Display omitted •A high CI diversity presented divergences among salespeople about the market understandings.•CI diversity also reduces the positive effects of CI on efficiency.•CI increases salespersons' efficiency.•A higher consensus about how salespeople read the market is beneficial to the firm. Although previous studies support the main effect of a salesperson’s competitive intelligence (CI) on job-related outcomes, little, if any, attention has been given to the mechanisms that moderate this relationship. Drawing on social capital theory, the authors propose that CI diversity (i.e., disparity) diminishes salesperson CI's main effect on efficiency and performance. On the other hand, managers’ tenure in the store amplifies such a relationship. The authors tested the theoretical model using multilevel data collected from managers and salespeople representing 74 wholesales and 175 vendors. The study results demonstrated that the CI-performance link was weakened when there were high CI diversity. The reason is that a high CI diversity presented divergences among salespeople about the market understandings. Whereas, when there are high levels of managers’ tenure, there is an amplified influence of CI on performance. The logic is a communication and dissemination of intelligence to the sales team.