FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WACO, Texas, Mar. 30, 2005
WACO, Texas, March 30 -- Who leads the
chase for new clients: salesmen or saleswomen?
In the recent past, sales executives across
industries and countries presumed that salesmen
had the competitive edge when it came to
seeking new accounts. But according to a
study of 9,292 saleswomen and 20,029 salesmen
across 10 nations submitted for presentation
at the November 2005 meeting of the Society
for Marketing Advances, that presumption
needs to be revised. "There is no difference.
Saleswomen today are no more reticent to
initiate contact with prospective buyers
than salesmen," said marketing professor,
William A. Weeks, director of the Center
for Professional Selling at Baylor University.
"There is a statistical difference
favoring men by a point-and-a-half on a
100-point scale, but that's all. In practical
terms, there is no difference," Weeks
said.
Gender is part of a multi-faceted study
co-authored by research scientist, George
W. Dudley at The Behavioral Sciences Research
Press and Professors John F. Tanner, Jr.
and Lawrence B. Chonko at Baylor University's
Hankamer School of Business. The 2005 study
is a continuation of Dudley and Tanner's
multi- nation survey of 40,000 salespeople
reported in 2004, and includes salespeople
from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland,
New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Sweden,
U.K. and the U.S. The 2005 study also compares
motivations for selling (sales motivation),
cultural (country) differences, factors
influencing sales success and overall discomfort
contacting new customers. Additional findings:
-- Saleswomen (24.1%) say the opportunity
to use their abilities keeps them selling,
while their male counterparts (29%) say
"show me the money!" Obtaining
status and expressing creativity were least
motivating for salesmen and saleswomen.
-- U.K. salespeople are the most reticent
to make first contact with prospective buyers.
Canadians are least. -- Maintaining a positive
outlook (attitude management) is the single
most important influence on sales success
(44.1 % for saleswomen, 44% for salesmen)
-- regardless of country. Consistently seeking
new customers (sales "prospecting")
(37%) is second. Price (.4%) and advertising
(4%) are least important. -- Of the 6,193
Australians surveyed, 1,285 (20.7%) say
they are in sales because it provides freedom
from routine. -- Price is more important
to salespeople in Sweden than it is in the
U.S. -- Salespeople in New Zealand don't
consider "prospecting" for new
business (24.7%) as important as product
knowledge (30.2%). -- Regardless of country,
salespeople saying "price," "product
knowledge" or "advertising"
is "most important to sales success"
scored highest on the SPQ, a diagnostic
test used to measure reticence to make first
contact with prospective buyers.
Research Press
Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050330/DAW004
AP Archive:
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Hankamer School of Business, Baylor University;
Behavioral Sciences
CONTACT: Jeff Tanner, Jeff_tanner@baylor.edu
, or Larry Chonko,
Larry_Chonko@baylor.edu , both of Hankamer
School of Business, Baylor
University, +1-254-710-3485; or George Dudley
of Behavioral Sciences Research
Press, +1-972-243-8543.
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