Int.

Journal of Economics and Management 4(2): 181 – 211 (2010) ISSN 1823 - 836X

The Relationship between Sales Skills and

Salesperson Performance, and the Impact of
Organizational Commitment as a Moderator:
An Empirical Study in a Malaysian
Telecommunications Company
AHMAD S.Z.a*, BASIR M. SAHb AND KITCHEN P.J.c
a
Prince Sultan University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
b
Telekom Malaysia (TM) Berhad
c
The University of Hull, United Kingdom (HUBS)

ABSTRACT
The objectives of this paper are two-fold. Firstly to understand
the influence of sales skills dimensions, namely interpersonal,
salesmanship, technical and marketing skills on salesperson
performance in Telekom Malaysia (TM) Berhad, which is a major
Malaysian telecommunication corporation; and secondly, to investigate
the effect of organizational commitment as a moderating variable on
the above relationship. Data was gathered based on a judgment sample
of 114 salespersons supervisors in the company. The findings show
that the effects of interpersonal skills positively influence salesperson
performance. However, more unexpectedly, the findings also show
that salesmanship, technical and marketing skills do not influence
salesperson performance. And, organizational commitment does not
necessarily moderate the relationship between sales skills dimensions
and salesperson performance.

Keywords: Sales skills, salesperson performance, organizational

commitment, telecommunications, Malaysia

The telecommunication services industry in Malaysia has undergone tremendous

change - deregulation, new competition, and a rapidly changing customer base from
the late 1980s. Since that time, six new operators or service providers have entered
the market (International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Report, 2002; 2004;
2010). However, industry consolidation in 2002 resulted in just four key players
in the industry, namely DiGi Telecommunications (DiGi), Maxis Communications

Corresponding author: Email: sahmad@oyp.psu.edu.sa, drszamberi@yahoo.com

*

Any remaining errors or omissions rest solely with the author(s) of this paper.
 International Journal of Economics and Management

(Maxis), TIME dotcom (TIME) and the incumbent, TM Berhad (TM) (ITU, 2004).
As a result of consolidation, there has been more intense competition than ever
before among these competitors to maintain or gain market share. Moreover,
the competitive forces are exacerbated as the Malaysian Communications and
Multimedia Commission (MCMC) continually issues new licences to smaller or
niche players. As of the fourth quarter 2007, there were 368 Applications Service
Provider (ASP) licensees, 68 Network Facilities Providers (NFP) individual
licensees and 76 Network Services Provider (NSP) individual licensees (MCMC
Industry Performance Report Q4, 2007). Competition will be further accelerated
when the domestic market is further liberalised to allow the participation of ASEAN
registered companies in 2010 once the telecommunication agreement is ratified
under the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) (TM Annual Report, 2005, 2007).
With respect to market share, TM Berhad has led and continues to exercise
leadership with revenue of RM17.8 billion and 56% market share in 2007, compared
to 59% in 2006. Meanwhile, Maxis improved its market share to 29% from 27%
in 2007 and 25% in 2003. Similarly, DiGi also increased its market share to 14%
from 13% in 2007 and 9% in 2003. However, TIME lost another 1% (from 2%) of
its market share falling to just 1% in 2007 (MCMC Industry Report, 2007). TM’s
market share shrank by 2% and 3% in 2006 and 2007 respectively. TM also turned
a rather modest 8.8% revenue year-on-year growth in 2007, compared to 12.3% in
2004 (MCMC Industry Report, 2004; 2005; 2007; TM Annual Report, 2005; 2007).
At a glance, the latest statistics on market share and business indicate that
intense competition has influenced TM’s business performance. Extant and future
competitive market forces have created great pressure on TM Berhad to market
more effectively so that the company not only retains but improves its market and
revenue positions. Selling products or services is the most important component
in a sales oriented business. Thus, sales groups are forced to work harder in
order to produce the revenue streams that support all of TM’s business activities.
Furthermore, rapid technological advancement result in complex and dynamic
environs where consumers are getting smarter and expect the best from sellers
to fulfill their demands and satisfy their needs (Atuahene-Gima and Michael,
1998). Therefore, salespersons in sales groups are perhaps the most important
individuals in the firm’s marketing communication process since they occupy a
boundary position. They represent the organisation to customers, interact with
them, underpin many transactions, and serve as a mechanism to scan and monitor
the external environment (Sohi, 1996). The need to increase market share and be
the (or a) preferred service provider or seller is a continual managerial motivator
in understanding the factors that underpin salesperson performance. Meanwhile,
sales are one of the commonly used variables to gauge salesperson performance
(Morris et al, 1991).
Although there are many factors that contribute to salesperson performance,
it has been acknowledged that sales skills are one of the key individual–level
determinants that contribute to performance (Basir et al., 2010; Churchill et al.,
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1985; Churchill et al., 2000). Ingram et al., (2004) added that turbulent business
environments force sales departments to headhunt highly skilled salespersons in
their attempt to secure and consolidate sales. Thus, good salespersons may offer
substantial performance improvements in today’s business environs (Baldauf and
Cravensm, 2002). Top-quality sales staff who maximize revenues from existing
customers and systematically identify, convert, and manage new prospects well
will allow a business to grow faster than its competitors (Futrell, 2006). Such
efforts are particularly important in an environment where valuable customers
have many more options and choices than ever before. Considering the pivotal
role played by salespersons in ensuring continual sales; hiring and retained highly
skilled sales personnel is critical (Churchill et al., 2000; Ingram et al., 2004;
Futrell, 2006). Moreover, many researchers have emphasised the importance of
salespersons skill levels in relation to their performance (Churchill et al., 1985;
2000; Rentz et al., 2002).
Churchill et al., (1985) and Ford et al., (1988) found that besides aptitude;
role perception, motivation, personality and organisational factors, sales skills also
affect a salesperson’s performance. Moreover, in another study, Rentz et al., (2002)
categorised selling skills into three dimensions namely interpersonal, salesmanship
and technical skills. These dimensions were found to be useful predictors of
salesperson performance. Furthermore, Ahearne and Schillewaert (2000) introduced
marketing skills as another predictor of a salesperson’s performance.
However and although these sales skills dimensions have long been recognised
as predictors of salesperson performance, since TM Berhad’s privatisation, there
has been no empirical research conducted to ascertain whether individual-level skill
factors do in fact contribute to sales performance . Furthermore, the majority of
previous studies examining the influence of sales skills dimensions on salesperson
performance have been conducted in advanced Western economies. Thus, there is
a gap in the literature – as no such research has been conducted within a specific
company in any sector, or indeed within in the telecommunications industry in
Malaysia, which is seen as a developing economy and one of the ‘tiger’ economies
of Southeast Asia. Hence, this is the first study in a specific company, within a
liberalised telecommunications industry, and within a developing country that
attempts to explore these types of relationships.
In order to explore the two overarching objectives – a) to examine the selling
skills dimensions, namely, interpersonal, salesmanship, technical and marketing
skills and the influence they have upon salesperson performance, and – b) to examine
the effect of organisational commitment on this relationship as the moderating
variable; we provide a detailed literature review leading to four hypotheses
exploring the relationship between four sales skills dimensions and performance.
We then develop a further four hypotheses relating to the moderating variable of
organisational commitment. A detailed method section is then provided followed
by presentation and discussion of the research outcomes. We then summarise and
conclude the paper.
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THEORETICAL REVIEW
Several studies have identified a number of independent variables that influence
salesperson performance (see Churchill et al., 1985; Baldauf and Cravens, 1999;
2002; Piercy et al., 1997; 1998; Baldauf et al., 2001; Babakus, et al., 1996; Barker,
1999; Rentz et al., 2002). Churchill et al., (1985) found that in terms of the average
size of their association with salesperson performance, the determinants were
ordered as follows:
• role variables, selling skills, motivation, personal factors, aptitude, and
organisational factors; but
• when ordered according to real variation (i.e., not attributable to sampling error),
the determinants were ranked as: personal factors, selling skills, role variables,
aptitude, motivation, and organisational/environmental factors.

The findings from Churchill et al., (1985) indicated that selling skills were the
second most important of six variables, both in terms of average size association
with performance and in terms of real variation. However, Churchill et al., (1985)
and Rentz et al., (2002) observed that few studies on individual characteristics
relating to the selling skills dimensions of salespersons were conducted before
the meta-analysis studies of Churchill et al., (1985). Nonetheless, since these
studies, a considerable amount of research has focused upon specific aspects or
the micro-skill stream of selling skills, which focused on individual sales skills
(Rentz et al., 2002). These micro-stream selling skills can be divided into three
dimensions – interpersonal, salesmanship and technical skills.
With respect to this, this paper attempts to build upon Churchill et al.’s, (1985)
seminal work to examine the influence of sales skills on salesperson performance
in an emerging economy context. Specifically, the paper investigates the influence
of four sales skills dimensions on salesperson performance. Three sales skills
dimensions – interpersonal, salesmanship and technical skills – are derived from
Ford et al., (1988; cited in Churchill et al., 2000), and the other dimension of
marketing skills is derived from Ahearne and Schillewaert (2000).
Although there have been numerous studies on the direct relationship between
organisational commitment and job performance, however, there have been few
studies conducted treating organisational commitment as a moderator. According
to Meyer and Allen (1997), a committed employee is the one who stays with the
organisation through thick and thin, attends work regularly, puts in a full day (and
maybe more), protects company assets, shares company goals and others. Thus,
having a committed workforce is an added organisational advantage. Irving and
Coleman (2003), for example, examined the moderating effect of organisational
commitment on the relationship between role ambiguity and job tension in an
organisation undergoing significant change. Results of their study indicated that

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organisational commitment tended to aggravate relations between the two variables.

From a different perspective, Chang (1999) examined the effect of organisational
commitment as a moderator on the relationship between perceptions of a company’s
career practices and turnover intention. The results showed that organisational
commitment had some bearing on turnover intention. Furthermore, Thakor
and Joshi (2002) studied the relationship between experienced meaningful and
customer-oriented selling, which acted as a proxy of long-term performance, with
organisational commitment as a moderator. Their research – based on a survey of
281 salespersons – indicated that organisational commitment served to moderate
the relationship between the two variables.
Thus, in sum, organisational commitment can and does play a role in influencing
job performance. Nonetheless, the literature reviewed showed that no previous
study utilised organisational commitment to moderate the relationship between sales
skills dimensions and salesperson performance. Hence, the present study simply
focuses on the moderating impact of affective organisational commitment towards
salesperson performance. Affective commitment was used in the present study
because employees’ emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement
in the organisation may contribute to the achievement of organisational objectives
according to Harif (2005).
The present study examines the relationship between selling skills dimensions
(interpersonal, salesmanship, technical, and marketing) and salesperson
performance. The effect of organisational commitment on this relationship is
explored as a moderating variable. The relationships among the variables are
shown in Figure 1.

Independent variables

Sales Skills Dimensions Dependent variable

• Interpersonal Salesperson
• Salesmanship Performance
• Technical
• Marketing

Organisational
Commitment

Moderating variable

Figure 1  Theoretical framework

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Interpersonal Skills and Salesperson Performance

Interpersonal skills refer to mental and communication algorithms applied during
social communication and interaction to achieve certain effects and results.
According to Rentz et al., (2002), the dimensions of interpersonal skills are listening,
empathy, optimism and perceived observation skills. These dimensions were
operationalised and empirically tested independently to represent interpersonal
skills measures in predicting salesperson performance. Thus, these dimensions are
likely to collectively realise effective interpersonal skills, and, in turn, salesperson
performance for achieving high sales performance leading to the requirement that
salespeople have or develop strong interpersonal skills. Comer and Drollinger
(1999); Castleberry and Shepherd (1993); Ramsey and Sohi (1997), and Shepherd
et al., (1997) found that effective listening skills are a valuable communication
skill for successful salespersons. Meanwhile, Comer and Drollinger (1999) pointed
out that empathetic skills contribute to salesperson performance. McBane (1995),
Pilling and Eroglu (1994), and Plank et al., (1996) support this. Additionally, Rich
and Smith (2000) found that individuals possessing high responsive characteristics
seem to have greater identification or perceptive observation skills concerning the
social style of others, which are critical traits for successful salespersons. Jane
and Dawn (2003) also suggested that empathy and perception of others emotions
could explain salesperson performance. Rapisarda (2002) in her research on the
impact of emotional intelligence on work performance reaffirmed that empathic
competency strongly correlated with performance. In sum, previous empirical
studies demonstrated a positive relationship between the four dimensions of
interpersonal skills on salesperson performance. Hence, it can be hypothesised
that a similar relationship will occur in this study. Thus, the first hypothesis is:

H1: There is a significant positive relationship between interpersonal skills and

salesperson performance.

Salesmanship Skills and Salesperson Performance

The dimensions of salesmanship skills can be generally categorised into
five subcategories namely: adaptability, consultative selling, negotiation and
questioning, and salesperson cues and communication style skills. Previous studies
had utilised each dimension independently to represent salesmanship skills in
testing its relationship with salesperson performance (Rentz et al., 2002). Adaptive
selling is defined as the salesperson’s ability to alter her/his sales behaviour when
interacting with customers (Weitz, 1981) and is important because it shows the
amount of customisation a salesperson is utilises. Babakus et al., (1996) found a
positive association between adaptive selling and salesperson performance, and

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sales organisational effectiveness measures. Boorom et al., (1998) also reported a

positive relationship between adaptive selling and several sales outcomes. Besides
that, Sujan et al., (1988a) also found a positive relationship between working smart
(a dimension of adaptive selling) and salesperson performance. Negotiation is
another important process of selling (Futrell, 2006; Ingram et al., 2004). Goolby
et al., (1992), and Schuster and Danes (1986) posited that negotiation skills
possessed by a salesperson contributed to the salesperson’s success. Meanwhile,
Morgan and Stoltman (1990) found that there was a positive relationship between
adaptive personal selling and questioning, listening, and non-verbal behaviour.
They stated that a salesperson’s perceptual abilities, including probing, asking
questions, listening, and detecting verbal and nonverbal clues, provide the
basis for adaptive selling. Goolby et al., (1992) and Schuster and Danes (1986)
confirmed these findings when they posited that negotiation and questioning ability
possessed by a salesperson contributed to the salesperson’s success. Additionally,
communication style plays a critical influence on a salesperson’s ability to close
sales (Stafford, 1996; Whittler, 1994; Williams et al., 1990; Futrell, 2006). Williams
and Spiro (1985) found that successful salespersons are those who can adapt their
communication styles appropriately to interact with customers. Similarly, William
et al., (1990) also suggested that salespersons who vary their communication
styles in relation to the customers will significantly increase the potential to
close the sale. Furthermore, a person’s nonverbal cues could influence others
behaviour (Cho, 2001). Salesperson’s nonverbal cues have emerged as a critical
component of successful selling (Leigh and Summers, 2002; Futrell, 2006; Stafford,
1996; Whittler, 1994; Williams et al., 1990). William et al., (1990) posited that
employing four nonverbal symbolic expressions such as voice qualities, nonverbal
vocalisation, body movement, and spatial distances might result in the likelihood
of a sale. Likewise, Peterson et al., (1995); Schul and Lamb (1982); and Gabbot
and Hogg (2000) found that certain voice characteristics correlated highly with
output sales performance. Consultative skills are another aspect of salesmanship
which influences salesperson performance (DeCormier and Jobber, 1993; Goolsby
et al., 1992). Therefore, any conscious effort on the part of the salesperson to
adjust the sales environment, based on cues from the buyer, and coupled with other
complementary salesmanship skills, namely, consultative selling practices, ability
to be an excellent negotiator, skill in probing and questioning customer needs, and
possessing commendable communication skills, either verbal or nonverbal; should
give the seller a positive feeling in terms of their performance as a salesperson.
Therefore, the discussion above suggests the second hypothesis is:

H2: There is a significant positive relationship between salesmanship skills and

salesperson performance.

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Technical and Marketing Skills Influence on

Salesperson Performance
Technical knowledge refers to salespersons skills in providing information about
design and specification of products and the applications and functions of both
products and services. Salespersons also possess knowledge about the industry and
trends in general such as customers, markets and products; competitors products,
services, sales policies; knowledge of competitors product lines, and knowledge of
customer operations (Behrman and Perreault, 1982, as cited in Baldauf and Cravens,
2002; Futrell, 2006). These constitute the marketing skills of a salesperson. Thus,
both knowledge assets refer to the level of understanding a salesperson has about the
business in which he or she operates. An extensive knowledge base is important for
a salesperson since it allows them to cope with the complex market environment.
A positive relationship empirically supports that the use of technical knowledge
results in higher salesperson performance (Babakus et al., 1996; Cravens et al.,
1993; Baldauf and Cravens, 2002). Moreover, Churchill et al., (2000), Schoemaker
and Johlke (2002), and Ingram et al., (2004) revealed that knowledge of external
and organisational environmental issues are crucial for salespersons to perform
their selling tasks. Researchers have also identified that customer knowledge is
critical for salesperson performance (see Donath, 1993; Smith and Owens, 1995).
Ingram et al., (2004); and Pettijohn and Pettijohn (1994) supported this when they
found that customer knowledge is an important topic for salesperson training. It
is also recognised that effective salespersons possess richer and more interrelated
knowledge structures about their customers than those that are less effective (Sujan
et al., 1988b). Moreover, Weitz (1978) posited that there is a significant positive
relationship between performance and strategy formulation capabilities (i.e. which
requires extensive knowledge of the market, competitors, products etc).
Additionally, Ahearne and Schillewaert (2000) confirmed that marketing skills
also influence salesperson performance. Meanwhile, Sengupta et al., (2000) found
that two other individual-level variables, namely, strategic ability and intrapreneurial
ability were significant determinants of salesperson effectiveness or performance.
Likewise, Dariane et al., (2001) and Makinen (2004) found that salesperson’s
product knowledge is important. Complementing the two studies, Ingram et al.,
(2004) added and reiterated that the knowledge that a salesperson should possess
include product benefits, applications, competitive strengths, and limitations. These
findings and discussions provide the basis for the third and fourth hypotheses dealing
with salesperson performance:

H3: There is a significant positive relationship between technical skills and

salesperson performance.

H4: There is a significant positive relationship between marketing skills and

salesperson performance.

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The Moderating Effect of Organisational Commitment on

Salesperson Performance
While interpersonal, salesmanship, technical and marketing skills have been shown
as key determinants of salesperson performance in previous research, they are not
the only factors that influence salesperson performance. As activities take place
within organisational contexts, the effects of affective organisational commitment
on sales skills dimensions can be expected and anticipated (Dutto et al., 1994).
Organisational commitment is defined as a state of physiological congruence
between individuals and organisational values (Mowday et al., 1979).
The commitment to fulfilling the needs and wants of customers are now
commonly held organisational values across the industrial landscape. Accordingly,
it is argued that when a salesperson’s selling skills (that is constituted by the
four dimensions) level is high, organisational commitment will stimulate them
to accomplish good sales, which in turn will be rewarded and recognised by
the organisation upon successful completion of this activity. Several previous
studies found a direct relationship between organisational commitment and job
performance (e.g., Mowday et al., 1974, as cited in Yousef, 2000; Baugh and
Robert, 1994; Ward and Davies, 1995; Mayer and Schoorman, 1992; Putti et
al., 1990). Meanwhile, Brett and Slocum (1995) reported that there are stronger
relationships between organisational commitment and performance for those with
low financial requirements than those with high financial requirements. Benkhoff
(1997) investigated the link between employee commitment and organisational
commitment in terms of sales targets met and improved profitability; and the
study found there was a strong relationship. Zabid et al., (2003) also found that
organisational commitment correlated with financial performance. Moreover, Meyer
and Schoorman (1992) examined the relationship between job performance and
affective and continuance commitment; and concluded that affective commitment
is directly correlated; and continuance is correlated inversely with all measure of
performance. On the other hand, some studies discovered a modest relationship
between organisational commitment and job performance (e.g, Kelleberg and
Marsden, 1995). In contrast, Wright (1997) found a negative relation correlation
between measures of organisational commitment and job performance.
Thakor and Joshi (2002) studied the relationship between experienced
meaningful and customer-oriented selling, which acted as a proxy of long-term
performance, with organisational commitment as a moderator. Research results
showed that organisational commitment did moderate the relationship between
the two variables.
Thus, it is argued that when high organisational commitment is coupled with
a high level of the four sales skills dimensions, each should reinforce the positive
effect of the other on the salesperson’s motivation to further improve their skills

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and expand their efforts as required to achieve higher sales performance. Thus, it
is hypothesised that:

H5: The influence of interpersonal skills on salesperson performance is higher

when organisational commitment is high.

H6: The influence of salesmanship skills on salesperson performance is higher

when organisational commitment is high.

H7: The influence of technical skills on salesperson performance is higher when

organisational commitment is high.

H8: The influence of marketing skills on salesperson performance is higher when

organisational commitment is high.

METHODOLOGY
Data Collection, Population and Sample
The unit of analysis in the present study is the individual and data was collected
via a web/line judgement sampling procedure. The subjects of analysis were
sales supervisors in TM Berhad. These supervisors hold diverse hierarchical
positions in the organisation i.e. from Assistant Manager to General Managers of
Sales Units. Moreover, the present study adopted a supervisor-rating evaluation
approach i.e. the supervisor (rater) rated the subordinate (salesperson (s) being
rated) under his or her supervision. This means that the immediate supervisors of
the respective salespersons were given the questionnaires to rate their subordinates.
The questionnaire was divided into three parts including demographic information;
sales skills, namely, interpersonal, salesmanship, technical and marketing skills;
and salesperson performance.
The supervisor-rating evaluation approach used in the present study was
based on research on performance appraisal (e.g. Landy and Farr, 1980), which
suggested that supervisor evaluation is superior because supervisors integrate many
facets of performance, some of which are not readily quantifiable. The supervisor
was extremely familiar with the subject’s (the person being rated) performance.
Moreover, the supervisor-rating approach was also used to rate the organisational
commitment of the salespersons as opposed to the widely adopted self-rated
approach to the scale. The supervisor-rating approach is a meaningful construct
as proven by Shore et al., (1995) and Allen (1994) in their studies on managerial
perception of employee commitment to the organisation.
The items used to measure interpersonal skills, salesmanship skills and
technical skills were adopted from Rentz et al., (2002). While items used to
measure marketing skills were adopted from Ahearne and Schillewaert (2000),
salesperson performance items were adopted from Behrman and Perreault (1982).

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Respondents were asked to indicate their agreement or disagreement with several

statements on a seven-point Likert scale from 1=strongly disagree to 7=strongly
agree. Cronbach’s alpha obtained for the measures were 0.91 for technical skills,
0.87 for marketing skills, 0.79 for interpersonal skills, 0.75 for salesmanship skills
and 0.81 for salesperson performance. In the context of the present study, the
focus was on affective organisational commitment of the salespersons because
the employees’ emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in
the organisation may contribute to the achievement of organisational objectives
(Harif, 2005). Regarding this, the affective organisational commitment measures
developed by Mowday et al., (1979) were adapted. This construct consists of nine
items. A seven-point scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree)
was employed to measure the items. Concerning this, Allen (1994) utilised the
supervisor-rating approach to measure the perceived organisational commitment
of others, and it showed good reliability with a coefficient alpha of 0.77.
The sample for the empirical research consisted of 270 respondents, where each
was identified as currently supervising at least one salesperson. The respondents
were told that participation was voluntary and not compulsory, and – perhaps for
this reason - only 114 respondents returned the completed on-line questionnaire.
The demographic profiles of the respondents are presented in Table 1.

FINDINGS
Respondents’ Profile
Of the 114 decision makers sampled, the majority were managers (50.0 percent),
who had accumulated at least 6-10 years of sales experience (37%), which
observably is a large part of their working experience. As such, the main bulk
of the respondents had at least 6 years of work experience (32%). This confirms
that respondents had relevant experience to rate their subordinates’ performance.
In addition, most of these business unit leaders were males (61%) and within the
age group of 25-35 years of age (55%). This indicates the relatively new breed of
youthful managers in Malaysia who are representative of the TM organisation’s
distribution of employees. The main bulk of the sample was from the Malay lineage
(88%) with a minimum education of a bachelor’s degree (75%). The profile of the
respondents is shown in Table 1.

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Table 1  Supervisors profiles

Variables Description Frequency Percentage

Gender Male 70 61.4
Female 44 38.6
Age < 25 years 10 8.77
25-35 years 63 55.26
36-45 years 33 28.95
46-55 years 8 7.02
Race Malay 100 87.7
Indian 4 3.5
Chinese 5 4.4
Others 5 4.4
Educational Level High School Certificate 4 3.5
Diploma 5 4.4
Bachelor’s Degree 84 74.68
Master’s Degree 21 18.42
Position Assistant Manager 28 24.56
Manager 57 50.0
Assistant General Manager 23 20.17
General Manager and Above 6 5.27
Sales Experience <1 year 7 6.14
2-5 years 38 33.33
6-10 years 42 36.83
11-15 years 17 14.9
>15 years 10 8.8
Working Experience <1 year 1 .88
2-5 years 9 7.89
6-10 years 37 32.45
11-15 years 30 26.33
>15 years 37 32.45

Salespersons’ Profile
The majority of salespersons evaluated usually also had managerial titles, but had
no supervision of subordinates. 39% of those evaluated has between 6-10 years
of sales experience (73%), for TM Berhad. The salespersons were almost equal
in terms of gender (52% male, 48% female) and the majorities were within the
age range of 25-35 years (61%). In terms of racial distribution, the main bulk of
the sample was from the Malay lineage (82%) with a minimum education of a
bachelor’s degree (70%).

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Goodness of Measures
Factor Analysis
Survey-based research is constantly plagued and questioned over the quality of its
measures. However, statistical procedures, to a certain extent, can ascertain the
validity and reliability of these measures, assuming a sound theoretical assessment
is considered in advance. Referring to the former, the validation procedure utilised
in this study was factor analysis. This procedure allowed the researchers to ensure
whether the reduced sets of items were similar to the number of concepts that were
initially modeled.

Table 2  Factor loadings for independent variables

Factors
Items
I II III IV
Technical Skills
Knowledgeable about product development .81 .32 .14 .09
Knowledge of product performance .82 .16 .21 .18
Understand product specifications .85 .11 .23 .07
Knowledge of delivery process .79 .33 .04 .21
Knowledge of product features .64 .13 .24 .43
Marketing Skills
Real time information .37 .76 .25 .00
Is an excellent resource of competitive information .32 .72 .37 .14
Has a lot information on industry trends .20 .79 .16 .25
Is well-informed about important events in our industry .10 .80 .20 .32
Interpersonal Skills
Ability to express oneself .06 .26 .76 -.01
Ability in general speaking .09 .23 .70 .25
Awareness & understanding of non-verbal .43 -.00 .70 .03
communication
Ability to control & regulate emotion .32 .21 .42 .21
Ability to influence .15 .33 .61 .32
Salesmanship Skills
Ability to get buy-in .23 .27 .44 .51
Ability in sales presentation .30 .11 .46 .68
Ability to service account .15 .2 .02 .80
Eigenvalue 3.87 3.04 2.98 2.01
Percentage Variance Explained (69.96) 22.78 17.86 17.51 11.82
Reliability (alpha) .91 .87 .79 .75
KMO Measure of Sampling Adequacy .88
χ2 (d.f) 1210.24 (136)

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In the present study, three factor analyses (see Tables 2 and 3) were run to
verify the postulated dimensionality of the independent and dependent variables
by utilising the Varimax rotation. It should be noted that all factor analyses were
considered to have met their underlying assumptions based on their Kaiser-Meyer-
Olkin measure of sampling adequacy, and where the diagonals of the anti-image
correlation matrix were above 0.5. Sufficient unique loadings (for more than 1
extracted factor) and the ability for each item to account for a minimum of 50
percent of its variation were conditions set in retaining the items.
The examination of the 4-factor solution of the independent variables revealed
a combined total variance explained of 70%. The majority of the variation was
taken up by Technical Skills (23%), followed by Marketing (18%), Interpersonal
(18%) and finally, Salesmanship Skills (12%).
The dependent variable of Salesperson Performance was also subjected to
factor analysis and resulted in a similar one component factor. The three items
accounted for 82.16% of the variation explained (see Table 3).

Table 3  Factor loadings for salesperson performance (Dependent variable)

Factor
Items
I
Salesperson Performance
Effective contribution to market share .89
Generate high level of sales .93
Effective in exceeding sales target .90
Eigenvalue 2.47
Percentage Variance Explained 82.16
Reliability (alpha) .89
KMO Measure of Sampling Adequacy .73
χ2 (d.f) 198.431 (3)

A set of nine items measuring organisational commitment was included in the

factor analysis. The statistical procedure confirmed it to be a one-factor solution
with a total of 63.68% of the variation explained (see Table 4).

Reliability Analysis
Once the variables were validated, they were subjected to a test for internal
consistency. This was done to determine the extent of agreement between the
respondents for each dimension, such that a higher score would indicate a higher
reliability. The computation of Cronbach’s Alpha being well above the cut-off value
of 0.70 (as suggested by Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994) indicated that all measures
were reliable. The lowest Alpha registered a value of 0.75 (Salesmanship Skills) and

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the highest 0.91 (Technical Skills). The Alpha coefficients for all dimensions are
reported in the bottom sections of the factor analyses tables (see Tables 2, 3, and 4).

Table 4  Factor loadings for organizational commitment (Moderating variable)

Factor
Items
I
Organizational Commitment
Put in a great deal of effort .70
Talks-up the company .85
Accept any type of assignment .64
Values similar to company .82
Proud to be associated with organization .87
Organization inspires .89
Glad they are employed by the company .84
Care about the fate of the company .73
Best organization to work for .82
Eigenvalue 5.73
Percentage Variance Explained 63.68
Reliability (alpha) .93
KMO Measure of Sampling Adequacy .90
χ2 (d.f) 739.177 (36)

Descriptive Analysis
Items representing their underlying factors were then aggregated. The mean was
applied as a measure of central tendency, which indicated that all variables were
above their midpoint level as indicated in Table 6. Of the four independent variables,
Salesmanship Skills were the highest in rating (M = 5.57), while Interpersonal Skills
was the lowest (M = 5.37). The dependent variable’s (Salesperson Performance)
mean values were also within the range of 5 to 6 in the 7-point Likert scale. In
other words, all variables exhibited a standard deviation of less than 1.

Table 5  Characteristics of the variables

Variables Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation

Interpersonal Skills 3.20 7.00 5.37 .63
Salesmanship Skills 3.00 7.00 5.57 .71
Technical Skills 3.00 7.00 5.48 .80
Marketing Skills 2.00 6.75 5.39 .84
Organizational Commitment 2.78 7.00 5.67 .88
Salesperson Performance 3.33 7.00 5.54 .83

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Predictive and Discriminant Validity

One-tailed pearson correlation tests were employed to assess predictive validity of
the variables (please refer to Table 6 for the results of correlation). All independent
variables were found to be significantly correlated with the dependent variable of
Salesperson Performance, indicating the achievement of predictive validity. It is
also important to note that all the independent variables were not highly correlated,
as this is a necessary condition to ensure that strong multicollinearity effects are
not present in the study.

Table 6  Correlation between variables

Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6
1. Interpersonal Skills 1
2. Salesmanship Skills .64** 1
3. Technical Skills .55** .57** 1
4. Marketing Skills .62** .59** .58** 1
5. Organizational Commitment .40** .32** .28** .40** 1
6. Salesperson Performance .63** .54** .51** .52** .49** 1
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level

Hierarchical Regression Analysis

In order to test the hypotheses developed for this study, a 3-step hierarchical
regression was applied to study the differences with respect to the main effects,
moderating direct effects and interaction effects (see Table 7). Sets of variables
were entered consecutively, where variables on the 1st step consisted of all the
independent variables (IVs). This was followed by the moderating variable in
the 2nd step, and finally in the 3rd step, all of the interaction effects between each
independent variable, and the moderating variables were entered into the model.
In this step, it was discovered that only Interpersonal Skills (β = .40, p < .01)
exhibited a positive influence on Salesperson Performance, which accounted for
approximately 46 percent (∆R2) of the variation in the latter.
In the 2nd step of the analysis, Organisational Commitment (moderating
variable) was introduced into the regression equation, Organisational Commitment
had a significant positive relationship (β = 0.25, p < 0.01) with Salesperson
Performance, and with an additional increase of 5 percent (∆R2) in the explained
variance of Salesperson Performance.
The 3rd step of the hierarchical regression analysis introduces the interaction
effects between the moderator and independent variables on Salesperson
Performance as the dependent variable. However, there is no compelling evidence
that Organisational Commitment moderates the relationship between the four types
of skills and Salesperson Performance.

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Table 7  Hierarchical regression analysis

Salesperson performance
Variables
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3
Main Effects
Interpersonal Skills .40**
Salesmanship Skills .12
Technical Skills .15
Marketing Skills .11
Moderator (Direct Effect)
Organizational Commitment .25**
Interaction Effects
Interpersonal Skills x Organizational Commitment -1.28
Salesmanship Skills x Organizational Commitment -.46
Technical Skills x Organizational Commitment .50
Marketing Skills x Organizational Commitment .62
R2change .46 .05 .01
F change 22.83** 11.28** .78
Durbin-Watson Statistic 1.69
Note: ** p<0.01

SUMMARY OF MAJOR FINDINGS AND RESULTS

OF THE HYPOTHESES
Synthesising from the analyses, the results of the hypothesised assertions are
indicated in Table 8. The following are the major findings gathered through the
present study’s relationship testing regime:
• Only one independent variable i.e. Interpersonal Skills had a positive influence
on Salesperson Performance.
• Organisational Commitment does act as a predictor since the findings show
that increasing Organisational Commitment will also relates to increase in
Salesperson Performance.
• The influence of the four types of skills on Salesperson Performance, however,
does not depend on the level of Organisational Commitment.

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Table 8  Results of the analyses

Hypothesis Statement of Hypothesis Supported?

There is a significant positive relationship between Interpersonal
H1 Yes
Skills and Salesperson Performance
There is a significant positive relationship between Salesmanship
H2 No
Skills and Salesperson Performance
There is a significant positive relationship between Technical
H3 No
Skills and Salesperson Performance
There is a significant positive relationship between Marketing
H4 No
Skills and Salesperson Performance
The influence of Interpersonal Skills on Salesperson Performance
H5 No
is higher when Organizational Commitment is high
The influence of Salesmanship Skills on Salesperson Performance
H6 No
is higher when Organizational Commitment is high
The influence of Technical Skills on Salesperson Performance is
H7 No
higher when Organizational Commitment is high
The influence of Marketing Skills on Salesperson Performance
H8 No
is higher when Organizational Commitment is high

CRITICAL DISCUSSION
This paper set out to examine the selling skills dimensions, namely, interpersonal,
salesmanship, technical and marketing skills and the influence they have upon
salesperson performance. The effect of organisational commitment on this
relationship is also explored as the moderating variable.

Relationship between Interpersonal Skills and

Salesperson Performance
This study found that there is a positive relationship between interpersonal skills
and salesperson performance (β = 0.40, p < 0.01, ∆R2 = 0.46). This finding is
consistent with that of previous research, which demonstrated that interpersonal
skills significantly predict salesperson performance (for instance, Ford et al.,
1988; Pilling and Eroglu, 1994; Anselmi and Zemanek, 1997; Rozell et al., 2006).
Another investigation, by Lockeman and Hallaq (1982), found that interpersonal
skills were the main predictor of sales success. Similarly, many previous studies
identified interpersonal skills as the single strongest predictor of performance rating
dimensions of task performance, job dedication, and interpersonal facilitation,
as well as for an overall rating of performance (for instances, Ferris et al., 2001;
Riggio and Taylor, 2000; Morgeso et al., 2005; Payne, 2005). Additionally, Hill
and Petty (1995) revealed that interpersonal skills were the strongest predictor of

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employability. Furthermore, in a different research context, Jiang et al., (2003) also

established that interpersonal skills of information system’s staff were significantly
related to information system success (proxy of job performance). Moreover,
Algae et al., (2002) affirmed that interpersonal skills were positively related to job
performance in their study of operators in a public service organisation.
The present study demonstrates a similar finding in that interpersonal skills
do show a positive relationship with salesperson performance. Interpersonal skills
reflect an individual’s ability to interact successfully with others and generally foster
positive interpersonal relationships (Gibson et al., 1997). Hochwarter et al., (2004);
and Churchill et al., (2000) stated that interpersonal skills were reflected in terms of
effective persuasion, explanation, and other influencing mechanisms, which reveal
the ability to persuade and control others. Thus, it is expected that the performance
of those who have a high level of interpersonal skill will be better. Further, being
socially astute may allow individuals to successfully navigate around obstacles that
may derail subsequent performance. In this regard, it is plausible that those who
possess high levels of interpersonal skills report the highest levels of performance.
The result from the present study demonstrates the importance of interpersonal
skills as a means to improve salesperson performance. This result implies that
salesperson performance can be enhanced by employing salespersons with high
levels of interpersonal skills. Given a choice, most sales organisation will hope to
have salespersons with higher interpersonal skills to improve sales performance
or meet the sales objectives of an organisation (Ingram et al., 2004; Futrell, 2006).
Furthermore, hiring salespersons with a higher level of interpersonal skills, will
probably result in sustaining and building customer loyalty, intention to repurchase,
and the salespersons will be more likely to develop long lasting relationships with
their customers in accordance with Manning and Reece (2004); and Weitz et al.,
(1998). This finding is in agreement with one of the deliverables in the current TM’s
Key Business Plan milestones of TM Berhad whereby the Sales Division is directed
to strengthen its sales team in terms of salesperson’s skills and competence to drive
revenue or sales (TM Malaysia Business Performance Initiative Plan 2006 Report).

Relationship between Technical Skills and

Salesperson Performance
Surprisingly there was no significant relationship in the present study between
technical skills and salesperson performance. This was an unexpected finding in
light of the volume of previous evidence supporting that technical skills influence
salesperson performance (for instances, Baldauf et al., 2001; Grants and Cravens,
1999; Katiskea and Skarmeas, 2003; Cravens et al., 1993). Nonetheless, this finding
is consistent with Ahearne and Schillewaert (2000); Barker (1999); and Piercy et al.,
(1997) who established that high technical skills levels possessed by salespersons
do not necessarily lead to positive effects in term of salespersons performance.

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The absence of a significant relationship between technical skills and salesperson

performance in the present study may be explained from three perspectives.
First, a technically skilled salesperson sometimes suffers from the problem of
transforming their technical knowledge into a manner that is understandable and
comprehenable for their customer bases (Baldauf and Cravens, 2001). Given that
the salespersons may have to sell diverse product ranges to diverse customers and
markets, it is a reasonable expectation that salespersons may face difficulties in
effectively applying their technical skills when performing sales activities in such
complexity. In addition the service products sold are often high technology-related
that necessarily undergoes continuous and rapid innovation. This may result in a
salesperson’s technical skills becoming easily obsolete.
Second, the insignificant relationship is due to the nature of the industry
structure, products sold by the salesperson, and also the complexity of the sales
organisational structure adopted by the corporation where the subjects were drawn
from. Subjects of the present study were drawn from the service industry, which
sells intangible products, i.e., provides telecommunication services to diverse
customers ranging from institutions to individuals.
It has been demonstrated that selling intangible products is much more
challenging compared to selling tangible goods as service products cannot be
seen, tested, felt, or heard before they are purchased (Manning and Reece, 2004).
Because of the inherent intangibility of services, consumers are often faced with
not knowing what to expect from a service until they have consumed it, and hence,
perceive services as risky (Coulter and Coulter, 2002). Therefore, it would be very
hard to establish a correlation between technical skills and salesperson performance
if salespersons with lower technical skills are tasked to sell such services as referred
to in the present study. In this respect, the diverse kinds of services offerings i.e.
more than 50 services, and the diverse range of markets or customers being served
may compel companies to designate an engineering support team in each sales unit
(either based on market, customers, product or sales regions). The engineering
support team has to support the sales team in every aspect of technical matters
pertaining to the products during pre-sale, sale and post-sale initiatives. Such
arrangements thus reduce the necessity for salespersons to possess or hone sound
technical skills. Therefore, it can be implied that most successful sales are mainly
due to the capability of service engineers from the engineering support team to
influence customers. Conspicuously, previous research has revealed that service
salespersons need to possess commendable skills and knowledge about the service
product they sell in order to influence the customers to purchase (Coulter and
Coulter, 2002).
Third, the insignificant relationship may also be explained from the industry
structure perception. Being the first telecommunication operator in Malaysia
allows the organisation the advantage of owning a vast infrastructure nationwide
and to monopolise most available resources that underpin the wide range of

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telecommunications services products offered to the markets. Moreover, the

organisation is the market leader with 59% of market share of the telecommunications
industry in Malaysia (MCMC Industry Performance Report, 2005). When compared
to its competitors these early entrant advantages enable the organisation to realise
and offer an extensive range of telecommunication service products that the markets
may need. Obviously, this means customers have few options to switch to other
service providers since alternative providers may be unable to offer similar services.
Moreover, migrating to alternative telecommunication service providers may incur
high switching costs, service reliability and performance effect, and less after sales
support, resulting in negative consequences for customers.
These viewpoints imply that technical skills become less crucial for
salespersons operating in such an oligopolistic environment, and that technical
skill, at least according to the salespersons supervisor in the present study, have
little or no influence on their salespersons performance.

Relationship between Salesmanship Skills and

Salesperson Performance
The present study also found no relationship between salesmanship skills and
salesperson performance. This means that a high level of salesmanship skills do
not correlate with high performance. There was mixed support for the hypotheses
concerning the main effect of salesmanship skills on salesperson performance.
While some prior studies indicated a positive association between salesmanship
skills and salesperson performance (for instances, Ford et al., 1988; Baldauf et al.,
2001; Babakus et al., 1996; Katsikan and Skarmeas, 2003; Baldauf and Cravens,
1999), other studies found no association (for instance, Ahearne and Schillewaert,
2000; Grant and Cravens, 1999; Piercy et al., 1997); the results of the present study,
with respect to the second hypothesis, indicate that salesmanship skills do not
influence salesperson performance. This finding does not support the proposition
that management can increase salesperson performance by having or recruiting
salespersons with high salesmanship skills. Thus, it implies that programmes such
as training and development of selling skills and having salespersons with greater
sales experience, which possibly will increase salesmanship skills of salespersons,
do not seem to have much bearing on improving salespersons performance.
The absence of a significant relationship between salesmanship skills and
salesperson performance in the present study may be attributed to similar arguments
given to why technical skills did not positively relate to salesperson performance.
These are: the nature of the industry structure, the diversity of service product
offerings and markets served, and the complexity of sales for the organisational
structure from where the subjects were drawn from.
Besides these arguments, there is one unique reason why the present study
reveals no significant relationship between salesmanship skills and salesperson

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performance. The very healthy financial position of TM Berhad (TM Annual

Report, 2005) has allowed the organisation to embark on multi-pronged
promotional strategies and initiatives to generate product awareness. MCMC’s
Industry Performance Report 2005 reports that TM Berhad spent RM148.3 million
(USD42.37 million) on advertising alone in 2005, making them the top advertiser
among all the telecommunications companies. It is a well-known fact that extensive
promotional activities generate better awareness and customers that are well-
informed about the offered product lines underpin the generation of more sales to
the organisation (McDaniel et al., 2006). Apparently, the promotional initiatives
facilitate easier pre-sale, sale and post-sale efforts required by salespersons.
Therefore, with regards to this rationale, it suggests that the need to have high
salesmanship skills becomes less crucial to the organisation in this context since
salesmanship skills provide less influence on improving salesperson performance.

Relationship between Marketing Skills and

Salesperson Performance
Market knowledge reflects a salesperson’s knowledge about the industry in
general (e.g., competition, trends). An extensive knowledge base is important for
salespersons, because it allows them to cope with complex market environments. It
is expected that salespersons with commendable marketing skills will produce good
performance (Leigh and McGraw, 1989; Sujan et al., 1988b). Nonetheless, findings
from the present study do not support Ahearne and Schillewaert’s (2000) finding
that marketing skills have a significant relationship with salesperson performance.
With regards to the reasons for an insignificant relationship between marketing
skills and salesperson performance, similar arguments given to insignificant
findings of salesmanship and technical skills are also applicable here. Where
industry structure (monopolistic industry): extensive promotional activities through
advertising, trade shows etc., and complexity of sales organisational structure with
clear distribution and demarcation of works between sales and marketing personnel;
and, where the subjects were drawn from have a significant impact in disapproving
the hypothesis that marketing skills influence salesperson performance. It may
also be that TM Berhad is strongly sales oriented, and the relative decency of
marketing’s potential ascendancy and superiority may be perceived negatively by
sales supervisory personnel.

The Moderating Effect of Organisational Commitment

The present study examined the potential moderating roles of organisational
commitment on the relationship between sales skills dimensions, namely,
interpersonal, salesmanship, technical and marketing skills, and salesperson
performance. It was hypothesised that the influence of sales skills dimensions

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on salesperson performance is higher when organisational commitment is

high. Although the idea of interaction makes sense conceptually, contrary to
the hypothesis, the expected moderating role of organisational commitment on
the independent variables could not be empirically substantiated. However,
organisational commitment has a significant independent impact on salesperson
performance (β = .25, p < .01, ∆R2 = .05). This finding is consistent with the findings
of Zabid et al., (2003); Benkhoff (1997); Ward and Davis (1995); and Brett et al.,
(1995) who concluded that organisational commitment and sales performance were
positively correlated.
The insignificant effect in the present study of the organisational commitment
as a moderator may be because organisational commitment is not considered a
critical element for job performance, and has been taken for granted by either
the salespersons or the organisation under study. The salespersons feeling of
needing to remain in the organisation was high due to limited opportunity costs
for the salespersons in alternative employment. This is not unreasonable as the
opportunities for job-changing are few and the choice of alternative careers may be
limited. This could be due to inconvenience in work dislocation or immobility of the
salespersons. One reason for this is that many Malaysians, at an early age of their
career, have long-term financial and family commitments, leaving them with many
constraints that prevent switching job or organisation. These impediments result
in the subjects remaining in a single organisation for a longer period or for their
whole working life. Consequently, it naturally results that the longer an employee
is attached to an organisation, the greater the potential to have an emotional
commitment to remain in the organisation (Zabid et al., 2003). Nevertheless, this
phenomenon would not necessarily provide an interaction effect of organisational
commitment with sales skills dimensions in enhancing salesperson performance.
Though the present study does not support the moderating effect of
organisational commitment in enhancing the relationship strength between
sales skills dimensions and salesperson performance, the finding suggests that
organisational commitment has a direct effect on salesperson performance. The
result of this finding implies that sales organisations may perhaps use loyalty to the
organisation as a means to achieve higher salesperson performance.

CONCLUSION
Despite some unusual findings, the results from this study suggest that salespersons
that possess excellent interpersonal skills can significantly boost sales performance.
Additionally, this study shows that in a monopolistic business environment,
interpersonal skills play a pivotal role in salesperson performance. Furthermore,
to underpin sales, every interpersonal contact must have an objective and whenever
possible every effort must be made to avoid creating win-lose transactions.
Recognising the importance of interpersonal skills, sales organisations should give

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emphasis and effort to develop improved methods of training and development

to enhance their salespersons’ interpersonal skills. Training and development
initiatives have been proven by many previous empirical studies to lead to improved
interpersonal skills of salespersons (Hunt and Baruch, 2003). By understanding
the sales person performance, the organization can create various programmes to
improve sales performance. Additionally, sales organisations should now treat
interpersonal skills as a critical skill component in salesperson recruitment and
selection exercises, and also in formulating rewards and recognition policies.
Another managerial implication of the present study is that salesperson management
systems can significantly affect salesperson performance. The results intimate that
employees’ organisational commitment can enhance individual job performance.
Given the importance of salesperson performance in the sales organisation context,
where organisations depend upon individual salespersons contributions for meeting
sales objectives as is the case here, management should make every effort to
promote organisational commitment. Moreover, the present study also shows that
sales organisations may use loyalty to an organisation as a means to achieve higher
salesperson performance. The findings thus offer potential avenues for further
academic research into sales and managerial practice. Future studies may serve to
highlight and enhance the need for salespersons to either have, or need to develop
interpersonal skills as the key determinant of effective selling.

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