Sales force productivity is critical for professional sport organizations. Ticket sales create the greatest local revenue for most sport organizations (Smith & Roy, 2011), accounting for at least 50% of local revenues for the four major professional sports in the US (King, 2010). Pierce et al. (2013) conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis on 56 sales activities and identified a seven-factor model for job performance including: research and trend analysis, sales force management, customer relationship management, leveraging post-sale opportunities, two-way communication, developing client relationships, and professional development. This research sought to utilize the seven factors to examine differences between gender, sales staff role (i.e. account executive and manager), sport organization type (i.e. major and minor league), and sales responsibilities (i.e. selling season tickets to individuals, group sales, sponsorship, or premium seats to businesses).
Method:
A 64-item questionnaire, developed from the works of Beck and Knutson (2006), Moncrief (1986), and Pierce et al. (2012), was distributed to 4,611 individuals working in sport sales positions in North America at both major and minor league levels. An 11.5% response rate was achieved through 529 completed surveys.
Analysis/Results:
While gender produced no multivariate main effect, MANOVA analyses revealed significant multivariate main effects (p <. 001) for three other variables: position level, Wilks’ λ = .772, F(7, 456) = 19.21; sport organization type, Wilks’ λ = .920, F(7, 445) = 5.45; and sales responsibility, Wilks’ λ = .900, F(7, 459) = 7.31. Post-hoc analyses of significant univariate effects for position level showed director or manager level personnel rated Research and Trend Analysis, Sales Force Management, Two-Way Communication, and Professional Development higher than account executives. Significant univariate effects on sport organization type showed minor league respondents rated Sales Force Management and Customer Relationship Management higher than major league. For sales responsibility, significant univariate effects on Research and Trend Analysis, Customer Relationship Management, and Developing Relationships were found. Post-hoc examination revealed season ticket sellers rated Customer Relationship Management higher than salespeople selling to businesses. Salespeople selling to businesses ranked Developing Relationships and Research and Trend Analysis higher than those selling season tickets.
Conclusions:
Results indicated that opinions did not differ by gender, but did change based upon position within the organization, sales responsibility, and type of organization. This study expands research on sales performance factors in professional sport organizations by examining how different types of sales employees value the performance factors.