DEVELOPING SCALE AND EVALUATING TRAINING PROGRAM FOR MICRO-SKILLS OF SELLING FOR SALESPEOPLE IN THAI PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRY

Abstract

This research explored the meaning and identified the factor of the micro-skills of selling, developing and testing a new micro-skill of a selling scale, and to develop a training program and assessed the effectiveness of a training program for the development of micro-skills of selling for salespeople in the Thai petrochemical industry and other related industries. This research was an exploratory sequential mixed methods design, consisting of three phases. First, the qualitative data was gathered through semi-structured in-depth interviews with 10 experienced sales professionals to explore the main factors of the micro-skills of selling. The results were used to develop a questionnaire to be administered to 202 petrochemical industries sales professionals in Thailand. Two primary themes were identified through deductive content analysis. Second, the quantitative data was collected by micro-skills of selling scale and be analyzed by multivariate statistics, exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The results revealed three factors: (1) presentation skills; (2) questioning skills; and (3) listening skills. Third, the intervention phase aimed to assess the effectiveness of a training program for the development of micro-skills of selling for salespeople. A pre-experiment pretest posttest design used eight sessions and the activities were conducted with a sample of 20 salespeople who worked for distributors in the petrochemical industry and related industries in Thailand. The results of paired-samples t-test, the micro-skills of selling pretest (M = 62.75, SD = 3.78) and posttest (M = 58.50, SD = 4.12), t (19) = 7.98, p < .000; showed that the program could increase the behavior of micro-skills of selling behavior during sales call of salespeople. The implications in this study would help to enhance knowledge about micro-skills of selling, which were accountable factors for the performance of sales professionals in the petrochemical industry and related industries in Thailand.

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