Sales Force Automation and Sales Performance: Do Experience and Expertise Matter?

We examined the effect of using a knowledge management–based sales force automation (SFA) system on the sales performance of 1,340 sales representatives. We found that SFA system use was directly related to performance—the more knowledge documents that sales representatives read, the more likely they were to exceed their quota. Expertise moderated this relationship. Sales representatives who exceeded their sales quota in the previous year derived significantly greater benefit from SFA system use than did other sales representatives.