Trait and script theories are used in discussing how effective sales people are using empathy and self-monitoring skills in the workplace. Results of actual sales data suggest that sales people with high self-monitoring skills have higher probabilities of success. However, managerial ratings support a variation of these conclusions. Also, sales personnel with empathy as an interactive factor with self-monitoring appear to have a higher probability of success among the sales personnel studied. Implications are discussed along with suggestions for sales management strategies.
Ricks et al. (Sat,) studied this question.