Sales force technology usage—reasons, barriers, and support: An exploratory investigation |
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Authors: | Richard E Buehrer Sylvain Senecal Ellen Bolman Pullins |
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Institution: | a The Edward H. Schmidt School of Professional Sales, College of Business Administration, The University of Toledo, 2801 W. Bancroft Street Mail Stop #103, Toledo, OH 43606, United States b HEC Montreal, 3000 Chemin de la Cote-Sainte-Catherine, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3T 2A7 c College of Business Administration, The University of Toledo, 2801 W. Bancroft Street Mail Stop #103, Toledo, OH 43606, United States |
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Abstract: | Increasingly, salespeople are being asked to adopt and use a variety of technologies to increase their selling productivity and efficiency, including sales force automation and customer relationship management technologies. However, little research has investigated what happens once sales force automation (SFA) technology is adopted. This paper explores the reasons why salespeople use SFA technologies, the perceived barriers to SFA usage and how management can increase the usage of SFA technology. First, a qualitative study was performed to gain insight about salespeople's automation technology usage and the reasons why some salespeople fully use or do not utilize technology. After the initial study, 130 salespeople were surveyed. More productivity/efficiency was the main reason why salespeople use technology, the lack of management and technical support proved to be the main barrier to usage, and training proved most effective in increasing usage of SFA technology. Sales managers are provided with implications of the findings. |
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Keywords: | Sales Sales technology Sales force automation (SFA) Customer relationship management (CRM) |
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