Purposeful practice as the key to superior sales performance: An exploratory analysis

ABSTRACT

Although sales performance is well researched, relatively little is known about what salespeople actively do to improve and achieve superior reproducible performance. We extend existing research by examining purposeful practice, a core concept from expertise research, as a potential contribution to skill development in sales, a heretofore unexplored framework. The exploratory research sets out for a better understanding of purposeful sales practice and potential activities that successful professionals engage in for self-improvement using a sequential two-phase research approach. By comparing different expertise level groups, particular characteristics of expert performance are identified and can be used so less-skilled salespeople become better.

Introduction

Why do some salespeople excel? What is their secret and why do others stagnate despite hard work? The primary focus to answer these questions has historically been on identifying salesperson characteristics that contribute to high performance in selling and seminal meta-analyses were published (Churchill et al., 1985; Jaramillo et al., 2005; Verbeke et al., 2011). This stream of research has clearly established the importance of understanding personality traits in order to predict sales success. Yet, most of these studies use a rather static view of sales performance, in the sense that enduring trait-related variables are examined and linked to performance, without providing a deeper understanding of how salespeople can actually become better in the given variable of interest.

A different perspective, which is anchored in the research stream of expertise and expert performance, takes an alternative approach by illuminating the skill acquisition process and the underlying mechanisms for superior achievements. It was found that what consistently distinguished elite surgeons, chess players, pianists, professional athletes, and experts in numerous other domains was the habit of engaging in “those activities that have been found most effective in improving performance” (Ericsson et al., 1993, p. 367). These are so-called “deliberate and purposeful practice activities” (Ericsson & Harwell, 2019).

The aim of the current research study is to apply the concept of purposeful practice, which has received much interest within psychological research (Ericsson, 2021), to sales practice and extend the important discussion about salesperson performance. Therefore, we concentrate on working and learning activities that provide the potential to play a central role in individual skill and sales expertise development using an individual research perspective (Bauer & Gruber, 2007; Debatin et al., 2021). Thus, our work will move the field forward by understanding in which purposeful sales practice activities sales experts engage in and with which less experienced and less successful salespersons become more knowledgeable and skilled. To our knowledge, this concept has not yet been investigated in sales research and might open up a new way of understanding performance development in sales and what salespeople can actively do to self-improve.

Reproducible superior performance and purposeful practice

The concept of purposeful practice derives from the phenomenon of deliberate practice. According to Ericsson et al. (1993), deliberate practice must meet four conditions for optimal learning: (a) the person diligently engages in the activity and strives to improve; (b) the activity is tailored to the learning needs of the person based on prior knowledge and skills; (c) the opportunity for immediate and helpful feedback must be given by a coach or trainer; and (d) there is the possibility of repeating the same or similar task on a regular basis.

After several debates about the definition for professional domains, Ericsson and Pool (2016) redefined the name to purposeful practice, where trainees engage mainly in practice by themselves to improve aspects of their performance. This type of individual practice is hardly ever completed independently of any supervisor. Coaching takes place on various occasions without the intensity of elite sports, with the prompting and immediate feedback of a trainer. Salespeople mostly perform their daily work activities on their own and have regular calls with their supervisors or coaching days. Purposeful practice seems to be the correct definition of the practice that salespeople need to acquire expertise.

While some aim to perform on a constantly high level, others seem satisfied with reaching only an acceptable level of performance minimizing their time invested in effortful skill development. When an acceptable level has been reached, they maintain their performance level only with reduced effort. Hence, length of experience has frequently been found to be a weak correlate of job performance (Grohnert et al., 2018). This means that simply doing the same thing repeatedly does not enhance performance, but makes it automated and, thus, less effortful.

Deliberate and purposeful practice activities are demanding and allow individuals to reach the next level of complexity by enabling refinement through extensive repetition (Ericsson et al., 1993). The reason professionals engage in these practice activities is not inherent enjoyment but their desire to shape their skill levels and to do better next time (Hyllegard & Yamamoto, 2005). This differentiates deliberate practice from mindless and routine performance. For instance, the study of Coughlan et al. (2014) on Gaelic football players shows that in their self-selected practice sessions, experts choose those kicks they were weaker at. Therefore, practicing those kicks was more effortful and relevant for performance improvement, whereas the intermediate group practiced their stronger kicks. Generally, experts invest more time in practicing and learning deliberately, and the accumulated amount of deliberate practice accounts for 30% of the variance in attainment level (De Bruin et al., 2008; Hambrick et al., 2014).

As indicated previously, purposeful practice is not inherently motivating but rather effortful. More specifically, according to the framework of purposeful practice it is neither task enjoyment nor external rewards that motivates people to engage in purposeful practice. While winning a championship or getting a sales commission can be temporarily very rewarding, purposeful practice requires a strong internal motivation. Moreover, individuals derive their motivation to practice because practice improves performance (Ericsson et al., 1993). Hence, an understanding of the long-term consequences of purposeful practice is important. This goes in line with recent research, where salespeople are motivated by the greater good and a sense of purpose, which is defined as “the belief that one is making a contribution to a cause greater and more enduring than oneself” (Good et al., 2022, p. 273). Therefore, a better understanding of work activities that foster high quality work and contribute to sales expertise development is beneficial. Furthermore, if the same activities are performed with a goal other than performance and skill improvement in mind or if only irregular, immediate task accomplishment is given, they are not considered purposeful practice that support the development of expertise.

Regarding high performance in professions, data show that certain activities for skill improvement play a major role in achieving superior reproducible performance. For instance, expert-novice studies demonstrate that for marathon running, top athletes engage more often in tempo runs and short interval practice, not the assumed long runs (Casado et al., 2020). Alternatively, in medicine, experts more often perform forward/inductive reasoning strategies, whereas novices prefer backward/deductive reasoning (Norman et al., 1999). These exceptional insights into expert performance can only be gathered by using a contrastive research approach that compares participants of two or more expertise levels to “find out the most particular and striking characteristics of expert performance” (Boshuizen et al., 2020, p. 5). This contrastive approach is the central research method in expertise research, comparing individuals with low and high performance in a specific domain to understand what facets of performance change during skill development, such as better memory (Sala & Gobet, 2017), more accurate problem-solving behaviors (Nokes et al., 2010), or in our case, engagement in purposeful practice associated with improved performance.

Furthermore, expertise development is a continuum rather than a jump between different states, which makes it challenging to operationalize sample groups. Researchers call beginners, that is, people just introduced to a domain, novices, whereas experts are categorized as having at least a decade of focused practice and superior performance (Ericsson, 1998). Additionally, intermediate groups are often included to compare details accounting for qualitative changes in performance. Another specific point is that the research design, whether it is, for example, interviews, surveys, or case studies, must be developed so all sample groups can apply to it and adapt to the domain, as expertise is highly domain specific and purposeful practice must be defined domain specifically.

Thus, in the next section, we conceptualize purposeful sales practice by using findings from expertise research and discussing potential learning and practice activities to recognize established constructs explaining sales performance. Subsequently, we take a first step toward clarifying purposeful sales practice, on which we will elaborate in our empirical studies.

Purposeful sales practice

The work activities salespeople engage in are quite diverse. However, among these activities, practice that occurs among musicians and athletes, such as practicing for a big concert or training sessions for the next Olympic games, does not occur frequently for salespeople. The framework of purposeful practice, though, captures an approach that may be embodied in an activity that does not correspond to what we commonly consider a training activity. In many professions, learning and skill improvement take place in everyday real-time activities.

As purposeful practice differs qualitatively from other forms of practice, specific criteria must be met. Sonnentag and Kleine (2000) provide such criteria, considering all learning activities as purposeful practice when (1) the activity results in performance improvement, (2) the activity incorporates aspects of practice and competence improvement, (3) the activity is performed regularly during daily work activities, (4) performing this activity is highly optional and surpasses task requirements, and (5) the activity is only indirectly related to financial rewards. In this study, we define purposeful practice following the criteria provided by Sonnentag and Kleine (2000).

Before we discuss specific purposeful sales activities, we want to provide more information on the skill acquisition process and learning in sales, as this is essential to improvement. When salespeople start their work lives, companies usually offer formal training sessions, followed by shadowing sessions and “ride-alongs” with colleagues (Spiro et al., 2008). To become acquainted with their customers, and work procedures, novices learn from more experienced colleagues by observing client interactions, imitating, and practicing customer visits. Most learning happens on the job (Bolander et al., 2020). During this first stage of acquiring new skills, novices focus on successfully completing their first buyer-seller interactions. Furthermore, novices start to develop knowledge structures based on customers’ needs and distinctive sales strategies for each type of customer (Sharma et al., 2000).

With more experience, mistakes substantially lessen, actions are less controlled, and an acceptable work standard can be reached with reduced concentration (Billett et al., 2018). Over time, more training sessions and formalized instructions have been added. By reaching this stage of performance, most salespeople no longer attempt to modify their work practices significantly but remain at a stable performance level for an extended period (Gruber & Harteis, 2018). This plateau effect can be explained by a steep learning curve at the beginning, followed by a proficient phase in which the individual becomes productive and transitions to automatic behavior. While reaching the level of automatic behavior, minimal cognitive effort for information processing is needed, which is less exhausting. Even though there is no further skill development, performance remains at an acceptable level.

Nevertheless, some salespeople never allow their performance to be fully automated. They actively engage in new upskilling activities outside their comfort zone to strengthen their cognitive representations and engage in self-reflection after each major action to keep improving the mechanisms mediating their performance to do better next time (Boshuizen et al., 2004). This allows them to go beyond the mere accumulation of experience toward higher levels of achievement and learning opportunities embedded in daily sales activities (Sharma et al., 2007). In conclusion, automatic behavior is generally important and used by experts, especially for routine tasks, but cognitive control is necessary to perform on an effective, high level and to overcome performance plateaus (Ericsson, 1998). Furthermore, these cognitive mechanisms reflect the learners’ use of several self-regulatory processes such as self-motivation and self-monitoring that assist a person to acquire skills and knowledge more efficiently. Thus, it can be seen as prerequisite of expertise development (Zimmerman, 2006). Similarly, the framework of self-leadership emphasizes self-regulated strategies through which people organize themselves to achieve the self-direction and self-motivation to perform (e.g. Alnakhli et al., 2020). While self-leadership provides beneficial insights on how individuals can regulate their own actions over the what (standards and objectives), why (values and strategic reasons for the objectives), and how (the actual performance of the work) of task accomplishment (Manz, 1986), the focus of purposeful sales practice is on the execution of those activities that alter performance under certain criteria in the long term. However, in pursuing these long-term goals salespeople need to be equipped with self-control (also referred to as self-management) in order to remain disciplined (Ericsson et al., 1993).

Leigh et al. (2014) found that sales high performers have more context-specific procedural knowledge, which is more relevant and adaptive to specific sales situations in contrast to lower-performing sales agents. This shows that during learning and practice, the knowledge of salespeople changes its structure, and while acquiring higher levels of expertise, it becomes more accurate and is organized in a more coherent and adequate way (Sharma et al., 2007, 2000).

Sales research on the learning–performance relationship has demonstrated that self-directed learning (Artis & Harris, 2007; Boyer et al., 2014), and deliberate sales learning (Keeling et al., 2020) play major roles. Salespeople with a higher level of expertise use self-directed learning more often, as they are exhausted by formalized learning and prefer to manage the amelioration of their knowledge, skills, and abilities independently (Boyer et al., 2014). According to Keeling et al. (2020), deliberate sales learning is a central mechanism for strategic sales enablement, and deliberate learning improves deliberate sales practice to boost sales performance through (1) the articulation of knowledge and (2) the codification of knowledge. The articulation of knowledge refers to sharing own sales practice with others by discussing views, perspectives, and observations regarding its efficiency. Thus, sales performance improves by reflecting on the consequences of one’s activities. Codification refers to clustering knowledge, which helps to clarify ideas and proposals that address the logic behind to identify successful routines. Following the theory of self-directed learning, it can be concluded that reflecting on one’s professional experiences and deliberately engaging in activities that enhance competence development are essential for workplace learning (Van de Wiel et al., 2004, 2011). Going beyond “schooled” or unconscious learning from previous experiences, these activities correspond with an intentional level of deliberative learning, where learning is intended to improve one’s own skills, resulting in higher performance levels (Van de Wiel et al., 2011). These goal-directed activities can be related to routine or novel work requirements, but either way provide opportunities for shaping their knowledge base and contributing to salespersons’ level of expertise (Billett et al., 2018).

Thus, the core of purposeful sales practice refers to an explicit goal of performance improvement, which is reached by executing specific effortful sales practice activities to refine critical skills. Goals are essential for sales performance improvement and research has shown that salespeople who follow performance goals and/or learning goals are more successful (e.g. Harris, 2005; Sujan et al., 1994). While, learning goal orientation covers the strong wish to further develop and acquire new skills (Ahearne et al., 2010; Terho et al., 2013), it does not emphasize the regularity of performing the learning activities targeted to shape expert performance. According to purposeful sales practice, regularity is important because procedural knowledge will be developed, automaticity of basic skills will be fostered to become available for higher processes and performance goal improvement is embedded in daily work (Sonnentag & Kleine, 2000).

While there is a broad array of interesting research questions related to sales expertise and purposeful sales practice, our study focuses on exactly those learning and practice activities experts engage in at the workplace to alter their performance. Moreover, it can be understood as a starting point for further research, for instance, purposeful sales practice in combination with sales person traits, self-leadership and other relevant constructs.

That purposeful practice makes a difference is evident, but the major question is, which activities should we focus on for self-improvement that shape elite sales performance? In work settings, studies on deliberate and purposeful practice identified lists of potential activities that were reflected upon by expert professionals. This means that expert performance was broken down into activities that were recognized for improvement. In their study among insurance agents, Sonnentag and Kleine (2000) collected a list of 10 activities. Unger et al. (2009) investigated deliberate practice among small business owners and the activities are similar to those of Sonnentag and Kleine (2000). By comparing other studies of deliberate and purposeful practice in work and organizational context more similarities are noticed (Dunn & Shriner, 1999; Keith et al., 2016; Ranabahu & Barrett, 2020; Van de Wiel et al., 2011; see, Table A1).

From these previous findings of deliberate and purposeful practice theory, and of self-directed learning research related to studies of sales performance, assumptions are made that the following 14 practice activities are potentially relevant for the domain and subsequently contribute to skill improvement and expertise development in sales.

Previous research associates high-performing salespeople with strong planning and preparation skills (Sujan et al., 1994). Thus, all salespeople engage in some way in preparation, but purposeful engagement might set experts apart from average performers, seeing preparation as a valuable activity to become better instead of a needful duty.

Dew et al. (2018) investigated asking questions and probing as important mechanisms for the purposeful practice of entrepreneurs that leads to success. Entrepreneurship consists of selling ideas to customers and investors, and pitching against competitors is essential in their field. Consequently, most likely, asking questions and its purposeful practice is also relevant to selling goods and services (Wang et al., 2020). Emphasizing that information acquisition is essential to the selling process, several studies have found a positive relationship between understanding underlying characteristics such as customer needs and sales performance (Arndt et al., 2018) and between asking questions and sales success (Schuster & Danes, 1986). Effective questioning and probing imply that active listening takes place, and we focus on the response stage of active listening in the information-gathering process (Arndt et al., 2018).

Without reflection, there is no learning, so concluding and assessing afterward might be potentially important activities. Sujan et al. (1994) argued that after a failed selling effort, the salesperson might conclude that the attempt failed because of inadequate or misdirected effort. If salespeople believe they worked hard enough but still fail, they are motivated to “work smarter” in the future by redirecting the selling strategy and behavior.

Exploring new strategies refers to the theory of adaptive selling, which can be understood as “the altering of sales behaviors during a customer interaction or across customer interactions based on perceived information about the nature of the selling situation” (Weitz et al., 1986, p. 175). High-performing salespeople are more likely to have a greater range of strategies they can choose from when approaching a customer due to their procedural knowledge. These salespeople are more likely to use creative and innovative approaches to extend their repertoire of strategies (Agnihotri et al., 2014). Learning by observing others is deeply rooted in social learning theory, in which others are considered an important source for learning new behaviors and for accomplishing behavioral change (Bandura, 1977).

Asking for feedback enables salespeople to assess their performance with knowledgeable others. The role of feedback is crucial in learning, and previous research on salesperson feedback behavior has illustrated that those receiving beneficial feedback perform better (Jaworski & Kohli, 1991). Running mental simulations helps in predicting the consequences of one’s actions. Subsequently, effective actions can be chosen in situations where no previous experiences are gathered. In workshops and training sessions, salespeople get dedicated time to learning and improving product knowledge, company knowledge, market/industry awareness, or selling techniques. Thus, attending workshops and training sessions might be relevant for upskilling and superior sales performance. Consulting domain experts might be another activity that has the potential to have a great impact on one’s skill development. When salespeople approach domain experts, they might not only provide information with short-term benefits, but also have relevant information on how to become better in the long term (Sonnentag & Kleine, 2000). A salesperson’s working environment is embedded within an array of social interactions and networking with customers (Krush et al., 2017), as well as with colleagues, which is essential for building and maintaining a solid information base. Through consulting colleagues, they shape their ultimate success in handling customers, organizing their day-to-day business, and winning prospects.

In knowledge-intensive domains, formal meetings are an important part of organizational life, and the requirements for exchanging information are high. In these meetings, problems are discussed, goals set, and future actions defined, but not all meeting members are equally involved. There might be distinctions among expertise groups, as novices are more engaged in information acquisition and experts in public problem solving (Sonnentag et al., 2006). Additionally, deriving from Sonnentag and Kleine’s (2000) study with insurance sales agents, we included private conversations, professional reading, and informal meetings as potential activities for purposeful sales practice.

The following two consecutive empirical studies consider the above-mentioned activities of salespeople from the perspective of purposeful practice. Assuming that the development of expertise over many years of experience is supported by a strong commitment to specific activities that provide the best conditions for learning and skill acquisition, we try to identify these activities for salespeople and compare them between expertise groups for a better understanding of expert performance.

Aim and research questions for study 1

The main purpose of Study 1 was to explore activities related to purposeful sales practice from the theoretical perspective of the concept. Of primary interest were domain-specific activities that were ranked as highly important, were perceived as relevant for skill improvement and were performed frequently. Therefore, the following research questions were addressed: What kinds of practice activities do sales experts perceive as particularly relevant to improving their skill performance? What kinds of practice activities do sales experts perform frequently to improve their skill performance?

Study 1: Exploring facets of purposeful sales practice

Sample

To understand potential facets of purposeful sales practice, our sample consisted of 18 international sales experts who possessed more than 10 years of sales experience; were among the best in their field; were highly regarded by their peers; and played an active role in developing the domain by sharing their knowledge and skills with larger audiences. An exception was made regarding sales experience, as one person possessed only five years but was among the top 10 salespersons of more than 350 salespeople in an annual companywide championship and was peer nominated by another expert professional. Of the participants, 55,6% worked in manufacturing, 22% in consulting with the remaining respondents spread over other industries (e.g. software, consumer goods or entertainment). The subjects’ mean age was M = 48 years (SD = 8.98) with sales experience ranging from five to 45 years (M = 21, SD = 11.63). The percentage of male participants was 78%.

Instrument

Data for this study were collected using an online instrument designed to gather qualitative information regarding sales experts’ perceptions of activities related to performance improvement. Based on the presented prior research, the questionnaire presented the 14 activities for expert professionals to assess the activities’ relevance or skill improvement, frequency, and duration of performance. The experts rated relevance for skill improvement plus frequency on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = not relevant/not frequent and 5 = very relevant/very frequent). Furthermore, the experts translated the purposeful activities into the sales context and answered open-ended questions regarding (1) activities for improvement, (2) their skill improvement activities, and (3) reasons for their superior performance. The spotlight was on gathering qualitative data to formulate purposeful sales activities based on sales experts’ perceptions; the amassing of quantitative data was only seen as part of the strategy to better access such data.

Procedure

Participants were informed when recruited. In addition, subjects were told in the introduction of the survey that the aim of the study was to investigate potential activities that play a major role in reaching superior levels of sales performance. The online survey was sent via direct mail or LinkedIn to the participants. All individuals contacted agreed to participate and spent an average of 23 minutes answering the survey.

Analysis

A ranking method was used to qualify activities for further attention in the research project, starting with the most crucial sales activity regarding skill improvement. To address the research questions, we analyzed potential purposeful practice activities for the sales domain using descriptive statistics for numeric data. A qualitative content analysis was used to obtain more insights into the suitability of each activity for sales and to explore how and why expert professionals perceive the specific activity relevant for skill improvement.

Results

The sales experts’ answers revealed that “Preparation,” “Asking questions and probing,” and “Concluding and assessing afterwards” were considered significant in sales as ranked among the top three and similarly top ranked when asking the relevance for skill improvement. Private conversations, professional reading, and informal and formal meetings received low ratings for skill improvement (see, Table 1).

Table 1. Ranking of skill improvement and ratings for relevance and frequency of study 1.

	Relevance		Frequency
Rank from top to bottom	M	SD	M	SD
Preparation	3.80	2.25	3.10	1.02
Asking Questions & probing	4.50	1.04	3.20	0.97
Concluding & assessing afterward	4.50	1.08	2.80	1.22
Exploring new strategies	3.90	1.21	2.70	0.75
Mental simulation	3.20	1.05	2.60	1.19
Asking for feedback	4.10	1.08	2.40	0.98
Consulting colleagues	3.50	0.72	3.60	1.30
Observing others	3.80	1.10	2.90	0.95
Attending workshops & training sessions	3.60	1.06	2.60	1.04
Consulting domain experts	3.60	1.03	2.60	1.19
Formal meetings	2.80	1.20	3.50	1.12
Informal meetings	3.10	1.17	3.00	1.00
Private conversations	2.50	1.02	3.30	0.96
Professional reading	3.20	0.94	2.10	1.00

M = mean, SD = standard deviation, scoring: 1 = not relevant/not frequent, 5 = very relevant/very frequent

Additionally, qualitative data from the experts illustrate the different work activities and give an impression of the importance of their existence (see, Web Table A1).

Sales experts reported that coaching, leadership, active listening, relaxation techniques, and shadowing could be other activities for skill improvement. For their own skill improvement, experts engage in professional reading and customer health checks by asking customers for feedback and ratings against other sellers, or as an expert reports, “In every major sales opportunity, I do five things which I have never done before.” This quotation reveals that he uses the exploration of new strategies to improve his performance. Interestingly, many experts do not consider themselves superior performers, as an expert remarked: “I don’t consider myself better than others. Instead, maybe I’ve just accepted my own challenge, like climbing a mountain. It isn’t about the others; it’s about me.” Others reported self-reflection, observation, and learning from failures and losses as crucial for their improvement.

Discussion

The concept of purposeful practice proposes that engagement in such practice activities is relevant for competence and performance improvement. The sales experts’ perceptions reported in Study 1 and the above-mentioned literature support the significance of purposeful sales practice. Nonetheless, as stated previously, all salespeople perform these practice activities, yet not all achieve superior performance. A second study was designed to examine variations in performing these relatively common sales activities among expertise groups to draw our initial conclusions regarding which promote the development of high-level sales competence by analyzing the engagement and practice patterns of diverse expertise groups.

Aim and hypotheses for study 2

We learned from Study 1 that the domain-specific activities identified have the potential to be performed as purposeful sales practice. Nonetheless, it remains unclear which domain-specific activities successful experts engage in purposefully compared to less successful and less experienced professionals, and which ones make a difference in improving work performance. Furthermore, many salespeople, while understanding the value and need to perform these domain-specific activities to accomplish task assignments, might not understand how these activities can be used as practice for self-improvement. Therefore, we need to compare groups of salespeople with disparate levels of expertise to gain this additional knowledge about the nature and structure of purposeful sales practice to support the development of high performance.

Consequently, the aim of the second study was to investigate these domain-specific activities to support sales expertise development. We investigated the following research question: How do experts, experienced professionals, and novices in sales vary in performing purposeful practice activities?

Guided by the findings of Study 1 and the research question for Study 2, the following hypotheses are addressed:

• Hypothesis 1: Qualitative effects of expertise in sales: Experts, experienced professionals and novices engage in different purposeful sales practice activities.

• Hypothesis 2: Quantitative effects of expertise in sales: Experts spend (a) more time on purposeful practice and (b) perform specific practice activities more frequently than experienced professionals and novices.

Study 2: Differences in purposeful sales practice among novices, experienced professionals, and experts

Sample

The subjects in the study were 53 salespeople working for a German MDAX manufacturing company. They were assigned to one of three groups by their supervisors: novices, experienced professionals, and experts. Novices had minimal sales experience of less than two years and not yet any performance indicators. Experienced and expert sales people had at least ten years of experience. However, they differed in their performance. The following criteria were given to supervisors to identify individuals: goal achievement consisting of profit, show-up rate at product presentations and other KPIs used by the company, and evaluation on knowledge and skills over the past years. Based on these indicators the supervisors of the company rated experts as being among the top 25% of their team’s performers. Experienced professionals did not belong to the top 25% performers, although they also had 10 years-plus of sales experience. All participants belonged to the same company with similar team structures and sizes to ensure sufficient comparability. Our sample size is in line with research on expert performance. Due to its contrastive character, it serves the purpose of showing differences among groups. The participants’ mean age was M = 42.49 years (SD = 8.03). The percentage of male participants was 98.1%. Novices had a mean sales experience of M = 1.73 years (SD = 2.22), whereas experienced professionals had a mean sales experience of M = 17.25 years (SD = 7.44). Experts had M = 13.48 years of experience (SD = 4.60). With 48.60 (SD = 9.16) working hours on average, sales representatives spent 1–25% of their time traveling, inbound and outbound calls, and driving their cars. No incentives were provided to the participants.

Instrument

Potential purposeful practice activities were derived from Study 1. Based on the results, an online questionnaire consisting of four parts was developed with 65 questions in total: (1) demographic data and general time invested, (2) domain-specific practice activities, (3) updating activities, and (4) long-term professional goals.

Demographic data and general time invest were covered in question 1–6 asking for age, sex, sales experience, experience at current company, working hours, traveling time including activities conducted during traveling time. Questions on eleven domain-specific practice activities included (1) the frequency of performing the activity in general and of specific examples, (2) the goals associated with each activity, and (3) the duration in which each activity was performed. The specific examples derive from Study 1 and serve as subcategories in order to collect additional aspects of the general practice activity. Further, answers were gathered on self-reported (4) relevance to augment the competence of the activity, (5) effort, and (6) enjoyment. Ratings were made on a 5-point Likert scale for frequency (from daily = 1 to never = 5), for duration in hours per month, and relevance to skill improvement, effort, and enjoyment (from strongly agree = 1 to strongly disagree = 5). This procedure is similar to the one used by Sonnentag and Kleine (2000) or Van de Wiel et al. (2004) and covers the characteristics of purposeful practice.

Furthermore, participants were asked about their updating activities covered in question 62–64 and about their long-term professional goals (question 65), but the data is not reported in the current study.

Procedure

The online questionnaire was sent via direct message or via a link in an e-mail or LinkedIn message to participants. To minimize socially desirable answers, participants were informed that the aim of this study was to collect the personal knowledge acquisition activities of sales representatives to support training curriculum development. Performance data was available from the supervisor, and participants were categorized into three groups: novices (no performance data, maximum 18–20 months in sales), experienced professionals (more than 10 years in sales; not among the 25% of top performers), and experts (more than 10 years in sales; among the 25% of top performers). In total, 87 candidates were contacted from 16 countries worldwide. Of these, 53 candidates took part (60.92%), investing 34 minutes on average in answering the questionnaire.

Analysis

To address Hypothesis 1, mean ratings were analyzed for all domain-specific practice activities regarding frequency, duration, relevance to skill improvement, effort, and enjoyment. Goals mentioned in the open-ended question “What is your goal when performing?” were categorized into two groups: those conducted with a major goal of performance improvement in mind or those conducted with any other goal in mind but performance improvement. The interrater reliability was assessed using Fleiss’ kappa, which indicated substantial agreement k = .632 among the three raters for categorizing the goal mentioned as purposeful or not (Landis & Koch, 1977).

A univariate ANOVA depicted group-wise distinctions among the expertise levels and the practice activities, including subcategories as dependent variables for addressing Hypothesis 2a. To analyze Hypothesis 2b, univariate ANOVA tested group variations in the duration of activities. Kruskal-Wallis tests analyzed differences between groups, and pairwise comparisons using the Mann-Whitney U test were conducted.

Results

The findings are summarized below, according to the tested hypothesis.

Hypothesis 1: Qualitative effects of expertise in sales

The analysis of ratings for the separate dimensions of frequency, duration, relevance for performance improvement, effort, and enjoyment reveals several interesting facts. Frequency. As revealed in Table 2, all domain-specific practice activities are performed daily or weekly, except “Attending workshops and training sessions” and “Consulting domain experts” for all expertise groups. “Concluding and assessing afterwards” was most frequently performed among novices, whereas “Asking questions and probing” was most frequently performed by experienced professionals and experts. Duration. All three expertise groups spent most of their time on “Asking Questions and Probing” and “Preparation,” and the least on “Consulting domain experts.” Relevance. Whereas all domain-specific practice activities were rated as relevant for competence improvement, sales representatives perceived “Asking questions and probing” as the most relevant practice activity; the most time monthly was spent on this practice activity. Effort. Most effortful domain-specific practice activities are for novices “Concluding and assessing afterwards,” for experienced professionals “Formal meetings,” and for experts, “Asking questions and probing.” In general, sales representatives perceived all activities as effortful, with a tendency to be neutral. Enjoyment. Results concerning enjoyment suggest that domain-specific practice activities are slightly more enjoyable for experts, followed by experienced professionals and novices. However, all perceive “Consulting colleagues” as the most enjoyable activity. Overall, there were no significant differences regarding the mean ranks in the relevance to improvement, effort, and enjoyment among the three expertise groups. Generally, “Asking questions and probing” was the most relevant domain-specific practice activity, and most time was spent per month on this activity among all expertise groups. Furthermore, it was rated as performed most frequently among experienced professionals and experts. Sales experts, in particular, perceived it as the most effortful activity. In summary, 8% of novices, 40% of experienced professionals, and 67% of sales experts perform it as a purposeful practice, which means at least once a week, with performance improvement as the main goal. No significant differences were found between the items and level of expertise.

Table 2. Mean ratings (standard deviations in brackets) of all 11 practice activities related to sales.

Practice activity		Frequency			Duration^a			Relevance			Effort			Enjoyment
		N	EP	E	N	EP	E	N	EP	E	N	EP	E	N	EP	E
Preparation	M	1.33	1.35	1.48	23.75	25.40	28.76	1.25	1.30	1.38	2.42	2.25	2.19	2.08	2.20	2.00
	(SD)	(0.49)	(0.59)	(0.60)	(13.40)	(13.20)	(20.56)	(0.45)	(0.57)	(0.59)	(0.79)	(1.12)	(1.17)	(0.79)	(0.77)	(0.89)
Asking Questions & probing	M	1.64	1.25	1.33	32.82	27.25	28.90	1.08	1.20	1.19	2.75	2.30	1.95	2.00	1.70	1.76
	(SD)	(1.03)	(0.55)	(0.48)	(27.97)	(20.51)	(24.29)	(0.29)	(0.41)	(0.40)	(1.22)	(1.38)	(1.12)	(0.85)	(0.73)	(0.77)
Concluding & assessing afterward	M	1.25	1.37	1.52	18.91	19.35	23.43	1.33	1.20	1.33	2.17	2.20	2.05	2.17	1.95	1.81
	(SD)	(0.62)	(0.60)	(0.68)	(12.41)	(13.45)	(21.51)	(0.49)	(0.41)	(0.58)	(1.12)	(1.28)	(1.12)	(0.94)	(0.76)	(0.87)
Exploring new strategies	M	1.83	2.47	2.76	12.91	12.10	14.38	1.33	1.40	1.43	2.42	2.20	2.14	2.17	1.60	1.86
	(SD)	(0.84)	(0.84)	(0.89)	(10.52)	(9.75)	(12.68)	(0.49)	(0.60)	(0.51)	(1.24)	(1.06)	(1.11)	(0.84)	(0.68)	(0.91)
Observing others	M	1.67	2.05	2.19	12.09	19.26	26.24	1.25	1.45	1.38	2.92	2.40	2.24	1.92	1.65	1.86
	(SD)	(0.89)	(1.05)	(1.17)	(9.41)	(24.10)	(27.06)	(0.45)	(0.69)	(0.74)	(1.38)	(1.31)	(1.26)	(0.67)	(0.75)	(0.96)
Asking for feedback	M	2.08	2.20	2.67	10.09	9.30	10.29	1.33	1.45	1.29	2.83	2.30	2.10	2.25	2.10	1.95
	(SD)	(1.08)	(1.06)	(1.07)	(8.57)	(8.36)	(11.52)	(0.49)	(0.61)	(0.56)	(1.34)	(1.17)	(1.14)	(0.87)	(0.85)	(1.07)
Mental simulation	M	1.67	2.10	2.52	12.55	10.00	18.60	1.67	1.75	1.38	2.83	2.25	2.33	2.42	2.10	1.90
	(SD)	(0.89)	(1.21)	(1.21)	(14.17)	(7.26)	(23.17)	(0.78)	(0.64)	(0.67)	(1.03)	(0.79)	(1.35)	(0.67)	(0.79)	(0.77)
Attending workshops & training sessions	M	3.67	3.75	3.71	11.73	9.17	12.10	1.17	1.55	1.43	2.50	2.35	2.25	1.83	1.85	1.62
	(SD)	(0.65)	(0.44)	(0.56)	(13.68)	(9.88)	(15.39)	(0.39)	(0.69)	(0.51)	(1.45)	(1.23)	(1.12)	(0.58)	(0.93)	(0.67)
Consulting domain experts	M	3.09	2.90	3.71	9.90	9.13	9.21	1.50	1.95	1.67	2.50	2.70	2.71	2.17	2.10	1.90
	(SD)	(1.58)	(1.59)	(0.96)	(14.43)	(7.76)	(13.01)	(0.67)	(0.89)	(0.66)	(1.09)	(0.92)	(1.27)	(0.97)	(0.79)	(0.77)
Consulting colleagues	M	1.58	1.75	2.19	12.45	13.50	17.48	1.17	1.20	1.52	3.17	2.30	2.81	1.83	1.40	1.57
	(SD)	(0.90)	(0.85)	(0.93)	(11.12)	(12.39)	(23.01)	(0.39)	(0.41)	(0.60)	(1.40)	(1.53)	(1.25)	(0.72)	(0.60)	(0.60)
Formal meetings	M	3.08	2.29	2.30	13.55	16.00	24.24	1.42	1.75	1.52	2.67	2.10	2.33	2.08	2.10	1.90
	(SD)	(1.08)	(0.85)	(1.03)	(10.62)	(12.94)	(24.58)	(0.52)	(0.72)	(0.68)	(1.23)	(1.17)	(1.20)	(0.79)	(0.72)	(0.89)

^aDuration in hours per month; scoring: 1 = strong agreement, 5 = strong disagreement; M = mean, SD = standard deviation;

N = Novices, EP = Experienced professionals, E = Experts

Table 3 illustrates the percentage of sales representatives who reported doing domain-specific practice activities, performing them at least once a week, with competence improvement as their goal, and as purposeful practice activities (i.e. at least once a week and with the goal of competence improvement). The analyses revealed that novices rated “Observing others” (67%) and “Asking for feedback” (67%) as the most relevant activities for their performance improvement, and they performed these activities purposefully. Experienced professionals performed “Concluding and assessing afterwards” (50%) and “Asking for feedback” (40%) as purposeful practice. The experts’ data demonstrated that they focused mainly on the following two purposeful practice activities: “Asking questions and probing” (67%) and “Concluding and assessing afterwards” (62%).

Table 3. Percentage of sales persons that perform purposeful practice activities.

Practice activity	Performing the activity			Performing the activity at least once a week			Performing activity with goal of competence improvement			Performing activity as purposeful practice*
	N	EP	E	N	EP	E	N	EP	E	N	EP	E
Preparation	100	100	100	100	95	95	25	30	20	25	30	19
Asking Questions & probing	100	100	100	82	95	100	8	40	67	8	40	67
Concluding & assessing afterward	100	100	100	92	95	91	42	65	67	42	50	62
Exploring new strategies	100	100	100	75	53	43	33	40	24	25	25	10
Observing others	100	100	100	92	55	52	75	65	62	67	30	38
Asking for feedback	100	100	95	75	55	52	92	70	62	67	35	33
Mental simulation	100	95	95	75	70	52	8	20	20	0	10	14
Attending workshops & training sessions	100	100	100	8	0	5	100	95	67	8	0	5
Consulting domain experts	73	75	81	27	50	14	42	35	48	8	15	14
Consulting colleagues	100	100	100	92	85	67	42	40	20	42	30	14
Formal meetings	100	100	100	33	59	60	17	15	10	8	5	10

*Performing activity at least once a week and with goal of competence improvement

N = Novices, EP = Experienced professionals, E = Experts

Hypothesis 2: Quantitative effects of expertise in sales

For testing H2a, a univariate ANOVA showed significant disparities between expertise groups in the frequency of two domain-specific practice activities: “Exploring new strategies” plus the subcategories “Testing innovative ways to approach customers” and “Exploring new approaches to excite and inspire customers,” as well as the subcategories of consulting colleagues: “I am actively consulting my colleagues,” “When reaching out to my colleagues, I get valuable advice,” and “I am actively consulting colleagues with a different view.”

Significant differences between groups were found in “Exploring new strategies” and “Consulting colleagues” using the Mann−Whitney U test (see, Table 4). All significant variations occurred between novices and experts in the following domain-specific practice activities: “Exploring new strategies” (U = 60.00, z = −2.58, r = .01), “Testing innovative ways to approach customers” (U = 44.00, z = −3.24, r = .00), and “Exploring new approaches to excite and inspire customers” (U = 48.00, z = −3.03, r = .00), as well as “I am actively consulting my colleagues” (U = 66.00, z = −2.43, r = .02), “When reaching out to my colleagues, I get valuable advice” (U = 48.00, z = −3.17, r = .00), and “I am actively consulting colleagues with a different view” (U = 48.00, z = −3.17, r = .00).

Table 4. U test for domain-specific practice activities between groups in frequency.

Practice activity	Novices	Experienced professionals	Novices/Experienced professionals ^a			Novices	Experts	Novices/Experts ^b			Experienced professionals	Experts	Experienced professionals/Experts ^c
	M	M	U	z	r	M	M	U	z	r		M	U	z	r
Exploring new strategies	12.29	18.34	69.50	−1.91	.06	11.50	20.14	60.00	−2.58	.01*	18.71	22.12	165.00	−.98	.36
Testing innovative ways how to approach customers	11.33	19.60	58.00	−2.54	.01*	10.17	20.90	44.00	−3.24	.00*	19.68	22.26	183.50	−.73	.46
Exploring new approaches how to excite and inspire customers	12.75	18.75	75.00	−1.87	.06	10.50	20.71	48.00	−3.03	.00*	17.88	23.98	147.50	−1.69	.09
I am actively consulting my colleagues	15.00	17.40	102.00	−.79	.43	12.00	19.86	66.00	−2.43	.02*	17.25	24.57	135.00	−2.13	.03*
When reaching out to my colleagues I get valuable advice	13.83	18.10	88.00	−1.40	.16	10.50	20.71	48.00	−3.17	.00*	17.33	24.50	136.50	−2.07	.04*
I am actively consulting colleagues with a different view	13.00	18.60	78.00	−1.79	.07	10.50	20.71	48.00	−3.17	.00*	18.65	23.24	163.00	−1.31	.19

^acomparison between novices and experienced professionals; ^b comparison between novices and experts; ^c comparison between experienced professionals and experts

M = mean, U = Mann-Whitney U value, z = z score, r = Bivariate correlation coefficient

*Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

Furthermore, we found a significant distinction between novices and experienced professionals for “Testing innovative ways how to approach customers” (U = 58.00, z = −2.54, r = .01) and between experienced salespeople and expert salespeople for “I am actively consulting my colleagues” (U = 135.00, z = −2.13, r = .03) and “When reaching out to my colleagues, I get valuable advice” (U = 136.50, z = −2.07, r = .04).

For testing H2b, a Kruskal−Wallis test revealed no significant variance among the expertise groups in duration. However, all expertise groups spent the most time on “Asking and probing questions” (Novice: M = 32.82, SD = 27.97; Experienced Professionals: M = 27.25, SD = 20.51; Experts: M = 28.90, SD = 24.29), followed by “Preparation” (Novice: M = 23.75, SD = 13.40; Experienced Professionals: M = 25.40, SD = 13.20; Experts: M = 28.76, SD = 20.56), and the least on “Consulting domain experts” (Novice: M = 9.90, SD = 14.43; Experienced Professionals: M = 9.13, SD = 7.76; Experts: M = 9.21, SD = 13.01).

Discussion

The study showed that there were differences between expertise groups in engagement in purposeful practice activities and practice patterns between expertise groups. In detail, we found that the activities that were considered purposeful sales practice activities were for novices: “Observing others,” “Asking for feedback,” “Consulting colleagues,” and “Concluding and assessing afterwards.” This shows that novices engage in learning activities by focusing on how others do them, doing them by themselves, and reflecting on them. In later stages of the knowledge and skill acquisition process, professionals seek less outside input but can control their learning processes by exploring solutions on their own. Data also show that self-monitoring (“Concluding and assessing afterwards”) is mainly important to all three expertise groups for performance improvement. These findings are in line with Panagopoulos and Ogilvie (2015) and Singh et al. (2017). Generally, interpersonal knowledge transfer between members of an organization or in a domain is essential to succeed in business. Therefore, learning by “consulting colleagues” is important to novices because the knowledge provided is new to them, whereas experienced professionals and especially experts rate it as less important for performance improvement and, hence, engage less often in it purposefully. It is also highly enjoyable for all expert groups.

Furthermore, the results revealed that “Asking questions and probing” is rated by all expertise groups as highly relevant to competence improvement. Compared to all other domain-specific activities, most of the time is spent on this action. Especially when stating the goal for “Asking questions and probing,” almost all experts named discerning customer needs as the utmost goal, which is in line with previous findings in which experts paid more attention to underlying characteristics and novices paid more attention to physical characteristics, such as appearance (Sharma et al., 2007; Shoemaker & Johlke, 2002). Obviously, when performed regularly, discerning customer needs is a deliberate process to better meet customers’ expectations and eventually improve their own competence and performance (Sonnentag & Kleine, 2000). Moreover, 67% of experts and 40% of experienced professionals performed it as purposeful practice, which means with the goal of competence improvement in mind, at least once a week. Only 8% of novices deliberately perform it. Hence, “Asking questions and probing” seems to be a central activity for performance improvement and is already known among all expertise groups, though novices do not engage much in this learning activity. They might not yet be familiar with handling customers’ answers and probing for further details, but rather focus on what they already know. In other words, novices have not yet developed a context-specific procedural knowledge base, but try to benefit from their declarative knowledge (Leigh et al., 2014). Thus, “Asking questions and probing“ is rated highly effortful by experts, which reflects a major principle of purposeful practice theory to be considered as such and a central element for superior performance that requires high elements of concentration (Lehmann, 2002).

Additionally, we found significant differences among a few practice activities. The main differences between groups are between novices and experts regarding “Exploring new strategies” and “Consulting colleagues” because for novices, everything is new compared to sales representatives with more than 10 years of experience. The latter have been actively using most strategies for many years. The same applies to “Consulting my colleagues.” When starting a new profession, one relies heavily on the help of colleagues. Being in the profession longer, experienced sales representatives can find expert-level solutions independently (Chan et al., 2014). In our sample, novices and experienced professionals consulted expert colleagues and obtained valuable advice. There is no significance in the duration of time spent on learning activities, which supports the findings of previous research, where the quality of the learning activities is most crucial (Ericsson, 2016; Hambrick et al., 2020).

Notably, our domain-specific activities seem to fit quite well, as almost all are reportedly performed 100% of the time by sales representatives, supporting the relevance of Study 1.

General discussion

In studies 1 and 2, we investigated the concept of purposeful practice activities in sales. First, we qualified potential activities by sales experts based on Ericsson’s (2016) definition and previous findings from related studies of expertise research. Second, we further explored these activities to gain a deeper understanding of how salespeople improve by comparing their involvement in purposeful sales practice across expertise groups. All activities are routine and belong to the standard procedure of everyday sales practice, but the purpose of its execution, the upskilling effect, and obviously, the outcome can vary. Each practice activity has the potential for salespeople to improve. Respecting sales novices who engage in their first month in all kinds of activities that boost their performance: They observe other salespeople, prepare before customer meetings, evaluate afterward, reflect on their actions, attend training sessions, and soak in all new information. Time passes, and they become more familiar with all the challenges. Some settle into perfect routines, yet others are eager to engage in activities where they see the value of self-improvement.

The aim of this exploratory analysis was to examine the concept of purposeful practice for sales expertise. Does purposeful practice provide a beneficial framework for understanding the activities salespeople across expertise levels engage in for self-improvement? Does the framework highlight activities that top sales professionals in particular engage in to shape their performance? Based on the studies conducted and their outcomes, we think it does. We believe that this exploratory analysis serves as a good starting point for understanding the concept, its value for sales theory, and sales practice. Certainly, further research is needed to fully grasp the impacts and limitations.

Research implications

This study introduces the concept of purposeful practice, which has its roots in expertise research on sales performance. By extending the framework to the sales context, we aim to contribute to the following topics:

First, we want to add to the current discussion about sales performance – that is, the beneficial role that purposeful practice activities play in self-improvement. Thus far, many theories of sales performance originate from a personality-focused perspective that sets specific variables for sales performance. This serves its purpose and clarifies what accounts for sales performance, but is less influential because traits are relatively stable over time (Harris et al., 2016). Due to the spotlight on learning, the focus might shift from characteristics to a more shapeable component: engagement in specific work-related activities with the main goal of performance improvement. Therefore, we aimed to conceptualize purposeful sales practice to provide a useful set of activities that support performance development and relate to the previous sales literature. By advancing the core concept of expertise to “Purposeful sales practice,” we hope to contribute to the research area of sales performance and support the drive for new innovative conceptual frameworks (Rapp & Beeler, 2021; Sohi et al., 2022).

Second, the results contribute to organizational learning in sales (Chonko et al., 2003). Unlike many other research projects, our study shows what novice salespeople, experienced professionals, and sales experts do to become better, not what they should do, and what might be most effective to boost performance. This is especially interesting, as our study used a contrastive sample across expertise levels and differentiated learning activities between groups which allows us to acknowledge distinctions in learning patterns. For instance, while everyone knows the importance of “Asking questions and probing,” mainly sales experts value it as a learning activity and perform it as purposefully. This implies that purposeful practice influences performance. Therefore, encouraging salespeople to engage in purposeful practice augments performance improvement and high performance.

Additionally, recent sales research emphasizes learning as a contributor to an adaptive salesforce with adaptive selling skills that are core to success, especially in times of constant change and disruption (Rangarajan et al., 2020). Our data shows that especially “Asking questions and probing” and “Concluding and assessing afterwards” are mainly relevant for performance improvement and set apart successful performers from the less successful which supports previous research on these constructs (Arndt et al., 2018; Shoemaker & Johlke, 2002). The good news is that everyone can learn, especially when the working environment supports, recognizes, and encourages self-improvement. More research is needed on environmental work conditions that stimulate purposeful sales practice.

Managerial implications

Working in sales means working in a highly competitive and mainly performance-driven environment. The environment in general is not designed for pure learning, but for delivering results and contributing to organizational success. Knowing and learning can be seen as a reciprocal process (Billett et al., 2018). A fast-changing sales environment, new technologies, specific customer demands, and a global pandemic do not make it easier. Hence, the workforce must be flexible and future oriented (Sharma et al., 2020). Thus, salespeople capable of and willing to constantly self-improve are of great asset to the business, and purposeful sales practice offers an easily accessible, flexibly adaptive, and unrelated to any specific content learning approach (Keith et al., 2016). This might be especially relevant for larger firms when designing employee development initiatives or selecting candidates for career planning to invest in those that engage in effortful, less enjoyable self-improvement activities.

Our data support findings that years of general sales experience are not relevant for top performance. Instead, more engagement in purposeful practice activities supports expertise in sales. Moreover, raising awareness among supervisors for purposeful practice and supporting their employees not only on short-term focused goal achievement but also on how they can improve their skills in the long run is essential for reproducible, superior performance. We anticipate that empowering this leadership behavior will strengthen the workforce and enable salespeople to resist the temptation of performing pleasant, immediately rewarding work activities for actions that support long-term goals. Hence, we recommend fostering purposeful practice and continual learning by the following activities: (a) raising awareness among sales leaders for this kind of upskilling to be integrated into their coaching practice (Good, 1993), (b) introducing concepts to the workforce that include purposeful practice as a serious learning opportunity, for example, in self-management training or as an agenda point at the end of meetings (Boyer et al., 2014) and (c) cultivating an environment that triggers engagement in effortful learning activities in daily work life focusing on those purposeful learning activities in which novices, experienced professionals, and experts actually engage by adding quality to their practice (Billett et al., 2018).

Limitations and further research

As with all studies, limitations in the study need to be supplemented with additional research to further confirm the influence of purposeful sales practice. First, given the fact that we want our data to represent the greater sales community, we did reach a global sample but lacked a gender-balanced data set. Further research across a more diverse, larger sample would be needed before we draw definite conclusions about the precise impact of the purposeful practice activities of “Asking questions and probing” and “Concluding and assessing afterwards.”

Second, the workplaces and how they are designed depend on the products and solutions sold, on the organization’s corporate culture, and on the work activities employees are allowed to engage in. This is, to some extent, unique, not easily comparable for all sales work settings, but highly situated (Goller & Billett, 2014). Nevertheless, sales allow a certain degree of freedom for employees and their activities. How they solve problems along the sales cycle and how they gain work experience depend on them. Therefore, whether and how salespeople actually engage in various work-specific activities depends on their motivation and willingness to involve themselves in effortful practice.

However, this approach does create a great opportunity for future research and goes beyond a call for improving classroom learning toward a broader understanding of the learning activities embedded in daily sales life to support sales expertise development and, in more detail, the role of “Asking questions and probing” and “Concluding and assessing afterwards.” Because we are only at the beginning of understanding purposeful sales practice, many questions remain unanswered, leaving space for future research.

Regarding the theoretical concept: What variables might have been omitted from our theoretical concept of purposeful sales practice? More research is needed on predictive validity to account for the currently omitted variables in the concept. How robust are our findings when we change the target group within sales? Consequently, there is a need for replicatory studies, including other sales positions, sales tasks, and sales environments, or a change of method, for example, diary methods or think-aloud protocols to add more validity to our findings. Correspondingly, what does it mean in detail when “Asking questions and probing” and “Concluding and assessing afterwards” are important to improving, and sales experts practice these activities without halting their skill development?

Regarding the work environment: How can we design current working conditions that favor purposeful practice? What role might sales coaching play? More research is needed on the interplay between sales leadership behavior and purposeful practice, as coaching is one of the most-used leadership tools to shape sales behavior (Peesker et al., 2021; Rangarajan et al., 2020). Therefore, a logical next step would be to intensify the research interest in purposeful sales practice and sales leadership.

Another important research focus might be technology adoption and purposeful sales practice. Current research shows that higher-performing salespeople tend to adopt new technology faster, supporting the sales process (Sharma et al., 2020). New ways of interaction and changing mind-sets and behaviors might be perceived as easier for salespeople engaging in purposeful sales practice to cope with, as they constantly improve themselves.

In conclusion, this research uses findings from deliberate and purposeful practice and sales performance to provide a new integrative conceptual framework based on the work activities salespeople engage in to explain superior sales performance. In addition, the analysis identified deliberate engagement in “Asking questions and probing” and “Concluding and assessing afterwards” as relevant activities that supported superior performance. Moreover, this study illuminates salespeoples’ perceptions of learning activities in the workplace. The results contribute to research on sales performance and purposeful practice in the workplace and determine that everyday practice activities, when deliberately executed, are key to superior sales performance.

Data sharing

Data available on request from the authors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10696679.2022.2159838

Appendix

Table A1. Summary of deliberate and purposeful practice activities examined in previous studies in the domain of sales relevant work contexts.

Purposeful Practice Activity	Sonnentag and Kleine (2000)	Dunn and Shriner (1999)	Van de Wiel et al. (2004)	Unger et al. (2009)	Dew et al. (2018)
Participants	Insurance Agents (N = 100)^a	Teacher (N = 136)^a	Consultants (N = 23)^b	Small Business Owners (N = 90)^a	Entrepreneurs Conceptual work
Preparation	√	√	√	√
Asking questions & probing					√
Concluding and assessing afterward	√
Exploring new strategies	√		√	√
Observing others		√		√
Asking for feedback	√			√
Mental simulations	√	√		√
Workshops and training sessions		√		√
Consulting domain experts	√		√	√
Consulting colleagues	√		√	√
Formal meetings	√			√
Private conversations	√			√
Professional reading		√	√	√
Informal meetings	√

^aNo distinction between expertise levels.

^bContrastive approach with two expertise level groups.