Racial diversity in professional selling: an empirical investigation of the differences in the perceptions and performance of African‐American and Caucasian salespeople

Although a significant number of employment fields and categories have followed the trend of increasing the number of minority employees in their profession, professional selling remains a profession dominated by the presence of Caucasian males. Racial minorities and their performance in a professional selling environment have yet to be examined in depth. Understanding why there are so few African‐Americans in professional selling is important. However, analyzing and comprehending what these salespeople accomplish once they obtain professional sales positions should also be of considerable interest, which this paper seeks to examine.

Utilizing a sample of 294 African‐American and Caucasian salespeople, the present manuscript empirically examines a variety of important work‐related perceptions and behaviors, and the performance levels of separate races of salespeople, to determine whether differences exist based on the race of the salesperson.

Results indicate that African‐American and Caucasian salespeople do not exhibit significant differences in terms of their psychological climate perceptions, customer relationship effort, and overall performance. Additionally, the results indicate that racial similarity between the sales manager and the sales representative significantly influences the aforementioned perceptions and performance of salespeople.

Managerial implications suggest that managerial‐level training should be utilized to create sales atmospheres that create equal opportunities for all salespeople. Sales executives will also be able to utilize the results from the present study as evidence that separate races of salespeople appear to be equally qualified to perform the job.