The major finding in this research is that the sales students of the IBS (International Business and Sales Management) Programme of UEF (University of Eastern Finland) have severe motivational problems. Not all sales students are motivated to pursue their career in sales.
The sales student’s motivation is different, although all respondents said that income, rewards, job security motivate them. At the beginning of the result section the motivational profiles were created for each sales student. The profiles were grounded on SDT and its division of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan 1985). The sales students were differently motivated as sales student A and B were more intrinsically motivated than the sales students C, D, E, and F.
Extrinsically motivated sales students appreciated high income, rewards, job security more than the intrinsically motivated sales students.
SDT suggests that people need to feel competent to be motivated (Deci & Ryan 1985).
Salesperson tend to look for intrinsically motivating work experiences and develop their skills all along (Mallin & Pullins 2009). The feeling of competence increased respondents’
motivation in this study. The sales students felt that they could be good seller, but they also criticized the practical training of the sales task. There is not enough practical task in sales related courses and the students want to learn sales work practically before they start their job in sales. The lack of training or practical task cause mistakes and errors and some sales students felt that it affects to their feeling of professionalism because theoretical knowledge is not enough to do sales work. Still the respondents felt that they are good and competent seller.
Previous researches suggest that autonomy in work increases people’s intrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan 1985, Gagne & Deci 2005). In this study some sales students felt that they do like to work independently and autonomously. Although some sales students prefer independent work without supervision, most of the sales students would like more support and supervision from their lecturer, supervisor and also the manager of their workplace. Therefore, this study partially disagrees with previous research.
The results show that the challenges, and skill and knowledge development have a major influence on sales student’s motivation to choose their career in sales. The previous research suggests that people need to have goals, as goal setting motivates people to be more productive (Brown et al. 2005). The goal should be self-set and challenging yet achievable (Brown et al.
2005). The sales work is quite challenging which make the work interesting for sales students.
They said challenging work motivates them but too much challenges also decrease their motivation. The sales students have learned many important things from sales management course and sales work. It improved their skills and develop their knowledge. The previous research suggests that sales students could learn from sales courses about how to communicate with the customer, how to speak with them, how to negotiate with customers, how to cooperate with cultural differences, how to convince the customer to buy the product (Cummins et al.
2015). It develops their communication and speaking skills and increase their confidence to sales work. The sales students gain many theoretical knowledges from sales related courses about selling process, selling strategy, product knowledge and it increases their motivation to sales.
Innovative teaching style has positive impact on sales student’s motivation. Cummins et al.
(2015) suggests that sales students could get practical experiences about sales job from the educational institutions or sales education. The sales students could get many different types of theoretical knowledges about sales from teacher. The sales students said that in every sales course, the teacher invited some guests who provided them some real-life experience and knowledge because all guests are well experienced in sales career. The previous research suggests that the teachers could invite some professional experienced person or guest who have knowledge about sales and sales management (Cummins et al. 2015). It increases the sales student’s motivation to sales work when they heard someone’s work experience, struggle and then a successful career. In this research the results suggest that the teaching style should be more developed, and the respondents also said that the teaching style is quite good, but it could be better. Because it mostly provides theoretical knowledge, but the sales students want more practical task to get experience in sales work. They need to add more practical task in sales which could increase the sales student’s confidence and they could find it interesting. As the previous research suggests, the sales task and the teaching style could positively effect on sales student’s motivation to sales career (Cummins et al. 2015).
Maslow (1943) suggests that human have a desire for reputation, prestige, recognition, attention, and appreciation. Also, other previous researches support that. For example, Wiley (1997) suggest that people are motivated when they get appreciation from their work. The lack of appreciation is also a major reason why people leave their work (Neckermann & Frey 2013).
The sales students felt that they are not appreciated from their supervisor and lecturer. Even from their work experience, they said they do not get appreciation form their manager which demotivated them. The sales students would probably be more satisfied if they feel their work
is appreciated by their supervisor, lecturer, or the managers. The previous research suggests that informative positive feedback increase people’s intrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan 1985).
If the verbal rewards are seen as controlling, the motivation decreases (Deci & Ryan 1985;
Deci et al. 1999). In this research the sales students felt that they do not get enough feedback from their supervisor or lecturer when they do some task or activities. They would hope more feedback about their performance, even negative feedback as they can develop from it. The sales students felt that receiving enough feedback could increase their motivation.
The study shows that the high-income potential and rewards have a major influence on sales students to pursue their career. According to Pullins (2001) salary does not have any effect to intrinsic motivation. In this study, the income, money, rewards, compensation have effect on sales student’s motivation. The sales students choose sales career because they felt it is easy to get high income, rewards, and commission from sales job rather than other job. That is why the respondents are not satisfied with their work they are not motivated intrinsically. The previous studies suggest that the rewards have an effect on salespeople’s intrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan 1985). When the people have doubt about his or her ability to do the task, the intrinsic motivation decreases with the level of the bonus offered doing the task (Deci & Ryan 1985). Therefore, the high income and rewards negatively effect on sales student’s motivation to choose their career in sales.
According to results job security is one of the reasons for the sales students to choose their career in sales. Most of the sales students felt there are available job in sales, and these are secure they do not need to think about future that is the reason they want to make their career in sales. They said it gives them too much stress when there is no guarantee of a permanent job in any field. In this research the results suggest that the sales students need to think about how to be satisfied intrinsically with their work because thinking about job security only increase their extrinsic motivation, but it could negatively effect on their intrinsic motivation. The previous research suggests that who are internally motivated by their job they have satisfied in their work, they can develop their personal label, they enjoy their work because they find it interesting, challenging and they can balance their lifestyle (Bristow et al. 2011). However, this study is partially agreeing with the previous research.
Cummins et al. (2015) suggests that the educational practices are positively affected on the sales student’s perception to sales career. The results are similar as in earlier studies. The sales students wanted to study in sales and chose sales courses to know more about sales and also to
increase their intrinsic motivation because they are extrinsically motivated to sales work. The results of this study show that sales study and sales education increase some of the sales student’s motivation but also some of the sales students are demotivated by sales management courses. Because they felt there is not enough sales training or practical task, they only get theoretical knowledge from sales courses. But they wanted to get experience from sales courses by performing sales task before they start their job or career.
Most of the sales students want to choose the sales career because of extrinsic motivation. And intrinsically motivated sales students are not that much satisfied by sales education because they need to be more motivated. So, it is needed to improve and increase the sales student’s intrinsic motivation because intrinsically motivated sales students could make a profitable career in sales because they would enjoy the work and they would be satisfied by their work.
Intrinsically motivated people are less likely to leave their work or dissatisfied by their work (Dysvik & Kuvaas 2010).
It is very difficult to motivate all the sales students and increase their intrinsic motivation because everyone has different perception about motivation. At the following student offers her suggestions how to increase the intrinsic motivation of sales students.