Imagine your sales force doesn’t support your branding strategy? Can you build an effective marketing program? Imagine selling a product/service that you don’t believe in, for a company whose brand you don’t align with. Is it possible to hit your sales targets and succeed in this kind of environment? Questions like these have plagued the sales and marketing departments at many organizations over the years. But does the alignment of the salespeople with the brand really matter?

Branding is a major element of the marketing function, and practical wisdom says salespeople play a vital role in communicating the company brand. Salespeople often act as “brand ambassadors,” conveying the message of the firm to customers. Marketing departments often bemoan that the salesforce isn’t representing the brand well. It may seem important, then, that salespeople identify with the brand in order to effectively generate such commitment within customers and improve firm performance.

In this research, we investigated whether brand values aligning with salesperson values affect identifying with the brand and the company, and whether these ultimately affected performance, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment.

Data was collected in an online survey from 246 salespeople or sales managers with selling experience in industries including fashion, consumer appliances, manufacturing, business services, and health care. The researchers found that:

• Higher levels of salesperson brand value congruence will have a positive influence on salesperson brand identification.
• Higher levels of salesperson company value congruence will have a positive influence on salesperson company identification.
• Higher levels of salesperson brand identification will have a positive influence on salesperson company identification.
• Higher levels of salesperson brand identification will have a positive influence on salesperson behavior performance.
• Higher levels of salesperson brand identification will have a positive influence on salesperson outcome performance.
• Higher levels of salesperson company identification will have a positive influence on salesperson job satisfaction.
• Higher levels of salesperson company identification will have a positive influence on salesperson organizational commitment.

Overall, the research found that the more that the salesperson perceived his/her values aligned with the values of the brands and the companies they represent, the more they identified with the brands and the companies. This finding matters because identifying with the brand and the company seems to drive higher levels of performance, job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

Sales Managers should be mindful of these findings and take action. For example, organizations can improve salesperson brand identification by emphasizing and regularly communicating the values of the organization, encouraging salespeople to connect with these values on a personal level. Management should also consider value congruence when making key decisions related to talent management in the areas of recruitment, motivation, training and development, and performance evaluation.

In conclusion, the research provides clear evidence that strengthened salesperson-brand identification can be a key driver for the success of the firm.

Summarized from: Bashar S. Gammoh, Michael L. Mallin & Ellen Bolman Pullins (2014) Antecedents and consequences of salesperson identification with the brand and company, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 34:1, 3-18, DOI: 10.1080/08853134.2013.87018

*See original article for citations