A Nuanced Analysis of Salesperson Grit: Exploring Perseverance, Consistency, and Mind-set Academic Article uri icon

Abstract

  • The increasing interest of grit research in sales represents an opportunity as sales-dependent organizations stand to benefit significantly from an enhanced understanding of how grit arises and how it affects sales performance. The nature of sales, with high levels of stress and rejection, presents conditions in which individuals possessing high levels of grit should find greater success than their less gritty peers. However, three predominant issues limit the findings of previous research on grit in a sales and marketing context: scholars have elected to measure grit (1) with adolescents before personality traits are fully established, (2) in non-sales contexts, or (3) using only one of the two dimensions of grit, generally assessing perseverance but not consistency. Thus, due to differing opinions among researchers regarding the usefulness of grit’s proposed subdimensions, perseverance and consistency of interests, the scant research in that has examined grit within organizational contexts presents a muddled picture of grit’s potential utility for the field of sales. Therefore, this study addresses all three concerns by investigating grit in a B2B sales setting, with adult salespeople, and on both dimensions of grit.

Publication Date

  • 2022-09-01