AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
The level of customer orientation is also evaluated on a
respective scale by using the following statements:
1.
I try to help my customers to achieve their goals.
2.
I try to solve the problem together with my customer, by
offering a version of a product that would best meet the
solution of a problem (selection of the period, amount of
the premium, additional insurance, insurance sums, etc.).
3.
Presenting a product to a customer, I try to provide as clear
information as possible so that the customer would know
exactly what he gets.
4.
Sometimes I have to object to the customer’s opinion when
I want to help him make a better decision. (reverse)
5.
I am selling a product or designing it more with respect to
my personal goals than to what is better for the customer.
(reverse).
The abilities of active listening have been analysed according to
the following statements ranked by the respondents:
1.
At the time of selling I give the impression that I am
sincerely listening to the buyer.
2.
I do not interrupt the customer when he/she speaks.
3.
I am asking continuous questions, e.g. “Can you tell me
more?”
4.
I am asking clarifying questions, e.g., “I am not sure if I
have understood what you mean“.
5.
I support eye contact with the customer.
6.
Every time I give the customer a nod, showing that I
understand what he/she says and that I agree with his
opinion.
7.
I can understand the signs of customer’s body language.
8.
I wait for the customer to finish talking, to summarize what
has been said.
9.
I often repeat what the customer says.
10.
I try to understand the buyer’s attitude.
11.
I try to find common things between myself and the
customer.
a)
Questions aimed at evaluating intermediaries’ personality
traits. In order to determine the level of intermediaries’
self-efficacy which determines their job performance,
respondents have been asked to rank the following
statements on a scale from 1 (totally agree) to 5 (totally
disagree):
1.
At the time of selling, I know clearly how I should behave in
different situations.
2.
I am convinced that I do my job well.
3.
I am very responsible in selling.
4.
I am a good specialist in the sphere of sales.
5.
I am a motivated person.
6.
In my work, I have various competences that help me do my
job well.
7.
I am convinced that I can execute the sales process
successfully.
8.
I am convinced that I have a strong ability to sell, even if I
sometimes fail.
9.
I feel that my sales process is not going the way I want.
(reverse)
Emotional intelligence has been evaluated by using the
following statements:
1.
I can understand what emotions a person is experiencing
from human facial expression.
2.
I rely on my feelings when making important decisions.
3.
I can remain calm when it comes to dealing with stressful
situations.
4.
When I am angry, I manage to calm down quickly.
5.
I can control my mood so that I could rationally solve
difficulties.
6.
I am sufficiently capable of controlling my emotions.
7.
I constantly say that I am a competent employee.
8.
I always set goals for myself and try to achieve them.
9.
I can easily recognize emotions from people’s behaviour.
10.
I understand and know my emotions well.
b)
Questions related to job performance of intermediaries.
Based on the accomplished studies and their generalisations, five
research hypotheses have been formulated to confirm or to deny
the influence of personality traits and work methods of
Lithuanian dependent life insurance intermediaries on their
performance:
H1: Self-efficacy of life insurance intermediaries is directly
positively related to their sales performance.
H2: The level of emotional intelligence of life insurance
intermediaries is directly positively related to their sales
performance.
H3: The method of adaptive selling used by life insurance
intermediaries is directly positively related to their sales
performance.
H4: Customer orientation of life insurance intermediaries is
directly positively related to their sales performance.
H5: Active listening of life insurance intermediaries is directly
positively related to their sales performance.
To process the data, the statistical data processing software SPSS
(version 17.0) has been used. In the course of processing the
data, the following mean variables marked with the
corresponding abbreviations have been derived: adaptive selling
– AS, customer orientation – CO, active listening – AL, self-
efficacy – SE, emotional intelligence – EI, the average number
of life insurance contracts per month – ANC, the average
premium of life insurance contract – APC, the average monthly
income from life insurance intermediation – AII.
A large part of data analysis methods is based on the assumption
that the values of variables have normal distribution, but it is
important to apply the appropriate methods to verify this
assumption. In order to determine what kind of analysis should
be applied to test the hypotheses, normal distribution of
derivative variables is evaluated. Depending on the sample size,
the Shapiro-Wilk criterion has been chosen. The data presented
in Table 1 shows that the selected criterion has not confirmed
normal distribution of variables (p-values of all variables are
greater than the chosen significance level of 0.05).
Table 1. The coefficients for evaluating normal distribution of
the derivative mean variables
Derivative mean variable
Shapiro-Wilk criterion
Adaptive selling (AS)
0,892
Customer orientation (CO)
0,865
Active listening (AL)
0,832
Self-efficacy (SE)
0,820
Emotional intelligence (EI)
0,836
Since all distributions of variables of are not normally
distributed, non-parametric criteria are employed to evaluate the
hypotheses; Spearman’s correlation coefficients are calculated.
Prior to correlation and regression analysis, descriptive statistics
of the measures has been performed. It aims at determining the
mean values of the measures, to estimate the measures of
location and dispersion, as well as their maximum and minimum
values. To assess the internal consistency of the composed
constructs (scales), the values of Cronbach’s alpha statistics have
been calculated, the internal consistency with the data of each
construct (scale) has been assessed.
In the course of the research, the relationship among customer
orientation, adaptive selling, self-efficacy, active listening,
emotional intelligence of life insurance intermediaries, and their
sales performance – the average number of the concluded life
insurance contracts, the average premium of the signed contracts
and the average income from life insurance intermediation has
been evaluated. For this purpose, Spearman’s correlation
coefficients have been calculated.
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