The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of apprehension about communication on the performance of salespersons. In a field study, McCroskey's Personal Report of Communication Apprehension instrument was given to 114 salespersons from two industries, new automobile dealers and media; their performances were evaluated by their supervisors. Some contexts for apprehension about communication were moderately good predictors of salespersons' performances for some categories of sales work. The implications of the study for recruitment and training of salesforce are discussed.
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