Development of Strategic Competence Among Sales Managers

Surenskaya Nataliya Sergeevna ORCID: 0000-0001-6116-1885 PhD student, Department of Social and Age Psychology, Tambov State University named after G.R. Derzhavin 392000, Russia, Tambov region, Tambov, Sovetskaya str., 181, room 9 surenskaya2018@gmail.com

The competencies of sales managers are one of the most relevant areas of research in psychological science ^[1]. So, A.M. Stoyakin considers tools to increase the productivity of sales specialists from the organizational side, A.V. Dmitrieva studies the personal prerequisites for the successful activity of a sales manager ^[2]. E.A. Sycheva evaluates the effectiveness of sales managers ^[3].

At the same time, a number of foreign authors provide data on the need for a more accurate description of the professional competencies of sales managers, since companies are gradually moving from "short" sales focused on mass sales to disparate customers to "long" sales focused on serving the interests of one client ^[4]. As Sylvie Lacoste notes, specialists in these positions are moving from simple sales to strategic sales management ^[5].

Literature reviewResearchers in the field of strategic sales management note the need to build successful communication for sales professionals.

For example, J. Pine, D. Peppers and M. Rogers ^[6] argue that customer service specialists are a kind of "gateway" through which communication between customers and the entire enterprise is built. Mario Vafeas also suggests that communication and negotiation skills are key to building long-term sales ^[7]. The skills of building long-term trusting relationships with the client are also highlighted by B. Murta, G. Shalagalla and A. Koli, who separately note the ability to foresee future interaction for building long-term strategic relationships with the client ^[8].

Researchers of managers' competencies in the field of strategic sales separately highlight the need for such specialists to develop management skills and leadership qualities. It is noted ^[9] that such managers should be able to create a team and form common goals for its members, as well as manage such a team, that is, go beyond their position and perform coordination functions between the divisions of the organization ^[10]. Since at high levels of responsibility, sales professionals are forced to coordinate the external requirements of customers with the internal resources of the organization, such behavior is M. Steward, J. Wu and J. Hartley is described as having entrepreneurial abilities or an entrepreneurial position ^[11]. The presence of such a position allows managers to more actively manage the recruitment and execution of the order, flexibly manage the resources of organizations and offer customers more flexible terms within the order.

To. Storbaka (2012) ^[12] notes that accepting a client's position requires a manager to have strong abilities to build relationships. Such abilities include, in addition to information exchange, conflict resolution. Thus, flexible conflict resolution is one of the important professional requirements for sales managers.

J. Speakman and L. Rials ^[13], in addition, note separately the skills of managers in building intra-organizational relationships with other services and divisions of the organization and extracting maximum benefit from these relationships. Such skills are also called "internal" sales skills.

Speaking about the personal component of the sales manager's work, S. Lacoste also points out the need for sales managers to form an identity of themselves as a strategically competent specialist. The formation of such an identity is a condition for the further development of their professional competencies ^[5].

Thus, strategic sales management is a new competence for sales managers, which includes a number of professionally important qualities. We have previously shown that strategic competence stands out as a separate factor among other competencies in successful sales managers who hold key positions in their organizations ^[14].

The analysis presented above allowed us to expand the strategic competence "in depth" and present the key competencies that make up it in the form of the following groups (Fig. 1).

Strategic communication. Represents solid skills of building long-term and trusting constructive relationships

Strategic management. It includes the developed skills of "going out" beyond the area of their immediate responsibility, organizing the work of other people to the extent necessary for the successful execution of the order, an entrepreneurial vision

Strategic thinking. It includes the practical application of methods of creative problem solving, in-depth analysis of the causes of conflicts and foreseeing problematic situations.

Strategic identification. It implies understanding and acceptance of his new role as a specialist building a long-term strategy of interaction, emotional responsiveness and competence in working with clients.

Figure 1. Psychological structure of the stages of formation of Strategic competence of a sales manager

Since strategic competence affects the success of a sales manager, we have additionally formulated criteria for the development of strategic competence components (Table 1).

Table 1.

Criteria for the development of strategic competence of sales managers.

The theoretical propositions formulated above were tested by us in the course of an empirical study.

Research procedureStudy participants.

To participate in the strategic competence research program, we formed a group of subjects aged 26 to 32 years, novice sales managers with 3 to 5 years of experience. The sample was randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group included subjects in the number of 27 people, in the control group in the number of 23 people.

Research methods: Diagnostics of interpersonal relationships (S. V. Dukhnovsky), Career anchors (Shane): Scales "Management", "Entrepreneurship", Analysis of one's limitations (Woodcock-Francis), scales: "Creative approach", "Problem Solving Skills", M. Davis Multifactorial Empathy questionnaire, questionnaire

To assess the validity of the theoretical propositions put forward, we have developed and tested a Program for the development of strategic competence. The program is designed for 6 months, during which the subjects in the experimental group developed strategic competence in training sessions in blocks in the following order: Strategic Communication ? Strategic Management?

Strategic thinking ? Strategic identification.

Thus, the meaning of building the program consisted in a gradual transition from communication skills to a creative rethinking of the situation, going beyond his immediate area of responsibility and as a result identifying himself as a specialist using strategic competencies in the course of his work.

To build a program for the development of strategic competence of specialists in the field of sales, we have developed a program. The competencies in this program are divided into four blocks, respectively, combined in meaning and in psychological content.

I Block "Strategic communication"

- negotiation skills

- skills of building trusting relationships

- long-term relationship

II Block "Strategic Management"

- management skills

- leadership

- entrepreneurial position

III Block "Strategic thinking"

- creative thinking

- conflict resolution

- building accurate knowledge about the client

IV Block "Strategic identification"

- identity of yourself as a specialist

- empathy

- emotional competence

It should be noted that strategic competence also includes skills common to sales managers. The proposed structure relates to the development of new skills aimed at performing more complex manager activities, which include finding and retaining more responsible customers for the company.

Research results and their discussionTo assess the effectiveness of the program in the experimental and control groups, we carried out measurements before and after the program.

Since the measured variables in the components of strategic competence did not have a normal distribution, the evaluation of the statistical significance of differences in the dynamics of indicators was carried out according to the Mann-Whitney U criterion.

The results of shifts in indicators of strategic competence components in the control and experimental groups are presented in Table 3.

Table 3.

The results of experimental work on the development of strategic competence of sales managers.

Note:*- differences are significant at the level of p?0.05; ** - differences are significant at the level of p?0.01.

Graphically, these results are presented in Figure 1.

As a result of experimental work on the development of strategic competence among sales managers, we received statistically significant shifts in Strategic communication, Strategic management, Strategic thinking, Strategic identification in the experimental group. This suggests that the program we developed turned out to be, on the whole, effective.

At the same time, the result in the control group is interesting, in which, regardless of our intervention, the results of the Strategic Communication component statistically significantly improved. This suggests that as a result of intensive professional activity, this component can develop as a result of gaining professional experience. However, other components of strategic competence do not develop independently in this situation.

Figure 3. Results of experimental work on the development of strategic competence among sales managers.

ConclusionThus, we have shown that the development of strategic competence in sales managers is possible in the course of experimental work.

At the same time, we have demonstrated that individual components of strategic competence can develop spontaneously during the performance of official duties. Nevertheless, the development of these competencies during the training seems to be more productive.

In addition, in this work we have not touched upon the issue of personnel selection for positions involving strategic sales management. However, it is assumed that strategic competence includes elements characteristic of the employee's personality as a whole (for example, empathy, leadership qualities). Thus, some employees may be better suited to perform strategic sales work.

We did not make a special selection to check the effectiveness of the program. However, the selection process for the selection of employees for the relevant positions may increase the effectiveness of training programs for them. The issue of diagnostics of strategic competence in order to select employees and develop specific tools for it may become the subject of additional research.