SALES CAPABILITY AND PERFORMANCE: ROLE OF MARKET ORIENTATION, PERSONAL AND MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES

ABSTRACT Purpose: This article aims to explain the relationships between sales capabilities, which are split into personal selling and sales force management, both from the manager’s point of view, and financial/customer performance in market-oriented firms. Originality/value: This research is the first that explores in-depth sales capabilities and demonstrated that these capabilities need a previous strategic orientation. It checks different types of performance that can be the result of these two capabilities. We applied the research in to two types of companies, providing a number of contributions to the theory and practice of marketing. Design/methodology/approach: We conducted a survey with 223 companies that were divided according to their activities: software/service developers and companies that only offer services in information technology and communication sector. Findings: First, the two sales capabilities (personal and managerial) induce different performance, even when they are influenced by the same strategic orientation. Second, the mediation effect reinforces that sales force management capability is stronger than personal selling capability. Third, in service companies, it is important to develop personal selling capabilities. Lastly, they show that software/service companies present a differentiated behavior of service companies.