An interdisciplinary approach to assessing the characteristics and sales potential of modern salespeople

Technology is becoming increasingly pervasive in industrial markets. So too are the necessary attributes of salespeople in this context changing, to require not only the typical selling skills of persuasion and tact, and the interpersonal skills usually considered relevant in consumer markets, but also the technical skills associated with technology transfer. The research reported here investigates these three aspects, and measures their influence on actual sales performance in a business-to-business context.