Continuous Techno-Training and Business-to-Business Salesperson Success: How Boosting Techno-Efficacy Enhances Sales Effort and Performance

Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.04.066

Salesforce automation tools have burgeoned into a $6.9 billion market. And modern organizations must consistently train their personnel to use the ever-changing technology. However, the salespeople must believe in the tools and their own ability to implement them to reap their benefits.

This study develops and tests a framework to determine how continuous technology training, known throughout the paper as techno-training, can influence critical technology- and sales-related outcomes.

Previous studies have investigated how training influences salespeople’s adoption of or attitudes toward specific technologies, but few have focused explicitly on the pathways through which techno-training influences workers’ judgements about their ability to employ technology and how their beliefs bridge the gap between techno-training and sales.

According to job demands-resources theory, every occupation has engagement and stress factors. Job demands are aspects of a role requiring employees to expend sustained effort, thereby inducing stress, strain and disengagement. Job resources are aspects of the role facilitating goal attainment and helping meet job demands.

Stress about new workplace tools, known throughout the paper as techno-stress, is defined as the negative psychological response salespeople might experience due to the introduction of new technology. Techno-expectancy refers to the extent to which users see technology as a means to achieve their occupational tasks and goals, and techno-efficacy refers to salespeople’s beliefs in their ability to use technology to accomplish sales tasks. Salespeople having high techno-efficacy feel confident about using technology to accomplish their goals.

Drawing from job demands-resources theory and other research on sales-related techno-training, this paper demonstrates such training can help develop techno-efficacy directly, as well as indirectly by fostering techno-expectancy and suppressing techno-stress. In turn, the paper shows techno-efficacy is positively related to sales-efficacy, which enhances both sales effort and sales performance.

The paper tests four hypotheses using a structural model analysis of data collected from business-to-business salespeople employed by a publicly traded firm in the commercial vehicle industry. The hypotheses are as follows:

1. Continuous techno-training is positively related to techno-expectancy.
2. Continuous techno-training is negatively related to techno-stress.
3. Continuous techno-training is positively related to techno-efficacy.
4. (a) Techno-efficacy and (b) techno-expectancy are positively related to sales-efficacy, whereas (c) techno-stress is negatively related to sales-efficacy.
5. Sales-efficacy is positively related to (a) sales effort and (b) sales performance.

The study measures all latent variables using established multiple-item scales borrowed from extant literature, while salesperson performance is measured using objective data from company records. Continuous techno-training, techno-efficacy, techno-stress, and sales-efficacy are measured using four-item scales; sales effort is measured using a three-item scale.

Overall, the structural model analysis results support six of the eight hypotheses—all but techno-expectancy and techno-stress being significantly related to sales-efficacy. The researchers therefore draw on extant literature to propose a revised model in which techno-expectancy and techno-stress are mediated by techno-efficacy. The results support a direct, negative relationship between techno-stress and techno-efficacy and an indirect, negative relationship between techno-stress and sales-efficacy through techno-efficacy. The researchers also observe a direct, positive relationship between techno-expectancy and techno-efficacy and an indirect, positive relationship between techno-expectancy and sales-efficacy through techno-efficacy.

In the end, the study shows definitively that techno-efficacy is positively related to sales-efficacy, which enhances both sales effort and performance. The integrative framework developed and tested in the study therefore demonstrates that continuous techno-training plays a critical role in shaping salespeople’s holistic beliefs about technology.

For sales organizations grappling with everchanging tech and the need to secure commitment from their salesforce for technological transformations, the research is critical. Continuous techno-training is required for salespeople to realize the potential of prevailing and emergent technology and signals to the salesforce that the organization is committed to new-tool adoption. Based on their findings, the researchers recommend that sales organizations monitor their personnel’s techno-efficacy levels, which provide a glimpse into their confidence in using technology to respond to job situations.

As shown in the study, sales organizations can increase techno-efficacy in a number of ways and ultimately increase sales-efficacy and sales outcomes. Participation in continuous techno-training programs can be motivated by promoting their impact on workers’ mindset about technology and showcasing their ultimate impact on sales performance. Taken together, the study’s findings represent a win for both sales organizations and salespeople. Both groups stand to gain from continuous techno-training as an organizational resource and higher levels of techno-efficacy and sales-related outcomes among the salesforce.