Examining the effect of salesperson service behavior in a competitive context

Abstract

While few scholars debate the importance of doing things to improve the quality of the buyer-seller relationship, little is known about what salespeople can do after the point of the initial sale to enhance customer satisfaction and trust. On the basis of extensive exploratory interviews across professional selling domains, this research develops a set of behaviors, referred to here as "salesperson service behaviors." Using data gathered from 358 customers, the authors empirically demonstrate the effect of these behaviors on customer satisfaction and trust and, ultimately, on an objective measure of customer share of market. The authors develop a competitive model that uniquely features customer evaluations of competing sales representatives. The results indicate that these salesperson service behaviors are important in building trust and customer satisfaction, which in turn lead to increases in customer share of market.

Strategic account management as a value co-creation selling model in the pharmaceutical industry

“…Selling strategies employed by pharmaceutical companies rely on a mix of personal and communication skills (Ahearne et al, 2007;Alkhateeb et al, 2009) along with reliance on scientific information obtained from the literature (Alkhateeb et al, 2009). Despite efforts to build relationships with physicians, the detailing model in use is centred primarily on the need to (Chimonas et al, 2007).…”

Marketing research using single-item indicators in structural equation models

“…Regarding some of the concepts that were measured through single-item scales, most of them are concrete constructs that assume a lower error risk, such as share of customer, frequency of sales calls and length of relationship (Ahearne et al, 2007); product sales, service sales, annual advertising expenditures and store size (Arnold et al, 2009a); interaction frequency, failure severity and presence of perceived alternatives (Grégoire et al, 2010); number of employees and number of customers (Grewal et al, 2003); firm size and firm export experience (Katsikea et al, 2007); and employees, years in business, competitors, revenue and years with wholesaler (Ping, 2003). Other single-item variables represented those manipulated in the case of an experiment or dichotomous variables, such as manufacturer's pledge of exclusivity (Gilliland and Bello, 2002).…”

Clustering the mediators between the sales control systems and the sales performance using the AMO model: A narrative systematic literature review

“…Nevertheless, studies about how the control system affects each mediator over time, would provide a more complete and accurate information. Therefore, longitudinal studies are frequently a means to use dynamic data that confirm the causal mechanisms proposed on each mediator requested (Ahearne, Jelinek & Jones, 2007 Furthermore, Wright and Nishii (2007) suggested multi-level analysis between the different corporate levels (organizational, team and individual) as a means to overcome the limitations of a linear study between the management policies and the performances, even when mediating variables are included. Research on this framework applied to the salesforce management would clarify the mechanisms that generate the best performances, and should include how the sales general policies, the team management and the individual behavior and perceptions impact: (1) between them, (2) on the mediators described in this study, and (3) on the outcomes at each level (organizational, team and individual).…”