The effective training of salespeople is crucial to a firm’s success; there is arguably no more critical type of training than a salesperson’s onboarding. In this study, the authors leverage a natural field experiment in which a firm’s newly hired salespeople can undergo onboarding through either a decentralized program or a centralized program to examine the relative impact of each program. Drawing on organizational socialization theory, the authors consider whether an onboarding program that incorporates both individualized and institutionalized socialization tactics (the decentralized program) can develop salespeople into higher performers by encouraging them to take a more innovative and adaptive approach to different facets of the sales role. The findings reveal that salespeople who underwent the decentralized program achieved approximately 23.5% higher sales performance than those who underwent the centralized program. The performance benefits of the decentralized program were amplified for salespeople whose managers had a narrower span of control. In addition, these performance benefits were appreciable for those salespeople transitioning from another job but negligible for those transitioning from school. A scenario-based experiment enriches the field experiment’s findings by showing evidence of the theorized mechanism underlying the sales performance benefits observed: the fostering of an innovative role orientation.

销售人员的有效培训对于公司的成功至关重要；可以说，没有比销售人员入职培训更重要的培训类型了。在这项研究中，作者利用自然现场实验，公司新聘用的销售人员可以通过分散式计划或集中式计划进行入职培训，以检查每个计划的相对影响。借鉴组织社会化理论，作者考虑了结合个性化和制度化社会化策略（分散计划）的入职计划是否可以通过鼓励销售人员对销售角色的不同方面采取更具创新性和适应性的方法来将其培养成更高绩效的人. 调查结果表明，接受分散式计划的销售人员的销售业绩比接受集中式计划的销售人员高出约 23.5%。对于经理控制范围较窄的销售人员，分散计划的绩效优势得到了放大。此外，这些绩效收益对于那些从另一份工作过渡的销售人员来说是可观的，但对于那些从学校过渡的销售人员来说却可以忽略不计。基于情景的实验通过展示所观察到的销售业绩收益背后的理论机制的证据来丰富现场实验的结果：培养创新的角色定位。对于经理控制范围较窄的销售人员，分散计划的绩效优势得到了放大。此外，这些绩效收益对于那些从另一份工作过渡的销售人员来说是可观的，但对于那些从学校过渡的销售人员来说却可以忽略不计。基于情景的实验通过展示所观察到的销售业绩收益背后的理论机制的证据来丰富现场实验的结果：培养创新的角色定位。对于经理控制范围较窄的销售人员，分散计划的绩效优势得到了放大。此外，这些绩效收益对于那些从另一份工作过渡的销售人员来说是可观的，但对于那些从学校过渡的销售人员来说却可以忽略不计。基于情景的实验通过展示所观察到的销售业绩收益背后的理论机制的证据来丰富现场实验的结果：培养创新的角色定位。