Adapting influence approaches to informed consumers in high-involvement purchases: are salespeople really doomed?

Abstract

The availability of information and variety of online purchase options are increasing for consumers shopping for complex products (e.g., cars, real estate). This situation, and consumers' resulting sense of informedness, has led many to suggest that the need for business-to-consumer (B2C) salespeople is diminishing. Yet, despite these claims, many purchases-especially those associated with high prices and, therefore, high consumer involvement-still require consumers to interact with salespeople. This interaction, between consumers (at varying levels of informedness) and B2C salespeople, is the focus of the current study. Merging theories of consumer informedness and adaptive interpersonal influence, we suggest that the interaction between salesperson influence attempts and consumer informedness plays an important role in purchase decisions. To study this notion, Study 1 matches automobile shoppers' survey responses with objective purchase data from 480 sales interactions. Study 2 is a scenario-based experiment that investigates informedness and influence in a financial services setting. The findings of both studies suggest that understanding a consumer's informedness, and adapting the proper influence approach to it, is critical if salespeople are to influence modern consumers' purchase decisions and, thus, avoid irrelevancy.

Re-designing adaptive selling strategies: the role of different types of shopping companions

“…Bailey 2015;Sweeney et al 1997;Homburg et al 2011). Common techniques salespeople use in sales conversations comprise information exchange or recommendations, verbal prompts, threats, or promises, ingratiation or inspirational appeals (Ebster et al 2006;McFarland et al 2006;Alavi et al 2018;Plouffe et al 2014;Hochstein et al 2019). In adaptive selling, however, these tools should not be used universally but under the assumption that customers are different and therefore require different approaches (Plouffe et al 2014), also in order to view a salesperson as a credible source of information (Arndt et al 2014).…”

“…In adaptive selling, however, these tools should not be used universally but under the assumption that customers are different and therefore require different approaches (Plouffe et al 2014), also in order to view a salesperson as a credible source of information (Arndt et al 2014). Differences in shopper characteristics can be due to situational circumstances, as for instance a customer's level of informedness about a product (Hochstein et al 2019) or their tendency to approach or avoid stimuli in the shopping environment (Guo and Main 2017), which requires salespeople to choose either autonomy-oriented or interaction-oriented approaches. Moreover, shoppers can display different orientations toward focusing on tasks or interactions (McFarland et al 2006), which is linked to the more effective use of either information-related selling tactics, ingratiation and inspirational appeals, or threats and promises in order to maximize their success.…”

“…However, in the remainder of the interviews, they would describe a variety of situations where they dealt with various influences of a shopping companion by adjusting their approach according to their specific behavior. These approaches serve the exclusive purpose of handling a shopping companion's specific influence and add to the seller influence tactics most commonly used in marketing literature (see Hochstein et al 2019). In Table 5, we use these mentions as a proposing basis for how salespeople might deal with different types of shopping companions in addition to commonly researched selling strategies.…”

“…On the other hand, interaction-seeking companions, who at the same time pursue a certain goal for the accompanied shopper, such as Active Supporters or Patronizers, should be approached by means of information exchange, ingratiation and inspirational appeals (McFarland et al 2006). Expert companions particularly take on the role of an advisor for the shopper and often are well-informed [while "informed" may include knowledge as well as beliefs (Hochstein et al 2019)]. Following Hochstein et al, a suitable approach for salespeople would be the focus on sharing objective information and recommendations and to discuss product details in order to acknowledge the companion's informedness and to achieve better collaboration.…”

“…If, on the other hand, the salesperson is able to recognize a companion is being informed to a lesser degree, the use of inspirational appeals or ingratiation techniques as well as threats or promises could be more appropriate (e.g. Hochstein et al 2019). Experts as well as patronizing companions appear to have a clear goal in mind that the salesperson can help to achieve better and quicker.…”