Discussion

The concept of sales peak performance (SPP) and the locus of control (LOC) amongst business to business (B2B) sales professionals was the pretext for this research. There were many different concepts and theories considered during the development and conceptualisation of this book. This study acknowledges the use of these theories and concepts in supporting the quest to solve the research problem under investigation. This chapter discusses the major findings in relation to these theories and examines their implications. The discussion is developed in the form of arguments and recommendations. This chapter pulls together the cogent aims and objectives of this research and addresses the primary question surrounding sales peak performance. This research has used both primary and secondary sources during the data collection and analysis process. This chapter will use the results from both the quantitative and qualitative data analyses when formulating this discourse.

Research Design and Methodology

This chapter presents the research design methodology. It outlines the research process and the philosophical underpinning for this research. It has set out the research problem under investigation and mapped out the various steps that were undertaken. This research adopted a mixed research method approach as the most appropriate and a survey was the most effective instrument in addressing this enquiry of SPP. The philosophical position adopted within this study was one of the pragmatists, which has the capacity to hold different world views and not be constrained by one specific philosophical position. Pragmatists are not committed to one system of philosophy and reality, and researchers are free to choose the methods, techniques, and processes that have the best fit to meet the needs of the research.

Literature Background and Context

This chapter sets out to provide the background and context to personal selling, the evolution of personal selling, and how personal selling has progressed. It will also look at what factors have influenced the B2B selling environment. The presupposition offered up by Mayer and Greenberg still resonates within businesses today, due to the salesforce's consistent incapacity to perform at targeted levels. This hypothesis was further illustrated by various studies, which maintain that there is a disproportionately high percentage of the salesforce, who continue to underachieve and fail to achieve their targets on a consistent basis, and this has been one of the fundamental reasons for this examination. The aim of this chapter is to research the function of personal selling and establish how the personal selling environment has evolved, developed, and affected the way in which the salesforce performs their role.

Conclusions, Contribution to Knowledge, Implications and Future Research

This chapter concludes this book, which has examined the challenges faced by practitioners, salespeople, and academics alike in relation to SPP. It is structured around the format of the investigation and highlights the key issues and considerations and the theoretical conceptualisations starting with the introductory chapter through the background and evolution of the personal selling literature review. It has also highlighted the research methodology, analysis, discussion, findings, contributions to knowledge, and recommendations for future research. The purpose of this chapter is to serve as a distillation of the entire study. The chapter starts with a restatement of the research questions. The chapter then proceeds to the findings and conclusions, theoretical and methodological contributions, implications for practitioners and academics, conceptual framework contribution, contribution to the author's personal development, the limitations of the study, the recommendations for future research, and final conclusions .

Review of Sales Peak Performance Determinants

This chapter presents an analysis of what is characterised as the personal determinants. Determinants have been described by Churchill et al. as the degree of variation in a salesperson's performance in relation to six major components, which they classified as aptitude, skill level, motivation, role perception, personal factors, and organisational and environmental factors. Businesses are interested in three key outcomes: the level of sales performance, how these determinants affect their performance, the operational effectiveness and consistency of their team's performance. There are numerous determinants that play a role within the salesperson's ability to perform at SPP levels. Determinants are conduits for a salesperson's success. Selling is a broad, integrated, complex, and dynamic phenomenon that requires the use and integration of different variables for a salesperson to perform at SPP levels.

Introduction

Sales peak performance (SPP) amongst B2B sales professionals has been a long-standing and perennial challenge, and consequently, businesses, academics, and practitioners have continued to try and shed some light on how these challenges can be addressed. These challenges continue to be a source of debate that has been exhibited by the ongoing conversations within the boardroom, data from current research, and trends within the B2B selling environment. The quest to find answers as to why there is a disproportionate amount of salespeople underperforming and identify new insights and practical solutions to help organisation develop better strategies that will then translate into better sales performances is the accentuating underpinning for this book. This chapter will commence with an overview of the SPP challenges as the basis of the discourse, which will provide context and direction for the remainder of the chapter and book.

Findings and Analysis

This chapter presents the results of the data analysis. The data was collected and processed in accordance to the problems posed at the outset of this research, which was to understand which determinants impacted on SPP. The results of both the quantitative and qualitative data are presented in this chapter. The quantitative data analysis comprises of descriptive analysis, cross-tabulation, regression analysis, and correlation analysis. SPSS, a commercially available statistical software package, was used to perform the analysis. In addition, this chapter also reports the findings of the qualitative data analysis where the key themes were noted. The findings are structured in line with the literature review: organisational determinants, personal determinants, and symbiotic determinants. The data is presented in both quantitative (numerical) and qualitative (non-numerical) formats, as per the selected research methodology.