented evaluation are significant influences on salesforce efficiency. Consulting‐oriented evaluation is a significant influence on customer retention. The strongest influences on profit growth are initial sales training and post‐sales training learning, but a composite variable of all elements of the consulting‐oriented sales management program is a significant influence on profit growth.

The sampling frame of this study was limited to medium to large industrial manufacturing firms; therefore any conclusions drawn from this study cannot be generalized beyond these types of firms. Future consulting‐oriented sales management research should expand the types of firms studied. Future research should also measure the relationships between consulting‐oriented sales management programs, firm market and learning orientation, adaptive selling, and salesperson customer orientation.

In industries where relationship building and partnering are considered mutually beneficial and important by buyers and sellers there should be greater emphasis on: listening skills, diagnostic skills, and problem solving skills in sales training; sharing effective strategies to build customer relationships and sharing of effective customer problem‐solving strategies in post‐sales training learning; measuring customer cost savings and obtaining customer satisfaction feedback in evaluation systems; and compensating salespeople for customer retention, positive customer feedback, and increased sales from current customers.

This study fills a gap in the literature for firm level research on the consequences of sales management programs, particularly programs that encourage sales consulting. This study makes a contribution to the literature by determining whether industry conditions encourage those programs or moderate their relationship to performance.

The purpose of this study is to describe the evaluation of a training programme in a Portuguese family’s small and medium enterprise (SME) in the cosmetics industry. This study addresses the four levels of the Kirkpatrick Model and estimates the return on investment (ROI) of a training programme in sales.

The study follows a case design to address the analysis of the training outcomes. This study uses data from 53 employees and explore the programme’s results.

This study provides evidence on the reactions of the trainees to the programme; the learning which results from it; and on the changes in trainees’ behaviours and the consequent results. This study also estimates the ROI of the programme; it is 5.55.

The limitations to this study may be the use of data from a single training programme.

The research results offer managers some critical information in terms of future options in resource allocation. Training managers become more informed in making future choices on where to invest in training programmes.

The originality of the study regards the ROI estimation for an SME’s sales training programme. SMEs are not often addressed in the training evaluation literature. Because SMEs have limited organisational resources, and they do not invest much in training. Further, this estimation requires data gathering and reporting that is not commonly done, even for large firms.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the marketing literature and practice by examining the relationship between evaluations of past editions in a series and the success of a sequel.

A set of hypotheses was developed, guided by the theory of reasoned action, that state under what conditions past edition evaluations are more strongly related to sequel success. Data obtained from video game aggregator Web sites are used to test the hypotheses by means of a two-stage model estimation.

Past evaluations of previous editions are related to sequel success. High variability among evaluations of past editions seems to be a negative weighting factor regarding the impact that past evaluations have on sequel buying. The relationship between consumer evaluations of past editions and sales of the sequel is more positive if there is a large community of users and if the product is consumed socially.

This study pertains to the strategic marketing of sequentially released products and provides new insight into whether and how past evaluations carry over from past editions in the series to the latest sequel.

This study helps marketing managers to better manage sequels and use evaluations of earlier editions to assess the potential of a sequel.

The paper explores the carry-over mechanism between earlier editions of a product and later sequels by studying evaluations of earlier editions in the series. It highlights the impact of variability of evaluations in the series as well as other factors, including whether the product is consumed individually or socially.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an evaluation of training for shop assistants, specifically in retail chains.

The proposed evaluation is based on Kirkpatrick’s model and Phillips’ modification. The representative case study includes the application of the training evaluation at the fourth and fifth levels of evaluation in a particular chain of retail stores. The data were collected from the retail chain’s financial reports, internal documents related to training of employees and interviews with managers in the retail chain.

The results contribute to the training evaluation literature by presenting a training evaluation for shop assistant using evidence from a retail chain. The training focussed on selling skills and product knowledge; the details of evaluating the training are presented, encompassing mainly the benefits and costs of the training and return on investment calculation.

The training evaluation was tested only in selected types of training courses for shop assistants. To generalise the results, its adoption in different types of training and retail companies is required in future research.

The application of this training evaluation should help to achieve training objectives and enhance the quality of training in the retail chain. The results of the paper can be used as practical inspiration for managers of retail stores.

This paper proposes and applies a specific evaluation of training courses in retail.

Outlines a method to determine the relative importance of the principal criteria applied by sales managers in evaluating the performance of sales persons. Presents this in relation to objectives, prior research, methodology, sample data collection and data analysis. Concludes that the study outlined would prove that qualitative measures of performance are important in the evaluation of the sales person. Suggests that it would also address the question of the need for extensive product knowledge together with the use of profit as a measure of success.

The purpose of this study is to examine how a service provider’s offer quality is evaluated (OQ).This study shows that attitude toward the salesperson in a service context (AS) is an important antecedent to OQ.

This study involves three studies, first is a dyadic data analyzed with HLM, second is an experiment and the third an IAT.

The findings of this study show that active empathetic listening increases offer quality evaluations, regardless of the AS level. However, at lower levels of AS, sales perseverance negatively affects offer quality evaluations.

While research suggests that listening is extremely important, there is also research that suggests that perseverance is more important. Considering data from sales people and from consumers, the authors examine when listening and when perseverance is important.

The purpose of this paper is to examine similarities and differences of current state of initial sales training practices of both domestic and multinational corporations (MNCs) in Egypt. This paper begins by reviewing the cross-cultural sales training research and developing hypotheses.

A methodology section follows, including measurement instruments, sample and data collection, and validity and reliability measures. The data were collected from sales managers, marketing managers, and sales supervisors.

Results reveal that MNCs differ significantly from their domestic counterparts in the following sales training phases: needs determination, objective setting, program methods, program contents, and training evaluation.

In-depth discussion, managerial implications, and suggestions for future research are provided.

There has been very limited research published on sales training practices in the Middle East (Yaseen and Khanfar, 2009) and Egypt in particular (e.g. Attia and Honeycutt, 2012; Honeycutt et al., 2001). This research sheds further highlights on sales training practices in Egypt and adds in filling in the gap in sales training literature by addressing sales training in Egypt.