Appropriate Relational Messages in Direct Selling Interaction: Should Salespeople Adapt to Buyers' Communicator Style?

Comstock, Jamie; Higgins, Gary

doi:10.1177/002194369703400405

Cited by 12 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(25 reference statements)

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“…Adapting interpersonally has been shown to have a positive relationship with sales performance (Levy and Sharma 1994;Sujan, Weitz, and Kumar 1994), and sales personnel are reportedly cognizant of the efficacy of altering their presentation to fit individual buyer preferences (Comstock and Higgins 1997;Tanner 1994). Adapting interpersonally has also been examined in some nonselling service contexts.…”

Section: Interpersonal Adaptive Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Service Customization Through Employee Adaptiveness

Gwinner

Bitner

Brown

et al. 2005

Journal of Service Research

351

323

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Customization strategies aimed at providing customers with individually tailored products and services are growing in popularity. In a service context, the responsibility for customization frequently falls on the shoulders of front-line customer contact employees. Few marketing scholars, however, have considered what it means to be adaptive in these roles and how customization behaviors can be encouraged. Drawing on marketing, organizational behavior, and psychology literatures, the authors define and empirically test antecedents of two distinct dimensions of employee adaptive behavior: interpersonal adaptive behavior and service-offering adaptive behavior. Results indicate that an employee’s level of customer knowledge, certain personality predispositions, and intrinsic motivation positively influence the propensity to adapt both their interpersonal style and the actual service offering. Implications for market segmentation, employee selection, training, and motivation are offered.

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Section: Interpersonal Adaptive Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Service Customization Through Employee Adaptiveness

Gwinner

Bitner

Brown

et al. 2005

Journal of Service Research

351

323

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, early work by Jackson (1985) suggests that buyer/supplier relationships can be considered as spanning a continuum from transactional to relational with suppliers occupying a position along that continuum (see also Webster, 1992). The suppliers should recognize and interpret the interaction style of the buyer and adapt their own behavior accordingly (Boorom, Goolsby, & Ramsey, 1998;Comstock & Higgins, 1997). Also, what the 'Contemporary Marketing Practice' research group has found is that different types of organizations have different types of practices, and some organizations adopt multiple styles of relationships to their business customers (see, for example, Brookes & Palmer, 2004).…”

Section: Transactions or Relationships? Or Transactions And Relationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A relationship-management assessment tool: Questioning, identifying, and prioritizing critical aspects of customer relationships

Lindgreen

Palmer

Vanhamme³

et al. 2006

Industrial Marketing Management

113

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With customer-relationship management (CRM) no longer a buzzword among trendsetters, organizations in all types of industries initially rushed to embrace it. Although a seductively attractive concept, the implementation of CRM proved difficult, however, and organizations are struggling with realizing their vision of a CRM organization. To help managers assessing the stage of relationships between their organization and the organization's business customers we consider the automotive industry. Based upon our case organization and its relationships with numerous business customers we develop a practical tool to question, identify, and prioritize critical aspects of customer-relationship management. First, we identify key areas in CRM. Secondly, we investigate how the chosen case organization has managed each of these key CRM areas over a broad range of business-customer relationships. Thirdly, we acknowledge that many organizations simultaneously have different types (transaction-relationship continuum) of business customers. We finish the article with a discussion of the study's limitations, and suggest avenues for future research. D

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“…Interpersonal communication is the fundamental activity of a salesperson during the service-selling process. However, only few studies (e.g., Comstock and Higgins 1997; Dion and Notarantonio 1992; Reid, Pullins, and Plank 2002) have examined the salesperson-customer encounter from a communication perspective. More specifically, scholars have neglected the question of whether or not a salesperson with a dialect or accent which differs from the standard language affects the success of services selling.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Four Positive Effects of a Salesperson’s Regional Dialect in Services Selling

Mai

Hoffmann

2011

Journal of Service Research

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This research analyzes how a salesperson’s regional dialect influences the efficacy of services selling. Four dialect effects are derived from theories of information processing, accent prestige theory, and social identity theory. In the first study, 92 industrial buyers, and in the second study, 126 customers evaluated salespersons after actual sales conversations. In contrast to conventional wisdom, both studies show that buyers do not generally devalue salespersons with a dialect. If speech is of high quality, a regional dialect improves satisfaction with the salesperson, rather than reducing it. Favorable sound qualities and prestigious stereotypical associations with the dialect also raise satisfaction with the salesperson. Moreover, the fit between salesperson and buyer dialects enhances satisfaction with the company and fosters purchase intention. In order to increase their persuasiveness, salespersons should be aware of the four dialect effects. Companies would also benefit from training salespersons to improve their speech quality, rather than concealing their dialect. If possible, salespersons should deliberately modify their way of speaking in all phases of the service-selling process.

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Appropriate Relational Messages in Direct Selling Interaction: Should Salespeople Adapt to Buyers' Communicator Style?

Cited by 12 publications

References 28 publications

Service Customization Through Employee Adaptiveness

Service Customization Through Employee Adaptiveness

A relationship-management assessment tool: Questioning, identifying, and prioritizing critical aspects of customer relationships

Four Positive Effects of a Salesperson’s Regional Dialect in Services Selling

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