PERFORMANCE DRIVERS AND SALES FORCE EFFECTIVENESS: EVIDENCE FROM SMES IN DELTA STATE

Globalization has altered the way organizations conduct their businesses and made competition more pronounced, and technology is constantly becoming more advanced, particularly in the area of retail business. The main objective of this study examined performance influence and sales force enhancement of selected retail outlets in Delta State. The specific objectives were first, to examine the effect of coaching on sales force enhancement of selected retail outlets in Delta State and second, to determine the effect of commission base pay on sales force enhancement of selected retail outlets in Delta State. The quantitative research method which utilized a cross-sectional survey research design was adopted in the study. The population of the study comprises 131 of owners of selected retail outlets across major cities in Delta State. Using Krejcie and Morgan’s (1970) table for determining sample size, the sample size of 97 was obtained. Questionnaire was administered on the 97 respondents and 89 were correctly filled and returned. The value of the reliability test was 0.942, which was determined using Cronbach’s alpha. Survey was adopted for the study and data were analyzed using Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. Findings revealed that coaching has a significant positive effect on sales force. Also, it was revealed that commission-based pay has a significant effect on sales force performance and it was revealed that career advancement opportunity has significant effect on sales force performance. Although salesmen are born, adequate coaching is highly accentuated among sales managers. Such coaching is necessary to enable the sales force gather enough and important knowledge and experience needed to distribute quality service delivery national and international borders. Therefore, both coaching and commission-based pay programmes should be conducted for the sales force to improve performance