The Determinants of Sales Force Turnover in FMCG Industry – An Empirical Study in Sri Lankan Context

Abstract

This study focused on determining the key factors contributing to the Sales Force Turnover in the FMCG industry in Sri Lanka based on the previous researches done on the same subject in different contexts.

With the rapid economic development during the post war era, the entire FMCG industry in Sri Lanka faced with a problem of recruiting and retaining the front liners of their Sales Force. It was revealed that the turnover of Sales people was almost double when compared to the other employees in the same FMCG companies. Therefore this empirical study was done to identify salient points contributing to the situation.

A survey was conducted amongst a sample of sales Representatives in FMCG companies in Sri Lanka using the 7 point Likert Scale based on the questions derived from the literature review. The results of 264 properly filled questionnaires from the survey were analyzed using parametric tests such as mean for the central tendency, standard deviation for variability and Pearson's r for association.

A total of 17 different variables were tested under 4 factors namely External, Organizational, Work related and Personal. The analysis revealed that Organizational and Work Related factors have a significant influence towards the staying or quitting of the Sales Representatives from their companies. Personal factors had a marginal effect while External factors were identified as not influential.

The study had the limitation of been conducted amongst only 4 different sectors of FMCG industry and using only male Company Sales Representatives while the market comprised a large number of sectors and employed almost a similar number of Distributor's Sales Representatives and a marginal number of females.