engleski

Measuring disposition to selling: a pragmatic sales attitudes scale

Although making a profit has always been the ultimate goal of any company, today's global processes force companies to implement continuous improvements in order to stay competitive. Meeting clients' expectations in terms of quality and pricing is relevant, but nowadays easy access to a variety of choices highlights the importance of selling performance. One of the ways in which companies are trying to enhance selling outcomes is by hiring the best applicants for the job. However, available literature reveals the lack of a comprehensive instrument for predicting sales performance, thus limiting the ability of HR professionals to distinguish potentially top performers from poor ones in a group of candidates for the job. The aim of this study was to construct and validate a short and time-efficient scale that predicts sales performance by assessing individual’s attitudes toward selling. A Pragmatic sales attitudes scale (PSAS) was constructed and administrated as a part of the on-line study among call centre agents of a major company in Croatia (N=99). For the purpose of the scale validation, only results on PSAS, personality traits and explicit motives were used, along with objective measures of sales performance provided by the company. Factor analysis reviled uni-dimensional structure of the 4-item PSAS with Cronbach α= 0.80. Results showed strong positive correlation between PSAS and objective measures of sales performance in six-months period (r= 0.32-0.45, p< .01) , with men (M= 14.38, SD= 3.85) having more favourable attitudes towards sale (t(97)= 2.44, p< .05) compared to women (M= 12.52, SD= 3.53) Further, it was found that PSAS correlates positively with extraversion (r= 0.22, p< .05) and motive for achievement (r= 0.21, p< .05). Results indicate PSAS is a valid measure of attitudes towards sale that can be used for prediction of individual’s sales performance. Details of the scale construction process, as well as theoretical background, results and practical implications will be discussed.

attitudes towards sales: PSAS ; selling performance ; objective sales measures ; predicting sales performance

nije evidentirano