Mavenness and salespeople success: An empirical investigation

Abstract

The sales literature has examined many characteristics of highly successful salespeople but as yet has not evaluated the concept of mavenness in the context of sales. Mavens are persons who have a passionate desire to freely share their expertise and knowledge for the benefit of others. This paper develops a three-factor measure of mavenness that measures levels of expertise, passion and the desire to share knowledge, and tests if higher levels of mavenness are associated with superior salesperson performance. The scale was administered to a sample of 122 salespersons in a large insurance company. Data on salesperson performance as well as other control variables were collected from archival records. Confirmatory factor analysis provided satisfactory support for the scale. Mavenness and the control variables were regressed on salesperson performance. All three factors of mavenness were highly significant. Sales managers can improve the selection and training of their sales force by using the scale to find candidates with high levels of mavenness. Although the concept of mavenness is not new, no attempt to measure this trait has been made previously. Furthermore, this trait has not before been tested to see if high levels of mavenness are associated with superior salesperson performance. © 2012 The Clute Institute.