Intertemporal efficiency analysis of sales teams of a bank: Stochastic semi-nonparametric approach

The primary role of a bank branch is evolving from a service provider towards a sales channel. Previous branch-level studies of sales efficiency consider a static setting of a single time period, ignoring the stochastic nature of sales outcomes. In this paper, we examine efficiency and performance of sales teams in a bank branch network over time, taking into account the changing demand and operational conditions, as well as random disturbances. The intertemporal sales frontier is estimated from the panel of monthly data over the years 2007–2010 using the stochastic semi-nonparametric envelopment of data (StoNED) method. The efficiency scores of sales teams and the trajectories of performance over time allow managers and the sales force to learn from past events and to develop the managerial and work practices across the network. While this study focuses on the case of a specific bank, some of the innovative features of our approach are applicable to sales efficiency assessment in other banks and financial institutions, as well as other network-based sales organizations.