Examination of the Individual Competencies that Differentiate Results in Direct Sales

The importance of knowledge and skills in meeting new challenges in production and distribution is particularly evident in today’s market, which is characterized by a saturation of products and strong competition. To be successful in the market, companies must stand out and be creative and communicative. The leading factor in providing these features is the human potential, which represents both opportunities and threats to the operation and development of the companies. For companies involved in sales, especially direct sales, this factor is expressed in the specific competencies of individual employees. The importance of individual competence in direct sales is reflected in the demand for research in this field. This article presents the results of research the author conducted on a group of 455 direct sales vendors that operate in the form of direct sales known as multilevel marketing (MLM). The respondents represented three groups: group I - inexperienced sellers that are starting work; group II - sellers who reach significant sales results; and group III - the leaders that achieve the highest sales results. The article presents the results of two analyses, namely discriminant and correlation analysis. The purpose of the discriminant analysis was to identify the set of competencies that particularly distinguish each group. The analysis was performed to indicate the factors that differentiate the surveyed groups. The purpose of the correlation analysis was to identify the correlation between particular competencies in the surveyed groups. Intercorrelations between the individual competencies were analyzed. The results identified the competences that best differentiate the surveyed sellers groups and also showed that most competencies strongly correlate with one another. The results indicate that by influencing the development of one competency, another set of competencies can be developed. This is an important aspect of the development of training programs for sellers.


Introduction
Manufacturers search for different sales solutions. This results in changes in the methods of distribution, a reduction in distribution channels and a reduction in the distance that a product has to "overcome". To encourage the customer to buy a particular product, companies attract them with an attractive price, a special offer or more a convenient form of purchase. One of these forms is direct sales.
To be successful in the market, companies have to know how convince the customer to purchase the product. Therefore, there is competition for the customer in which some win and some lose, but not everyone

Examination of the Individual Competencies that Differentiate Results in Direct Sales
abilities, and behavior that is expected by the employer and is important in professional work (Oleksyn, 1997, p. 4). Competencies may also include fixed sets of knowledge, skills, and ways of thinking that can be applied without additional learning (Levy-Leboyer, 1997, p. 19). Moreover, competencies are related to the ability to apply skills and knowledge to new situations within a profession (Rakowska & Sitko-Lutek, 2000, p. 17). Knowledge that helps someone operate effectively should also be transferred from the sender (e.g., trainer) in such a way that the recipient increases his abilities, which in turn leads to an increase of work so that the organization can achieve its goals (Wang & Haggerty, 2009, p. 579).
Individual competencies are recognized as permanent features that lead to high or above average work results (Pocztowski & Miś, 2000, p. 69). All of the components of competence (personality, knowledge, skills and values) are associated with work in such a way as to perform tasks (Armstrong, 2000, p. 242) that affect the work of the individual (Becker, Huselid & Ulrich, 2002, p. 162) and allow the worker to perform these tasks well at a specific and appropriate level (Ludwiczyński, 2006, p. 231-274).
The meanings of the concepts of highest efficiency, outstanding or good results and an appropriate level in terms of competence should be considered in relation to efficiency. These concepts are used in the literature as effectiveness, productivity, efficiency and proficiency, which are concepts that define the goals that the organization sets for the employee. In addition, the increasing competitiveness of companies leads organizations to observe, identify and target the effects while taking into account the human resources that they currently have, need and will need in the future.
An interesting approach of how to define individual competencies is recognizing their use as a source of corporate success and in achieving planned strategies and business goals. In this perspective, components of competency (knowledge, skills, abilities, styles of working, personality, valued principles, interests) that are used and developed in the work process lead to results that are compatible with the strategic goals of the organization (Rostkowski, 2002, p. 66). In this way, the concept of individual competencies assumes the use of any char-Examination of the Individual Competencies that Differentiate Results in Direct Sales acteristics of the employee both within a given position and in conjunction with the implementation of strategic goals. Moreover, it assumes the use and development of competencies, which is important because otherwise the competencies may be reduced or become obsolete and become less useful at work. The ability to correctly define competencies therefore assumes the use of formal factors (knowledge, experience, skills, abilities) to efficiently implement the actions and performance of organizational roles (Strykowska, 2000, p. 34) and assists in achieving the objectives of the company, professional actions or even ethical cultural values (Sajkiewicz, 1999, p. 44). Accuracy in defining competencies is revealed in identifying task completion at the effective and/or outstanding level according to the standards of the organization for a given position (Król, 2002, p. 1-25;Król, 2006, p. 50-91). The ability to work effectively and develop professional relationships is interdependent with social activities. Professional and social success both depend on the abilities to communicate, listen to and understand others, regulate emotions and cooperate (Hawley & Newman, 2010, p. 1293).
On the other hand, in emphasizing the behavioral aspect of the definitions, the authors believe that competencies have their origin in human behavior, which affects their actions. The connection of competencies with key aspects of behavior distinguishes effective and less effective actions. In this sense, we can identify soft or behavioral competencies, which include interpersonal skills, leadership, analytical skills and orientation for success or achievements (Armstrong, 2004, p. 242).
The combination of these two aspects of the concept of competencies, from a practical point of view, is the most appropriate way of understanding and expressing competency. It is therefore appropriate to recognize competencies as both observable skills and abilities in carrying out the tasks and behavioral dimensions that affect their performance (Fletcher, 2002, p. 149;Sparrow, 1997;Woodruffe, 1996).
In addition, there are different approaches to the division of competencies. The division of competencies in terms of their influence and importance for a job is described in the literature. Competencies are divided into two categories (Spencer & Spencer, 1993, p. (Pocztowski, 2007, p. 118 (Listwan, 1995, pp. 22-23).
One of the first divisions of competencies was made by R.L. Katz, who divided competencies into technical, interpersonal and conceptual abilities. Technical abilities include knowledge of methods, techniques, procedures, and the ability to use special tools related to a particular discipline. Interpersonal abilities include knowledge of human behavior and their relationships and the ability to understand feelings, attitudes, motivation, whereas conceptual abilities are general analytical abilities, logical thinking, creativity, deductive thinking, and anticipating effects and changes (Katz, 1955, pp. 33-42).
According to R. L. Katz, the levels of specific abilities possessed by a manager is dependent on the level of management. At lower levels of management, technical abilities are most important. Interpersonal abilities become more important at average levels of management but are important at all levels. Conceptual abilities are most significant at higher levels of management. Of course, it is important to have and use all kinds of abilities at the highest level, but the most significant abilities are a global way of thinking and the ability to coordinate and recognize the organization as a whole (Stoner, Freeman & Gilbert, 1999, p. 33).
Some researchers believe that defining competencies may be consistent not only with our intuition (colloquial understanding) but also with the psychological knowledge of the mechanisms that determine high competencies or lack of them. Other important factors are whether one's mental dispositions are correlated with smooth operation of a particular position and which ones can play the most important roles in this process (Nosal, 1999, p. 90).
Therefore, we adopt the following definition of individual competencies for the purposes of our studies. Individual competencies are knowledge, attitudes, skills, willingness to act and a set of personality traits and predispositions that lead to superior results when used. The division of competencies is consistent with the analysis of managerial competencies, including technical, conceptual, and interpersonal competencies, but their use depends on the level of management. This is reasonable because of the proposed thesis that people at the highest level of sales are characterized by more specific skills than those that are inexperienced and are starting their career. The three levels of management may not be completely equivalent to the three levels of the effects of work (sales results) that form the three groups in this research. However, there are some similarities because it is a collection of competencies that take into account the specific requirements of the various management levels and different levels of salespeople. The most important competencies in the work of the President or Chief Executive Officer are often unimportant in the case of the lowest-level manager, and vice versa. The same assumption can be made when analyzing groups of salespeople in multilevel marketing; that is, the most important competency for a manager with the highest sales (group III) is not necessarily relevant for entry-level salespeople (group I).
Direct sales is considered to be the oldest channel of distribution. In the Middle Ages, direct sales dealers were called "bagmen" or "peddlers". They contributed to the development of trade by moving goods from one location to another and presenting them to wider ranges of customers. At the beginning of the twentieth century, direct sales played particularly important roles for products that required appropriate presentations of the ways to use them. For example, the vacuum cleaner, which was technically a new product, had to be adequately demonstrated before it could be sold.
Currently, direct sales is a booming business sector that gives millions of people around the world the opportunity to run their own businesses and earn a living.
Many subject experts define direct sales as all sales that take place outside of stores, including agents of the company that visit potential customers at their homes or places of work and present goods, samples or catalogs to them (Czubala, 2001, p. 83).
The World Federation of Direct Selling Associations (WFDSA) and the European Direct Selling Association consider direct sales as providing consumer goods and services directly to customers through personal contact, usually in their homes, workplaces or other locations that are not regular points of sale. The advantage of this type of sale for the buyer is the opportunity to see and test the product at any time, at home or among friends. Goods are delivered directly to the customer (www.wfdsa.org; www.fedsa.be). wfdsa.org). However, in the case of fraudulent manufacturers, there is a risk that sellers will have to cover the indirect costs associated with distribution, promotion or returned goods when the manufacturer does not accept them from the seller. It should also be noted that direct selling does not guarantee stability of employment. Sellers cooperate with manufacturers on the basis of civil law contracts, and the generated salary is based on commission and depends only on the seller's sales. In addition, the seller bears high initial financial and time costs that are required to find potential customers.

Examination of the Individual Competencies that Differentiate Results in Direct Sales
For businesses, direct sales provide an advantage because they do not have to create their own retail networks. However, the disadvantages of this type of business include the high costs of training salespeople and the loss of control over the selling of goods.
Direct sales can be used for any product, but it is particularly important for products that are subject to larger risks. Risks can be associated with the product, its price, the terms and conditions of purchase, the buyer experience, and the quantity and quality of the products. The role of the seller is closely linked with that risk because the seller's personality and attitude can address the buyer's doubts and concerns. The contribution of the salesperson is essential and irreplaceable when selling products such as electronic equipment, household appliances, cosmetics, and foreign travel. The more expensive the goods are, the higher the buyer's risk is; the seller's role is to provide information about the product to reduce the buyer's risk and increase the chance of a sale (Altkorn, 1999, p. 330).
One form of direct selling is multilevel marketing (MLM), which began in the 1940s in the USA. The first products offered under this system were cleaning products. This form has evolved over time, and more diverse goods have been offered for sale. The first company that introduced multilevel marketing in Europe is the Kleeneze Homecare Company, which was founded in 1969. After some time, multilevel marketing began to develop dynamically in Europe and worldwide.
Companies using MLM offered a wide range of prod-ucts and services in a way that mainly generated positive feelings in buyers. Studies have shown that in sales, psychological factors associated with social ties that are caused by personal contact with the customer are very important (Vander Nat & Keep, 2002, p. 140).
A typical feature of multilevel marketing is bidirectionality of the operation: 1. personal direct sales of goods and services and their advertising, which involves selling products or services directly to customers (Sparks & Schenk, 2001, p. 851).
2. sponsorship, which is the introduction of other people interested in starting a business and joining the group of sellers. The companies reward sponsors for recruiting and training new members according to rules defined in the marketing plans (Garbarski, Rutkowski & Wrzosek, 2008, p. 473). -the distribution costs paid by the distributors are lower than traditional costs because they do not include advertising, maintenance of a sales department, or logistics (Buss, 1997, p. 47); -sales involve the skillful building of long-lasting personal relationships with a client and require a large amount of time and attention to be paid to the customer. The profit comes from the quantity of goods sold, the number of sellers involved in the system (network) and the level of their sales.
The essence of multilevel marketing is the opportunity to build your own business enterprise (Garbarski, Rutkowski & Wrzosek, 2008, p. 473). By running the business, the distributors own and develop their own company without much risk or high costs. The seller is an independent partner of the manufacturer who operates on his own behalf in his own business. This differs from an employee of a traditional company, where the seller is only a hired employee. Distributors can earn more by recruiting additional distributors than from current sales of products or services (Goldsborough, 2001, p. 15).
In multilevel marketing, it is possible to differentiate  (Dewandre & Mahieu, 1997, p. 50). For the company, the benefit of MLM is advertising the products through distributors and their direct contacts. Instead of paying for advertising in media, companies benefit from a cheaper and more effective method of communication (Lee, 2003, p. 37). It should be noted, however, that multilevel marketing is often confused with avalanche sales and is sometimes called a "chain" or "pyramid".
Pyramidal sales are those where remuneration is re-ceived only when new members are introduced to the organization. No products are sold; there is only a socalled registration fee, which is paid by every newly registered person. The salesperson expects to receive payment from the registration fee of each newly registered person. Pyramid systems are banned in most countries, and multilevel marketing rules prohibit any actions that resemble pyramidal systems (Dewandre & Mahieu, 1997, p. 62).

Methodology of research
The subject of this research, which was carried out among direct sales sellers involved primarily in multilevel marketing (MLM), was the competencies of the people running these businesses at every level of sales.
The research was carried out primarily to identify the influence of the competencies of people engaged in multilevel marketing on their sales results. It was important to examine the sets of competencies that influence the sales results. The conducted survey was based on self-assessments of the respondents. The main research hypothesis was formulated as follows: individual competencies of salespeople influence the results of direct sales. It is assumed that multilevel marketing is a form of direct selling.
In addition, the following hypotheses were formulated: I. The volumes of sales in multilevel marketing are subject to a specific set of competencies of the salespeople.

II. A particular set of competencies becomes impor-
tant at higher effects levels and influences these effects on sales in multilevel marketing.
III. There is a common set of competencies for all effects levels.
IV. There is a set of specific competencies for sales in multilevel marketing. V. There is a characteristic set of dominant competencies for each effects level.
VI. There is a set of competencies that particularly distinguishes the effects levels from each other.
To verify the hypotheses, people at different effects levels were studied based on the previously described survey.

The results of research
This article presents the results of analyses that were intended to verify the hypotheses described above. The analysis shows that a set of individual competencies distinguishes the effects levels in multilevel marketing from each other. In addition, the results were analyzed to determine possible linear relationships between the variables. The r-Pearson test (Jóźwiak & Podgórski, 2000, pp. 370 -376;Ścibor-Rylski, 2007, pp. 95-97) was used for this purpose.

Discriminant analysis
Discriminant analysis was performed to analyze the data in terms of the factors that differentiate the groups.
The discriminant analysis tries to create a linear combination of independent variables that best "discriminate" (separate) two or more groups. The analysis can be performed by finding estimators that maximize intergroup variability in relation to intragroup variability. To do this, a discriminant function that finds the "direction in space" that best separates the group data is created. The accuracy of the discriminant function is tested by estimating the corresponding ratio of correctness after applying this function to a known group.
The ratio accuracy is also defined, which in turn is a measure of how well the discriminant function separates the analyzed groups. The values of these ratios are shown in Table 1.
The standardized canonical ratios of the discriminant functions that provide the essential saturation of a function with a particular competence are greater than 0.30. They are shown in Table 1 in bold (column 1 -function 1). The values indicate that the first factor  The discriminant analysis showed that: • Function No. 1, which includes the level of leadership, team management, knowledge and experience, best differentiates group I from group II and group III.

• Function No. 2 best differentiates groups II and III.
Group III has smaller proportions of motivation, learning and dealing with stress than group II.
It therefore can be concluded that: 1. The discriminant analysis showed that competencies such as leadership, team management, knowledge and experience most differentiate group I from groups II and III. These competencies are stronger in groups II and III than in the group I, which is composed of people who have just started selling in multilevel marketing.

2.
The discriminant analysis also showed that the differences in proportions between the competencies of self-motivation, learning and coping with stress most differentiate group II from group III. The difference between the groups is not related to higher levels of these competences but rather to the differences in their proportions. Groups II and III include sellers that have already achieved significant results in sales.

Correlation analysis -correlations between individual competencies in the surveyed groups
The statistical analysis of the data indicated the need for additional analysis that is focused on the connections and relationships between competencies. Thus, a correlation analysis was used to determine the intercorrela-  between -1 and +1 (Aczel, 2000, pp. 479-480). Higher correlations indicate a greater influence of one variable on another (Bielecka, 2005, p. 276 (Aczel, 2000, p. 480). Table 2  The correlation analysis showed that there is a strong correlation between the competencies in group I, which indicates that changing or developing one competency will also develop another competency. Such a strong correlation does not exist in groups II and III.
Correlation therefore answers the question of whether interacting with one competency will change another. The results of the discriminant analysis concerning the disparities between the self-motivation, learning and dealing with stress competencies, as well as the results of the comprehensive statistical analysis, indicated that there are no significant statistical differences in the case of learning and self-motivation and that the average values in groups II and II are similar. Therefore, these qualities do not differentiate the two groups. In addition, there is no difference between self-motivation and dealing with stress in group III, but there is a difference in group II. In this case, the dealing with stress competency is lower. A significant statistical difference occurs between learning and dealing with stress in group III; the difference is small but is larger than in group II.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the difference in group III is smaller than that in group II. In

Conclusions -verification of hypotheses
With one exception, the empirical studies described in this paper verified the research hypotheses.
Hypothesis 1. The effects of sales in multilevel marketing are subject to a specific set of competencies of the salespeople. This hypothesis was verified positively.
Hypothesis 2. There is a set of competencies that becomes more important at higher effects levels and influences these effects in sales in multilevel marketing. This hypothesis was also verified positively.
The test of differences between the averages was sta- The analysis also showed that there are positive correlations between all of the competencies with varying strengths of dependences. Most of the competencies strongly correlate with each other, which means that developing one competency will influence the development of a different one or a set of other competencies.