Term Paper on "Salesperson Prospect Interaction Dyadic"

Term Paper 19 pages (8207 words) Sources: 10 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Salesperson - Customer Interaction

Taxonomy of Salesperson -Customer Interaction

The intent of this analysis of current research on salesperson and customer interactions includes the dynamics of buyer-supplier relationships, an overview selling model definitions and research efforts used to validate them, and a comprehensive review of key findings from research into these areas. Specifically defining a taxonomy of knowledge in this area through the use of primary research, the intent of this paper is to show specifically how salesperson to customer and buyer to supplier relationships are being clarified and made more effective through the research efforts of the theorists, educators, and practitioners mentioned in this paper.

Selling Approach in Buyer-Seller Relationships

Personal selling can be defined as the process by which a salesperson attempts to influence a customer to purchase his or her product or service (Weitz, 1981). The selling approaches/processes used to accomplish the sale and develop buyer-seller relationships establish the foundational research for this study. In addition, the concepts of relationship selling and adaptive selling will be presented and defined and the appropriateness of those selling approaches/processes to services industries, where selling is by far the most competitive, is analyzed. Selling into services-related industries requires a more thorough and focused set of selling strategies as many times the service being sold is intangible. In essence, the selling taxonomies related to service all hinge on the ability of salesperson to create a foundational link of trust with their customers, and this same dynamic holds true in the buyer-supplier relationship. The concept of trust in each of these relationships, and their implications for the development of ongoing and effective salesperson-customer and buyer-supplier relationships, is also analyzed and discussed in this paper.

The literature dealing with personal selling is a combination of conceptual articles and empirical studies designed to validate the key elements of the taxonomy of knowledge in the area of salesperson-customer dynamics. Much of the literature, particularly the empirical studies, has been based on industrial business-to-business selling situations (e.g., purchasing agents of industrial products, salespeople for chemical manufacturers and their customers) and consumer products and services selling situations (e.g., life insurance sales, sporting goods retailers). The basic principles of selling, however, are believed to be applicable to the business-to-business selling of services represented by services industry selling situations and will be verified by this study.

It should be noted that the relationship selling process and adaptive selling process are not distinctly different processes in personal selling. While the relationship selling process represents the selling strategy to develop long-term buyer-seller relationships, adaptive selling involves the knowledge and ability to be able to match the most effective selling approach to each customer. Much of the research in this area focuses on relationship selling as a long-term, even strategic approach to defining the philosophy of selling in organizations. Adaptive selling, while still a form of solution selling is orientated to shorter sales cycles and focuses on guiding customers to the best of all potential alternatives available given the services offered by the company on the one hand and the most urgent unmet needs of the customer on the other. Adaptive selling looks to adapt the current services to align with the most urgent unmet needs of customers, while relationship selling looks to impact both services mix and definition based on customer requirements and unmet needs.

Essentials of Relationship Selling

Relationship selling, as opposed to traditional, transaction oriented selling, stresses the need to form relationships with prospects and customers across all stages of the buyer-seller relationship (Jolson, 1997). Alessandra and Barrera (1993) view the relationship or collaborative oriented salesperson as one who takes the time up front to build a sincere, committed relationship and to learn the customer's needs. Traditional, transaction selling, on the other hand, is most effective with single exchange transactions, typically consists of emphasis on products or services, and is driven by price (Evans, Good & Hellman, 1998). Jolson (1997) characterizes traditional, transaction selling as one-on-one contacts, engagements, and clashes, each of which produces a winner and a loser. Alessandra and Barrera (1993) state, "what's missing in traditional selling is the salesperson's commitment to a long-term relationship." (p. 4). They also suggest traditional, transaction selling leads to an adversarial relationship where everyone loses. Anderson (1996) projects that one of the key personal selling objectives in the next millennium will be developing long-term, mutually profitable partnerships with customers.

Buyer-seller relationship theory, to be discussed in more detail in a later section of this study, is based on the premise that long-term relationships develop over a series of exchanges between buyers and sellers (Dwyer, Schurr & Oh, 1987). Jolson (1997) suggests that each of these exchanges in selling shouldn't be viewed as a series of struggles between buyers and sellers, but instead should be seen as building relationships or partnerships. Selling, from this viewpoint, then is a function not so much of closing sales but of opening relationships (Swenson & Link, 1998).

Jolson (1997) advocates the viewpoint that relationship selling is not just the process of selling once a relationship is established, but should begin at the creation of the relationship in the prospecting stage (e.g., general inquiries). He states that some authors have presented relationship selling and transaction-oriented selling as polar opposites, however, his view is that there is a need to reshape traditional selling to incorporate relationship building at all stages of the selling process. Jolson states that relationship selling is just as appropriate for the customer who doesn't have a desire for a long-term relationship as one who does.

Support of Jolson's (1997) position that relationship selling is more effective than traditional, transaction oriented selling has been supported by several of empirical studies including the following from (Crosby, Evans & Cowles, 1990; MacIntosh, Anglin, Szymanski & Gentry, 1992; DeComier & Jobber, 1993). The relevant findings from those studies are reviewed below. Crosby et al. (1990) view the salesperson's role in the selling of services as "relationship manager." They found in a study of life insurance salespeople that future sales opportunities depend on relationship quality (i.e., trust and satisfaction) as perceived by the customer.

Specifically, those salespeople who engaged in selling behaviors focused on long-term relationships such as high contact intensity, mutual disclosure, and cooperative intentions had more favorable perceptions by the customers of the relationship quality. Their results support the view that relational type selling behaviors produced a strong buyer-seller bond.

MacIntosh et al. (1992) conducted two studies designed to determine if higher performing salespeople differed in the aspects of their relationship building process in the early stages of the buyer-seller relationship. The first study of North American financial service salespeople found that higher performing salespeople place more importance on the buyer's potential level of trust in the salesperson. In fact, low performers didn't even note trust as being important at all in the early stages of the relationship. The second study, using a sample of North American industrial salespeople working for a distributor of agricultural products, determined that higher performers placed more emphasis on relationship building and less emphasis on product benefits at early stages of the buyer-seller relationships. They concluded from the two studies that relationship building and developing trust at early stages of the buyer-seller relationship are important to effective sales performance.

DeCormier and Jobber (1993) advocate the use of a relationship/counselor selling method that incorporates personality knowledge, microskills and strategies and processes. Personality knowledge refers to understanding the buyer's personality style. Microskills are the means that the salesperson uses to influence the buyer. They state the salesperson's objective is to counter negative influences and strengthen positive ones. The counselor selling process presented and tested by DeCormier and Jobber (1993) involves four stages: 1) introduction that involves rapport, respect and trust building; 2) qualification by means of gathering information to define the problem (they particularly stress the importance of the salesperson educating the prospect through influencing not lecturing); 3) presentation designed to summarize and finalize the finer details of the sale; and 4) closing with the focus on asking the prospect to respond to questions about alternatives. They stress the importance of sales training as the mechanism to implement this approach. They further tested the counselor selling method through experiments with marketing students who were taught how to sell life insurance. Their experimental method incorporated two groups, one group who had training in the counselor selling method and the second group that had only product knowledge training. The findings confirmed that the counselor selling method improved effectiveness; however, they also determined that personality knowledge training alone did not have significant results unless the microskills were addressed, as well. They state that this method of selling goes beyond the traditional transaction-oriented selling by incorporating the philosophy of adaptation, customer orientation, and satisfaction.

They also state that the large percentage of increases in sales performance resulting from training in the counselor selling model support the central importance of researching the dynamics of sales transactions in order to explain variations in salespeople's performance.

In order to move from traditional,… READ MORE

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