Formal salesforce controls and revenue production: a meta-analysis

Abstract

Using data from 39 empirical studies with a cumulative sample of 6678 respondents from multiple countries, this meta-analysis examines the influence of the two main types of formal salesforce controls – behaviour and output – on salespeople's revenue performance. The authors employ Hierarchical Linear Modeling as well as Path Modeling to analyse the data. The findings show that both behaviour and output controls have a positive impact on revenue outcomes, although the average effect sizes are small. Interestingly, the effect of the former is greater than the latter. Also, the two types of controls are positively related to each other, suggesting the merits of treating them as two separate control mechanisms rather than two ends of a continuum, and also highlighting the need to control for one when estimating the effects of the other. Although the relationship between behaviour control and revenue is higher when the analysis is conducted at the organization level as opposed to individual level, the effect size estimates relating behaviour and output controls to revenue outcomes did not vary based on the control scale employed nor sample characteristics such as geographic location, gender, age, experience or type of product.