The Influence of Sales Role Focus on Turnover Intention
Salesforce turnover has long been a major challenge for organizations. High turnover leads to increased costs—both direct, from hiring and training new employees, and indirect, from disrupted customer relationships. As roles and responsibilities become concentrated among fewer employees, addressing turnover becomes even more critical.
Previous research has explored various factors affecting turnover, such as job satisfaction, emotional strain, and organizational commitment. However, the impact of a salesperson’s role focus—whether focusing on attracting new sales and new customers (hunting) or focusing on maintaining and developing existing business (farming) —has not been studied in depth. In this study, we used this framework to determine whether there could be a connection between the sales role focus of salespeople, their career aspirations, and their turnover intention (intention to leave the firm for another job). We also theorized that there could be a moderating effect from the salesperson’s age as to how each of the other factors in turn effects turnover intention.
The Study
We conducted preliminary interviews with business-to-business sales professionals from multiple organizations across a variety of industries. These interviews provided us with the insight that there are differences in the perceived importance and appreciation of hunters and farmers within sales organizations. We also found that age discrimination was highlighted by many of the respondents, suggesting that a salesperson’s age may also have an effect on their turnover likelihood based on their sales role and career aspirations.
To find a clear answer on whether our hypothesized effects are truly present or not, we surveyed a total of 263 respondents, of which 139 were identified as hunting focused and 124 as farming focused. The respondents were also split evenly across different age groups, with 31.2% being younger than 35 years old, 36.1% between 36 and 50 years old, and 32.7% above 50 years old. We asked the participants a series of questions to determine their sales role focus, career aspirations, and turnover intention.
The Results
We found that, as expected, hunting-focused salespeople in general have lower turnover intention than farming-focused salespeople. We also found that hunting-focused salespeople have higher career aspirations than farming-focused salespeople. As for the relation between those two effects, we did not find evidence that the relationship between salesperson focus and turnover intention is mediated by career aspirations.
We did find an interaction between age and career aspirations as related to turnover intention, which explains why we did not find a consistent connection between sales role focus, career aspirations, and turnover intention. In short, older salespeople with higher levels of career aspirations are less likely to exhibit turnover intention, while for younger salespeople there is no significant relationship between career aspirations and turnover intention. These results support our initial idea that age plays a moderating role in the interaction between career aspiration and turnover intention.
Real Estate Implications
Salesforce planning is difficult enough as is, without needing to worry about turnover and salespeople leaving for other jobs. Understanding how different sales role focuses, career aspirations, and age can all contribute to this issue can be critical in successfully reducing employee turnover. In real estate, where most sales activities would fall under the hunter designation, it’s important for managers to take into account how older and younger salespeople’s aspirations differ and how to best meet each salesperson’s needs with opportunities and assignments. For those salespeople who may be performing primarily farmer activities, such as addressing repeated opportunities with investors, it is important to recognize their consistent performance and demonstrate appreciation, given that farming activities tend to be often underrecognized by their teams. Additionally, firms should recognize and support older salespeople with high aspirations by offering career advancement opportunities. Younger salespeople, on the other hand, should be provided growth opportunities based on merit rather than aspiration alone. By aligning career development strategies with sales role focus and age, firms can reduce turnover and retain top talent.
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Recommended Reading
Liu, Muzi, Babu John-Mariadoss, U. N. Umesh, and Yuan Wen (2024), “Understanding Why and When Sales Role Focus Affects Salesperson Turnover: Do Career Aspirations and Age Play a Role?” Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 44(3), 237-252. https://doi.org/10.1080/08853134.2024.2322177
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References
- Vachani, Sheena J. (2006), “The Death of a Salesman? An Exploration into the Discursive Production of Sales Identities,” Culture and Organization, 12(3), 249-264. https://doi.org/10.1080/14759550600865990
- Sunder, Sarang, V. Kumar, Ashley Goreczny, and Todd Maurer (2017), “Why Do Salespeople Quit? An Empirical Examination of Own and Peer Effects on Salesperson Turnover Behavior,” Journal of Marketing Research, 54(3), 381-397. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmr.15.0485
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About the Authors
Muzi Liu, PhD
Assistant Professor of Marketing, Marist University
Dr. Muzi Liu (PhD – Washington State University) teaches a variety of courses across multiple areas of marketing. Her research focuses on marketing strategy theory and practice, with specific interests in the sales-accounting interface, sales management, turnover, customer-directed deviance, and customer relationship management. Her research has been published in the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management and has been presented at prestigious conferences such as the American Marketing Association Academic Conference and the Institute for the Study of Business Markets Academic Conference. Her work was also the recipient of the “Sales Management: Shaping Future Sales Leaders” Best Paper Award at the NCSM Conference. Before joining Marist University, Dr. Liu ran her own businesses and taught for five years at Washington State University.
Babu John-Mariadoss, PhD
J.B. Hoskins Professor of Marketing, Associate Professor, Texas Tech University
Dr. Babu John-Mariadoss (PhD – University of Houston) teaches in the areas of marketing and supply chain management. His research interests include B2B relationships and B2B sales strategy, brand identity, new product branding and innovation strategy, and international marketing. His research has been published in the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, MIS Quarterly, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Service Research, Marketing Letters, and International Journal of Hospitality Management, among others. In addition to his own research and teaching endeavors, Dr. Mariadoss serves as the editor-in-chief of Marketing Intelligence & Planning, editor of the International Journal of Public Opinion Research, and holds other editing and review positions.
Uchila N. Umesh, PhD
Professor of Marketing, Washington State University
Dr. U. N. Umesh (PhD – University of Washington) teaches in the areas of business statistics, operations management, data analytics, and marketing research. His research interests include branding strategy, new products and innovation, channels of distribution, venture finance, and more. His research has been published in the Journal of Consumer Behaviour, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of International Marketing, and Decision Sciences, among others. In addition to his own research and teaching endeavors, Dr. Umesh has contributed to writing several textbooks, given numerous presentations, and held visiting positions at the University of Texas at Austin, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, University of Washington, and Koç University in Istanbul.
Yuan Wen, PhD
Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Illinois Springfield
Dr. Yuan Wen (PhD – Washington State University) teaches courses in principles of marketing, marketing analytics, consumer behavior, sales management, and international marketing. His research interests include finance-marketing interface, international marketing, and corporate social responsibility. His research has been published in the European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, and Journal of Family Business Management.
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