Meta-analysis on what drives sales performance-Meta-analysis-on-what-drives-sales-performance

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Video Summary

This webinar summarized a major meta-analysis on what drives salesperson performance, based on 150 studies and nearly 1,000 effects from 2009–2020. Speakers Peter Kerr and Javier Marcos explained that sales has changed significantly through digitization, solution selling, and more complex performance measurement.  <br /><br />Their analysis identified 19 predictors of performance, grouped into eight categories. The strongest drivers included self-regulation/metacognition, personal concerns, task-specific self-efficacy, and work-related social support. Importantly, only one of the top five factors was largely non-developable; most can be improved through training, coaching, and management intervention.  <br /><br />The study also showed that performance is highly contextual. More universal factors should be developed holistically, context-specific factors should be addressed through aligned interventions, and “table stakes” factors should be handled through targeted hiring and onboarding.  <br /><br />A key finding was that the model explains only 23% of performance, down from 32% in earlier research, suggesting sales success is increasingly situational and influenced by market and customer factors. The speakers emphasized that AI and technology will not replace salespeople, but those who can use them well will likely outperform others.

Keywords

salesperson performance

meta-analysis

self-regulation

task-specific self-efficacy

work-related social support

solution selling

sales training

performance predictors

artificial intelligence in sales