Developing Instrument for Micro-Skills of Selling for Sales Professionals in the Thai Petrochemical Industry

Abstract

Sales professionals play an important role in securing revenue and continued profitability for any industry. This research aimed to develop a scale for micro-skills in selling that contains research-based items specifically for sales professionals in Thai petrochemical industries. An exploratory sequential mixed-methods design was used for the development of the scale. In the first part of the qualitative phase, data were gathered through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 10 experienced sales professionals to explore the main factors of micro-skills for selling. Five primary themes were identified through thematic analysis. Then the results of the qualitative phase were used to develop an instrument. In the quantitative phase, the micro-skills of selling scale, with 23 items measured on a 5-point Likert scale, was administered to 250 petrochemical industry sales professionals in Thailand. The quantitative data were analyzed by multivariate statistics and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The implication of this study is that it would enhance knowledge about micro-skills of selling, which are accountable factors for the sales professionals’ performance in the petrochemical industries in Thailand.