Factors Influencing Salespeople’s Consistency to Enhance Sale Performance: A Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy

Abstract

The purpose of this analysis is to examine the impact of emotional intelligence (EI) and market orientation (MO) as an antecedent of sales performance (SP). Furthermore, this paperinvestigates the moderating role of self-efficacy ontherelationship between EI, MO,and SP. To achieve this, 285 questionnaires were sent to ten pharmaceutical companies' top, middle, and low-level managers in two Pakistani cities. The choice of these companies was dependent on simple random sampling methods and minimal sample size estimation techniques. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is then applied to analyze the model and hypothesis,and partial least squares regression is used for data processing in Smart-PLS. The findings presented here suggest that the two dimensions – emotional intelligence and market orientation – positively impacttheperformance of sales staff. The results also support the moderation effect of self-efficacy on the relationships between EI, MO, and SP. Both EI and MO are identified as vital influencers of sales resultsconcerning return on revenue and future industry insight, evident market patterns, and business predictions. Sales staffbehaviorneeds toadjust based on these changes, especially considering large differences in the competitive trade and market climate and due to the severe rivalry between businesses and clientusage habits. This research adds to the literature by identifying the unexplored moderation impact of self-efficacy on EI, MO, and SP. Furthermore, it expands the literature on self-efficacy effects, currently limited to attitudes and performance.