A Study On The Impact Of Core Competencies On Sales Persons Job Performance In Retail Industry

Abstract

Inhabitants of Chhattisgarh state witnessed the virtues of Organised Retailing in the last decade with the arrival of Shopping Mall Culture in the densely populated cities of the state. People warmly and willingly accepted the new trends in shopping and found pleasure in additional benefits and fresh experience it brought along. Since then, retailers kept a close watch on consumers likes and dislikes on product category, variety, visual merchandising, promotional schemes,payment preference, and price, leading toenhancement of their shopping experience. newlineSalespersons played a significant role in promoting and increasing the business of retail stores. Being in the frontline, they constantly interact with customers, and so are in a better position to understand different moods, perceptions, preferences, and buying patterns of consumers and serve them accordingly. Also, to add in consumer s shopping experience they assist in product information, demonstration, and sales processing. Previous studies suggested several factors responsible for Salespersons job performance. The present study focus on the competencies (skills and ability) of the salespersons and how it affects their performance. A multi-variant empirical study was conducted with various competencies of a salesperson as predictors for a criterion job performance. Competencies are classified into 6 categories and their impact was analysed on five types of job performance individually. A 24 item scale was developed to quantify the competency of salesperson and job performance scale was adopted from other sources. The survey was conducted among the respondents from the region of Raipur, Bhilai-Durg, and Bilaspur, which are the densely populated cities of Chhattisgarh and only cities having shopping malls with many organized retail stores. The outcomes projected a positive association between the salesperson s competencies and job performance. Multivariate analysis also suggests those competencies which significantly affect the performance in different districts where the study was carried out. newline newline