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Weitz (1981) - Effectiveness in Sales Interaction A Contingency Framework
Weitz (1981) - Effectiveness in Sales Interaction A Contingency Framework
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EFFECTIVENESS
IN SALES
INTERACTIONS:
A
CONTINGENCY
FRAMEWORK
N 1978, the average expenditure for training each interpersonal interactions. Thus, the framework
industrial salesperson was over $15,000 (Sales focuses on the effectiveness of sales behaviors in
and Marketing Management 1979). Even though the microenvironment of the sales interaction.
annual sales training expenses are well over one Variables related to effectiveness in the mi-
billion dollars, there is only limited knowledge about croenvironment are further classified into those
which selling behaviors are most effective in cus- related to the sales situation and those related to
tomer interactions. A conceptual framework for the salesperson. Variables related to the salesper-
exploring this issue is presented in this paper. son's effort during customer interactions are not
To demonstrate the focus of this framework, treated in the framework. Thus, the framework
a scheme for classifying variables related to sales- focuses on the shaded areas in Figure 1.
person performance is shown in Figure 1. The initial The fundamental idea behind the framework is
classification is based on whether the variable that effectiveness in sales interactions can be un-
relates to the salesperson's macroenvironment or derstood best by examining the interactions between
microenvironment. Macroenvironmental variables sales behaviors, resources of the salesperson, the
include territorial characteristics such as potential nature of the customer's buying task, and charac-
and workload and the level of effort expended by teristics of the salesperson-customer relationship.
the salesperson in covering the territory. However, This framework provides a mechanism for integrat-
the objective of the framework presented in this ing previous research and a direction for future
paper is to delineate factors related to the effective- research.
ness of salespeople in influencing customers during In the next section, the shortcomings of prior
research on effectiveness in sales interactions are
discussed. These shortcomings suggest the need for
BartonA. Weitz is Assistant Professor, Graduate School a contingency approach. After presenting the nature
of Management, University of Californiaat Los Angeles. and applications of a contingency approach, the
The author acknowledges theoretical contributions from
Robert Saxe and comments on earlier manuscripts from approach is expanded into a framework. The basic
James Bettman, ErinAnderson, and Scott MacKenzie. postulate of the framework is stated, constructs
in the framework are defined, and a set of proposi-
Journal of Marketing
Vol. 45 (Winter 1981), 85-103. Effectiveness in Sales Interactions / 85
Characteristics
Salesperson of
Microenvironment
Sales Customer
> Salesperson >
Strategy/
Behavior Relationship
Effortin
Microenvironment
tions is developed. These propositions are supported behaviors, behavioral predispositions, and capabili-
by research in leadership, bargaining, social psy- ties related to performance. Each of these research
chology, and personal selling. Further research is streams is reviewed below. (See Weitz 1979 for
needed to complete the framework; however, the a more detailed review.)
portions of the framework presented in this paper
Sales Behaviors and Behavioral Predispositions
suggest a potentially fruitful direction for studying
effectiveness in sales interactions. The paper con- The study of sales behaviors has been limited to
cludes with a discussion of a research program to experimental studies examining the effectiveness
explore this new direction. of different types of messages delivered by sales-
people.' These studies have found little difference
Research on Effectiveness in Sales
Interactions 'Several descriptive studies (Olshavsky 1973; Pennington 1968;
Research concerning effectiveness in sales interac- Taylor and Woodside 1968; Willett and Pennington 1966) have
examined sales behavior but have not explicitly considered the
tions has concentrated on uncovering salesperson effectiveness of sales behaviors.
in effectiveness across message types. Levitt (1965) fulness were significantly related to performance
found that a "good presentation" was more effec- in ten studies but were not significantly related to
tive than a "poor presentation." Jolson (1975) performance in four studies. Social orientation was
reported that a "canned" presentation generated significant in two studies and insignificant in six
more purchase intention than an "extemporaneous" studies.
presentation but the universality of this finding has
been questioned (Reed 1976). There were no signifi- Capability and Resources of Salespeople
cant differences in the effectiveness of a product A second stream of research has examined relation-
oriented-versus a personal-oriented message (Farley ships between performance and the salesperson's
& Swinth 1967); "hard sell," emotional appeals resources and capabilities. Several studies have
versus "soft-sell," rational appeals (Reizenstein examined the relationship between performance and
1971); and six different sales appeals based on Bales specific abilities conceptually related to interper-
Interaction Process Analysis categories (Capon sonal persuasion. These studies indicate that ef-
1975). Thus, experimental studies have failed to fectiveness in sales interactions is related to the
uncover influence strategies consistently related to salesperson's ability to develop accurate impres-
effectiveness in an interaction. sions of customer beliefs about product perfor-
Correlational studies have attempted to uncover mance (Weitz 1978); the salesperson's ability to use
relationships between personality traits/behavioral these impressions in selecting influence strategies
predispositions and performance. The results of (Weitz 1978), and the salesperson's ability to detect
these studies are summarized in Table 1.2 This the impact of influence strategies and make adapta-
summary demonstrates that the relationship be- tions (Grikscheit and Crissey 1973).
tween these personality traits and performance is The results of studies that have examined more
equivocal. Characteristics associated with force- general measures of capabilities are summarized
in Table 2. This summary indicates that the relation-
ship between capabilities and performance, like the
2In this table, personality traits indicating a predisposition toward
forceful behavior in interpersonal relations (such as dominance, relationship between performance and behavioral
ego drive, achievement motivation, and aggressiveness) have been predispositions, is quite inconsistent, and in some
combined under sociability. To facilitate comparisons across studies, cases, even contradictory. In some cases these
the performance measure used to report the results shown in Tables
1 and 2 is the most objective measure considered in the study. inconsistencies may be due to variations in meth-
Thus, relationships with sales and sales to quota are reported rather odology across studies,. However, several studies
than relationships to sales manager's evaluations. have used the same methodology across different
sales forces and reported inconsistent results (Dun- sales interactions is moderated by or dependent
nette and Kirchner 1960; Howells 1968; Mattheiss upon characteristics of both the salesperson and
et al. 1977; Scheibelhut and Albaum 1973). Even the customer.
variables that can be assessed with high accuracy Dyadic similarity studies have not demonstrated
and reliability, such as age, education, and sales a meaningful relationship between similarity and
experience, are related to performance in some effectiveness. Several correlational studies have
studies and unrelated in others. either not supported the relationship (Doreen,
Customer Characteristics-The Dyadic Approach Emery, and Sweitzer 1979) or found similarity
explains a low percentage of the variance (Churchill,
The disappointing results from prior research on Collins, and Strang 1975). In addition, the correla-
sales behaviors, behavioral predispositions, and tion studies (Churchill et al. 1975; Evans 1963;
general salesperson capabilities have led to a grow- Riordan, Oliver and Donnelly 1977) have not con-
ing interest in dyadic research approaches. While trolled for the plausible rival hypothesis that cus-
there are a wide variety of studies associated with tomers who made purchases perceived that they
the dyadic approach, the unifying theme of these were more similar to the salespeople than customers
studies is that characteristics of the customer as who did not make purchases (Davis and Silk 1972).
well as those of the salesperson are considered. While experimental studies found that similarity is
This approach is consistent with a contingency a significant factor in determining sales perfor-
approach because it suggests that effectiveness in mance, it has not been as important as expertise
Develop measures of
salesperson resources,
customer buying tasks, Develop measures of typical
and customer-salesperson sales behavior or behavioral
relationships associated predispositions
with typical sales
interactions
V
Administer measures to Administer measures to
either sales managers salespeople
or customers
y
Collect performance measure
for the salespeople
L--?
in sales situations have been developed. Thus, be taken to control for sources of variance unrelated
research must be directed toward developing mea- to effectiveness in sales interactions (see Figure
sures of sales behaviors and moderating variables 1).
before contingency hypotheses can be tested in field The difference between testing contingency
settings. hypotheses in the field and traditional correlational
When behavior and situation measures have been studies of salesperson effectiveness is illustrated
developed, contingency hypotheses can be tested by the shaded areas in Figure 3. Traditional correla-
by getting measures of typical behavior patterns tional studies have considered only the shaded steps.
from salespeople, typical situation measures from In these studies, measures of salesperson behavioral
independent sources such as sales managers or predispositions and performance are collected. No
customers, and then relating these measures to measures are made of the typical sales situations
salesperson effectiveness using techniques for ex- encountered by the salesperson. Hypotheses are
amining moderator variable relationships (Allison tested by correlating performance with behavioral
1973; Zedeck 1971). While traditional measures of predispositions.
sales performance such as sales or sales to quota Contingency studies necessitate the inclusion of
can be used as measures of effectiveness, care must the unshaded steps-the collection of situational
REFERENCES
Allison, P. D. (1973), "Testing for Interaction in Multiple of Source Acceptance in Industrial Buyer-Seller Ex-
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Arch, David (1979), "The Development of Influence Strategy Pennsylvania State University.
Scales in Buyer-Seller Interactions," in 1979 Educators' Blake, Robert R. and J. S. Mouton (1970), The Grid for
Conference Proceedings, N. Beckwith et al., eds., Chica- Sales Excellence, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co.
go: American Marketing Association. Bower, Gordon H., John B. Black, and Terrence J. Turner
Baehr, Melany E. and G. Williams (1968), "Prediction of (1979), "Scripts in Memory for Text," Cognitive Psychol-
Sales Success from Factorially Determined Dimensions ogy, 11 (April), 177-220.
of Personal Background Data," Journal of Applied Psy- Boyd, Harper W., Michael L. Ray, and Edward C. Strong
chology, 52 (April), 98-103. (1972), "An Attitudinal Framework for Advertising Stra-
Bagozzi, Richard P. (1978), "Salesforce Performance and tegy," Journal of Marketing, 36 (April), 27-33.
Satisfaction as a Function of Individual Difference, Brock, Timothy C. (1965), "Communicator-Recipient Simi-
Interpersonal, and Situational Factors," Journal of Mar- larity and Decision Change," Journal of Personality and
keting Research, 15 (November), 517-531. Social Psychology, 1 (June), 650-654.
Baier, Donald and Robert D. Dugan (1957), "Factors in Bursk, Edward C. (1947), "Low Pressure Selling," Harvard
Sales Success," Journal of Applied Psychology, 41 (Feb- Business Review, 25 (Winter), 227-242.
ruary), 37-40. Busch, Paul and David T. Wilson (1976), "An Experimental
Bambic, Peter (1978), "An Interpersonal Influence Study Analysis of a Salesman's Expert and Referent Bases
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