ChArACTeriSTiCS ThAT enhAnCe TrAininG effeCTiveneSS in implemenTinG TeChnoloGiCAl ChAnGe in SAleS STrATeGy : A field - BASed explorATory STudy

© 2010 PSE National Educational Foundation. All rights reserved. ISSN 0885-3134 / 2010 $9.50 + 0.00. DOI 10.2753/PSS0885-3134300205 The past two decades have witnessed an increasing focus on information technology in marketing and a concurrent explosion in organizational investment in sales force automation (SFA) technologies (Murthy et al. 2008; Speier and Venkatesh 2002). Due to potential efficiencies in cost, customer relationship management, and supply chain management (Buttle, Ang, and Iriana 2006; Erffmeyer and Johnson 2001), many organizations are changing the firm’s sales strategy from relying primarily on offline channels (i.e., salespeople) to online channels (i.e., Internet sales) for going to market. Despite significant investments, the failure rate of such technological initiatives is high (Erffmeyer and Johnson 2001); salespeople often reject such efforts due to inability, unwillingness, or disinterest in implementing the change (Bush, Moore, and Rocco 2005; Buttle, Ang, and Iriana 2006; Speier and Venkatesh 2002). In general, SFA is defined as the application of information technology to support the sales function (Buttle, Ang, and Iriana 2006). Burkhardt and Brass (1990) note that technologies can be regarded as being competence enhancing or competence destroying, based on the perceptions of its users. Competence-enhancing technologies are seen as enriching existing skills, knowledge, and relationships, whereas competence-destroying technologies are seen as rendering these obsolete. An increasing emphasis on online channels at the expense of the traditional offline channel (i.e., salespeople) can be seen by the salespeople as a loss of commission and customer contact in the short run and as a potential threat to job security in the long run. In addition to incorporating elements of SFA, an increasing emphasis on online sales channels by a traditional brick-andmortar business represents a fundamental change in the sales strategy of the organization, and hence could be viewed from a strategic change implementation perspective. Hurley (1998) notes that strategic change implementation remains among the most challenging responsibilities of senior marketing and sales managers. Environmental changes, such as the technological changes mentioned above, have dramatically altered relationships between salespeople and organizations (Jones et al. 2005). These changes further necessitate a rethinking of sales force training and development efforts (Cron et al. 2005). In the present research, we focus on how characteristics of the training influence salespeople’s implementation of a change in a firm’s sales strategy from relying primarily on offline channels to online channels for going to market. In this context, successful implementation of change in sales strategy refers to salespeople getting their customers to transact business using the Internet rather than through them. The present research builds on a long-standing interest in strategy implementation among marketing scholars (e.g., Bonoma and Crittenden 1988; Cespedes 1991; Hutt and Shikhar Sarin (Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin), Kirk and Marsha Smith Professor of Marketing, College of Business and Economics, Boise State University, [email protected].