개인 및 팀 수준에서의 영업통제가 영업사원의 성과에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구 (An Empirical Study of the Effects of Individual and Team-Level Sales Control on Sales Performance)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국유통학회
· 수록지 정보 : 유통연구 / 23권 / 3호 / 1 ~ 25페이지
· 저자명 : 이준섭, 강우성

초록

본 연구는 영업조직에서 전략적 관리도구로 활용하고 있는 영업통제시스템이 영업사원의 영업성과에 영향을 미치는 과정에서 어떠한 심리적 기제가 발생하여 영업사원의 성과에 영향을 미치는지를 고찰 하였다. 특히, 조직에서 행해지는 영업통제시스템의 영향력을 보다 면밀히 파악하기 위해 개인 수준과 팀 수준으로 구분하여 논의하였다. 본 연구에서는 영업통제시스템의 하위 차원을 팀 수준에 초점(영업매니저를 통한 측정)을 둔 활동통제와 역량통제, 그리고 개인 수준에 초점(영업사원을 통한 측정)을 둔 결과통제로 구분하여 활동통제, 역량통제, 결과통제가 영업사원의 실제 영업성과에 영향을 미치는 과정에서 도전의식과 판매지향성이 어떠한 심리적 기제로서의 역할을 하는지 규명하는데 목적이 있다. 본 연구의 실증분석을 위해 국내 대형 보험사에 근무하는 1,077명의 영업사원 설문응답, 178명의 매니저 설문응답, 그리고 객관적 영업성과를 매칭(matching)한 자료(triadic data sources)를 활용하였으며, 구조방정식 모형과 Hayes의 PROCESS macro(2013)를 적용하여 실증분석을 실시하였다. 연구결과, 첫째, 활동통제는 도전의식에 영향을 미치지 않았으나 역량통제는 도전의식에 긍정적 영향을 미치는 것으로 확인이 되었다. 둘째, 결과통제는 판매지향성에 긍정적 영향을 미치는 것으로 확인 되었다. 셋째, 도전의식은 직무열의와 영업성과에 긍정적인 영향을 미쳤으나, 판매지향성은 영업사원의 영업성과에 부정적인 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 마지막으로, 영업통제시스템의 하위차원들과 영업성과 간의 관계에 있어 도전의식과 판매지향성의 매개효과가 확인 되었다. 본 연구결과는 영업연구에서 영업통제시스템과 영업성과에 대한 포괄적인 이해와 실무적인 시사점을 제공해주고 있으며, 향후 추가 연구의 방향을 제언하고 있다.

영어초록

The sales force is an essential component of the overall strategy in business organizations. Many companies rely entirely on their sales force, which includes a unique class of boundary-spanning employees, to make connections between them and their customers. The sales force is responsible for bringing revenue into the company by inspiring consumers to purchase its products or use its services. In recent years, many companies have begun to generate sales revenue through their sales forces. Knowing the importance of the sales force, many companies invest large amounts every year in sales. By current estimates, businesses in the United States spend more than $800 billion each year on an estimated 20 million salespeople. However, despite considerable corporate attention, effective sales force management is becoming more challenging in the business world.
Many sales managers report that their sales employees fail to meet performance expectations, although companies allocate a high proportion of their budgets every year to sales force management. Steady investments in sales force management do not necessarily lead to high sales performance. We assert that an important question has been overlooked in the sales management literature: how sales force managerial tools affect sales performance.
The effects of sales force control systems on sales performance are investigated in this study. Current knowledge concerning the effectiveness of sales force control systems is limited; this study focuses on the influence of the sales force control systems, used as a strategic managerial tool in the sales organization, in the process of affecting the sales performance by salespeople. In particular, we verified the impact of the sales control system in the organization at the individual as well as team level. We examined how team-focused activity control, capability control and individual-focused outcome control affect challenge seeking, selling orientation, and sales performance.
To test our conceptual model, we use a matched, triadic data set based on archival firm records and questionnaire surveys of 1077 salespeople and 178 sales managers from a large insurance company in South Korea. Survey data were collected by means of a large-scale online survey of salespeople and sales managers via the company’s intranet. Specifically, data on sales force control systems were collected from salespeople and sales managers. Also, data on salespeople’s selling orientation, challenge seeking, job engagement, and the control variables were collected from the salespeople themselves. After two months, in the final stage of the study, the researchers were provided with the company’s objective sales performance data, which came from archival firm data sets. For the empirical analysis, the structural equation model and PROCESS macro by Hayes (2013) were applied.
The findings are as follows. First, activity control has an insignificant impact on challenge seeking, but capability control positively affects challenge seeking. Second, outcome control has a positive effect on selling orientation. Third, challenge seeking has a positive effect on job engagement and sales performance, however, sales orientation has a negative effect on sales performance of salespeople. Finally, the mediating roles of challenge seeking and selling orientation on the relationship between sales force control system and sales performance were confirmed.
This study is important in the sales literature because despite the importance of sales force management, it has rarely been investigated in relation to performance. Also, this study bridges the gap in understanding of the relationship between sales force control systems, salespeople’s challenge seeking, selling orientation, job engagement, and sales performance. We identified the effects of sales force control systems on salespeople’s intrinsic motivation(challenge seeking), selling attitude(selling orientation) because there is a lack of understanding of this relationship. We also examined the relationship between salespeople’s intrinsic motivation, selling attitudes, and sales performance.
This study contributes to the sales management literature in several ways. First of all, the results provide a more comprehensive understanding of the relationships among sales force control systems, salespeople's challenge seeking, selling orientation, and sales performance. Also, this study offers important contributions for managers of sales organizations. First of all, the three types of sales force control systems did not directly influence sales performance, but rather indirectly influenced sales performance through challenge seeking and selling orientation. This result indicates that sales executives and sale managers should no longer rely solely on operating sales force control systems; they must consider their sales employees’ challenge seeking and selling orientation and ensure that their sales departments are able to manage these motivation and attitude in the workplace.
Likewise, this study provides insights that may be of interest to both scholars and practitioners. However, our findings have some limitations that also inform future research directions. Most importantly, all respondents came from the insurance industry in South Korea. Therefore, the generalizability of the results is limited. Future studies should investigate our model using samples from a variety of boundary-spanning populations in other industries and other countries. Also, this study considers sales force control systems as a global construct. Future researchers could investigate how activity, outcome, and capability controls may interact and how these interactions enhance or reduce the attitudes of salespeople and sales performance. This study only focused on three formal sales management control systems. Thus, future research should consider informal sales force control systems (i.e., social controls, self-control, and cultural controls) to develop a more comprehensive model.

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