Inside Sales Force and Gender: Mediating Effects of Intrinsic Motivation on Sales Controls and Performance

B2B sales organizations are experiencing inside sales growth as well as increased importance and utilization of the inside salesperson. This dynamic role change towards inside sales is resulting in organizations re-thinking their sales control structure. Such topics as how gender influences the way sales managers motivate their inside sales force to what forms of motivation are most impactful are important considerations in the design and implementation of more effective sales control systems. To fill this gap, this research empirically investigates B2B inside salespersons and the moderating influences of gender on the sales control and job performance relationship. Comprising this study is an evaluation of a two group subsample moderation on the mediating effect of intrinsic motivation, both challenge seeking and task enjoyment, on the model relationships. Practitioners will benefit from this research as the need for greater understanding of how role and gender variables along with control systems and intrinsic motivation work together in the design and implementation of various sales control systems.