An Empirical Study of Salesforce Turnover

Abstract

Employee turnover is a subject of great importance to practitioners and researchers alike. Though the research on employee turnover in general is extensive, a search of the literature uncovered few truly longitudinal studies of salesperson turnover. On the basis of the general turnover findings, the authors develop seven hypotheses relating salesperson demographic characteristics and job attitudes to turnover and test them by analyzing data gathered over a decade by a large national sales organization. The results raise questions about conclusions from previous studies and afford several new insights and implications for sales managers and researchers.