Investigating the Perceptual Aspect of Sales Training

Abstract

Management seeks ways to hasten salespeople towards greater productivity. Sales training is a common avenue for enhancing salespersons' performance. However, relatively little formal knowledge exists concerning how salespeople perceive and transfer formal training materials.This study proposes and examines complementary models intended to shed light on how training attitudes and transfer are determined and how they relate to salespersons' performance. The models are evaluated using a single company sample of domestic industrial salespeople. Initial findings support significant and strong relationships between transfer of training and sales performance. Further, transfer of training appears related to individual traits and beliefs. Added findings fail to support a direct relationship between training attitudes and performance.