Relational Communication: Form versus Content in the Sales Interaction

The influence of salespersons’ customer orientation on buyer‐seller relationship development

“…Theoretical justification for the customer-oriented behavior of salespeople positively impacting the development of buyer-seller relationships stems from the communication expectancies of social exchange theory (Heider, 1958;Homans, 1961) and relational communications theory (Alloy and Tabachnik, 1984;Capella and Greene, 1982;Capella and Palmer, 1990;Soldow and Thomas, 1984). As professed in these theories, communication expectancies are "cognitions about the expected behaviors of specific others, as embedded within and shaped by the social norms for the contemporaneous roles, relationships, and context" (Burgoon and Walther, 1990, p. 236).…”

Invited reaction: Outsourcing relationships between firms and their training providers: The role of trust

“…This expansion of Gainey and Klaas' s methodology could also afford the opportunity to explore the relations between trust and firm satisfaction with the outsourcing service. Although a large amount of research shows a high correlation between trust in a salesperson and sales performance satisfaction (Churchill, Ford, Hartley, & Walker, 1985;Soldow & Thomas, 1984;Williams, 1980), little is known about this relation in the training outsourcing context specifically.…”

“…Previous research has shown that some supplier behaviors and characteristics are related to increased trust, such as perceived firm commonality, supplier competence, consistency, and clarity of intent (Churchill et al, 1985;Kudisch, 1989;Soldow & Thomas, 1984). Understanding the actions suppliers take to increase trust, the characteristics of the firm that influence the type of trust required, and the influence of system benefits and switching costs on the level of trust necessary for an effective relationship are all critical components to building a model of outsourcing effectiveness in the training and development industry.…”

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

“…Similarly, Soldow and Thomas (1984) found messages promoting perceptions of equality are more likely to result in negotiated agreement, perhaps because they allow a focus on task rather than relational negotiation (Soldow & Thomas, 1984). Similarly, DeCormier and Jobber's (1993) adaptive approach suggests that sellers should match buyers' levels of dominance (an equality message), while maintaining a warm manner.…”

“…In addition, these results question the counselor selling model (DeCormier & Jobber, 1993) which advises sellers to match buyers levels of dominance. Matching dominance is self-oriented behavior which decreases trust (Axelrod, 1984) and precludes attaining agreement (Soldow & Thomas, 1984). Therefore, sellers should demonstrate a desire to invest in, rather than take from the relationship.…”