MODERATORS AND VARIABLES IN SOLUTION SALES AND THEIR IMPLICATION TO SALES PERFORMANCE IN AUSTRIA AND GERMANY

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Absztrakt (kivonat)

This dissertation provides a detailed overview of variables that can influence solutionoriented sales. In particular, the organizational and individual influence on sales performance are elaborated upon. These have their origin in the 19th century and have constantly evolved. Sales processes have always been interesting for scientists. Due to the free market but especially due to digitalization and globalization, individual customer solutions have become more and more important. In this regard, the following research question emerged: Which variables on the individual sales person level influence the sales performance for solution selling? For a long time, the organizational level has been reported on and researched in practice but also in the academic literature. Here, mainly the structures, hierarchies and department interfaces of the companies were investigated. Hereby a gap in the personal sales level has developed. In the present study hypotheses were defined in the personal and individual sales area. In detail the effects of individual characteristics such as experience, prior knowledge or risk perception on personal sales performance were investigated. Further hypotheses were formulated in the areas of sales skills, communication and management requirements. In this regard disruptive events such as pandemics or sanctions were also included in the considerations. Within literature research on the topic of solution-oriented sales, two qualitative preliminary studies as well as a comprehensive quantitative survey in Germany and Austria were conducted. The aim of the quantitative survey was to collect at least 300 opinions of different business-to-business companies (B2B) in the target area. In this study, new scientific contributions were developed on the individual sales level. It has been found that adaptability and individual resources for developing a sales strategy are extremely important and critical to performance for many salespeople. In general long-term aspects such as customer relationships outweighed short-term motivations such as salary or bonuses. Revealed developments could be used to create new KPI performance criteria. Other results such as individual characteristics and capabilities can be used to deploy sales staff more quickly and so pay off earlier. These findings thus tie in with previous research results and provide new, unexplored insights into the individual sales level.

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