Investigating the Pygmalion Effect in Managers on the Sales Performance of Employees in Holiday Chain Store branches

Objective
One of the most important factors for employees' success is focusing on the positive outcome of each situation, according to which they increase their trust and commitment. Hence, those who are positively focused can act very boldly and continue their efforts until achieving the desired result. The Pygmalion effect is a psychological principle related to the effective management of people. If employees think that their organization will be successful, they may subconsciously take action on this issue. As a sales manager, your ability to develop and retain sales representatives is critical to your company's performance and future success. Retaining employees in sales is still an important issue. Also, when salespeople are gaining skills to prepare for and succeed in their role, they are more likely to be job-satisfied and feel that their employer values their work. These factors reduce the likelihood of their willingness to resign. Holliday Chain Store as an enterprise is no exception to this rule. For this purpose, this study investigates the Pygmalion effect in branch managers on improving the sales performance of employees in the named chain store.
 
Methodology
It is an experimental, cross-sectional, and controlled clinical trial study. The statistical population of the present study includes 22 employees of a Holiday branch in Tehran. They were randomly divided into two groups; 11 in the experimental group and 11 in the control group. The standard sales performance questionnaire of Venezuela et al. (2014) was used to collect the needed data. In this study, the opinions of the supervisor, experts, and management specialists were used to check and determine the validity of the questions, and Cronbach's alpha was used to check their reliability. A high percentage of the alpha value indicated the reliability of the questions. Hypotheses were tested using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and univariate analysis (ANKWA) using SPSS software.
 
Findings
The results showed that the Pygmalion effect in managers of Holliday store branches on improving the sales performance of employees (characteristics of sales role, sales force skills, the value of customer life cycle, and customer orientation) is positive and significant.
 
Conclusion
The results showed that the Pygmalion effect in Holliday’s branch managers has a significant and positive influence on improving the sales performance of employees (sales role characteristics, sales force skills, customer lifetime value, and customer orientation).  Also, the Pygmalion effect impacts business and manager-employee relations (teacher-student). A manager who knows the skills and talents of his subordinates can help them achieve their goals. The relationship between managers and employees (teacher-student) is an example of the Pygmalion Effect on strengthening and improving the skills of people in business and effectively recognizing their skills and using them to achieve the set goals. Also, according to the beta value of this variable, the Pygmalion effect in managers has a positive relationship with the customer lifetime value of sales employees, in other words, the continuous presence of managers in such periods can strengthen the value cycle of sales employees' customers. Individuals' tendencies are formed based on their direct perceptions of the conditions of expectations that others have about them. As a result, it is recommended to identify hidden talents and skills of employees by holding group training courses and activities with the presence of sales staff and to achieve this goal by focusing and promoting these positive skills throughout the journey. Create better changes in the sales performance of employees