Revisiting Salesperson Knowledge: The Role of Optimism

In a recent reaffirmation of past research, Ahearne et al. (2005) and DeCarlo et al. (2007) have shown the positive relationship between product knowledge and performance. The latter also indicate that level of product knowledge and selling skills mediate not just past performance but also future performance expectations. While salesperson knowledge has received considerable attention in marketing (see Sharma et al. 2007 for a recent review) there has been less focus on salespersons’ product knowledge. Given the pace of technological advancement, product knowledge is a critical component of a salesperson’s ability. Based on data collected from automobile salespeople, this research first hypothesizes and confirms that: