An Exploratory Investigation of the Relationship of Sales Force Compensation and Intrinsic Motivation

Abstract In an era of relationship selling, one practical concern for sales management has been how to best compensate salespeople to achieve long-term and changing objectives. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation have long been a concern of sales research, but researchers have done little to relate motivation to the various components of a compensation system. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and relationship selling have not been linked either. This article explores these issues to develop a framework for future research on these topics. We first review a theoretical perspective and exploratory data from 19 interviews with sales managers. Using these two mechanisms, we present a series of propositions about the relationship of compensation, motivation, and relationship selling.

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