The Influence of Consulting Oriented Sales Management Programs on Customer Retention and Long-Term Profit Growth

Abstract

Despite growing academic interest in business-to-business relationship marketing, learning orientation, and market orientation, there has been little research into the role of sales management programs designed to build customer relationships by solving customer problems and enhancing product value. Despite growing senior management recognition of the necessity of fostering partnering customer relationships, most sales force programs remain transaction oriented. This paper discusses similarities and differences between sales consulting, consultative selling, salesperson customer orientation, market orientation, and learning orientation. The author argues that consulting oriented sales management programs provide the firm with a source of sustainable competitive advantage in industries where buying firms seek partnering relationships, due to the rarity of competent sales consulting and the difficulty of competitors to imitate consulting skills. The author discusses the theoretical bases for expectations of a positive relationship between consulting oriented sales management programs and selling firm performance. The study sought to measure the impact on performance from consulting oriented sales training, post-sales training, evaluation, and compensation. The results of a survey of 148 industrial firm sales managers indicate that consulting oriented salesperson evaluation is a significant influence on customer retention. The strongest influences on profit growth are consulting oriented sales training and consulting oriented post-sales training learning. A composite variable of all elements of the consulting oriented sales management program is a significant influence on profit growth, suggesting the complementary nature of these programs. The results suggest the importance of intrinsic motivation, learning goal orientation, and behavior-based controls in sales consulting. The author discusses possible explanations for the results and offers implications for sales managers.KeywordsSignificant InfluenceManagement ProgramTheoretical BaseFirm PerformanceIntrinsic MotivationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.