Self-monitoring and Empathy as Determinants of Sales Performance for Industrial Sales Personnel Utilizing Sales Data and Managerial Ratings

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.