The Behavior Of Salespersons And Sales Performance In Nigeria: An Empirical Investigation

The study investigated the relationship between salespersons behavior and sales performance using a survey data. One thousand, four hundred and fifty (1450) sales persons were sampled of which only 560 copies of the research instrument were usable giving a 38.62 percent response rate. The data was subjected to descriptive statistics analysis and inter-correlational analysis. The study found that experience, capability, respect for tradition, daring (ability and interest in adventure) and intelligence are some of the major requirements for salespersons performance. Also varied life, social justice, moderacy (i.e. avoiding extreme feelings), and accepting one‟s portion in life i.e. defeatist mindset, and enjoying life affect sales performance negatively. Gross profit is related positively with all the behavioral variables. The findings were discussed and managerial implications as well as recommendations were made.