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1、 0019-8501/99/$see front matterPII S0019-8501(98)00024-8Industrial Marketing Management28, 7386 (1999) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010Sales Training Evaluation Model (STEM)A Conceptual FrameworkRobert A. LuptonJohn E. WeissRobin T. Peters
2、onSales training methodologies have one main objective: todevelop a productive salesperson. The challenges to salesmanagers, as presented in recent marketing literature, arenumerous. Incomplete understanding by sales managers aboutthe relationship of different training methodologies availableand the
3、 ability to measure effectiveness is particularly prob-lematic. To better understand the role of sales training effec-tiveness within the industrial organization, the authors introducea conceptual framework called the Sales Training EvaluationModel (STEM). To reflect the sales training environment,S
4、TEM incorporates five unique aspects or categories: (1) reac-tion of any participant involved including sales trainers andtrainees; (2) changes in attitude, knowledge, and skills amongthe trainees involved; (3) behavior changes among the traineesinvolved; (4) tangible measurements such as sales perf
5、or-mance; and (5) other evaluative approaches. 1998 ElsevierScience Inc.INTRODUCTIONAlthough both practitioners and researchers widely ac-knowledge the importance of effective sales training, themarketing literature has devoted limited attention to mea-surements used to evaluate sales training metho
6、dology.This is perplexing, given that correlations between salestraining and sales performance, job commitment andeven organizational commitment are documented 14.To date, much of the sales training literature has re-viewed delivery and implementation practices 5. Nodoubt, the quality of training pr
7、ograms is important andAddress correspondence to Robert A. Lupton, Colorado Mountain College,Roaring Fork Campus, Glenwood Springs, CO 81601 USA. 74has recently been reaffirmed as a critical element of anysales training program design 6. Yet one of the key as-pects of the design of any high quality
8、training programis consideration of the needs of the trainees. However,without a proper framework for sales training evaluation,such programs cannot, often by their very nature, adjustto the needs of trainees.Research efforts that examined sales training effec-tiveness have focused mainly on particu
9、lar industries ormethodologies, and thus have restricted the applicationof such studies. Such research is further plagued by theinability of many sales training programs themselves todevelop clear objectives that allow for comprehensiveevaluative analysis. Thus, while there is a need for fur-ther ba
10、sic research on sales training evaluation 7, extantstudies have typically fallen short.It is acknowledged that critiquing sales training alter-natives is a monumental job and that stringent criteriashould be used in such a process 8. Perhaps this chal-lenge is at least partly responsible for some fi
11、rms lookingto outside organizations for sales training. As such, amore complete and structured understanding of the com-ponents that lead to effectiveness in sales training is im-portant to the firm for several reasons. There is evidencethat outsourcing portions of sales training is occurring inmany
12、 firms. Not surprisingly, a proliferation of trainingspecialist organizations is following this trend. Some re-search suggests that even when a firm hires experiencedsalespeople, the need for effective training is not miti-gated 6. Additionally, investigations of sales manage-ment training indicate
13、that some managers are muchmore capable than others of training salespeople 9.Improved understanding of such training concerns canprovide more reliable outcomes for both the practitionersand the researcher. This is important because sales orga-nizations must deal with a set of interactive effects th
14、atoccur when they must decide not only who will conductthe sales training, but also which methods are most suit-able for accomplishing the organizations training goals.The objectives of this article are fivefold: (1) to reviewthe major sales training tools available for educating thesalesperson; (2)
15、 to examine the literature on sales train-ing effectiveness; (3) to discuss the five major constructsused to evaluate sales training effectiveness; (4) to intro-duce a simple conceptual framework called Sales Train-ing Evaluation Model (STEM) that can help sales man-agers assess the different ways a
16、vailable to measure salestraining effectiveness; and (5) to provide research agendaand managerial implications. The STEM approach pro-vides a mechanism for integrating previous research anddirecting future research endeavors which address salestraining evaluation and sales training meta-analysis.SALES TRAINING EVALUATION CHALLENGESThe challenges to sales managers, as presented in re-cent marketing literature, are numerous. Incomplete un-derstanding by sales managers abo