How First Impressions of a Customer Impact Effectiveness in an Initial Sales Encounter

Abstract

First impressions of others affect both the content and outcomes of a variety of interpersonal encounters. In sales encounters, a salesperson’s first impressions of a customer provide a starting point for probing customer needs and for adapting to those needs. This implies that salesperson effectiveness in an initial sales encounter is associated— at least in part—with a salesperson’s first impression of the customer. The reported quasi-experiment is the first study to explore empirically the connection between salespeople’s first impressions, their cognitive structures, and sales effectiveness in a single, initial sales encounter. The results provide an intriguing glimpse into the dilemma salespeople face in trying to establish the basis of a relationship while achieving short-term sales outcomes (e.g., closing a sale, satisfaction).

Effects of formal sales control systems: A combinatory perspective

“…In sales force management literature, selling effectiveness is believed to be a function of the salesperson's knowledge structure, among other variables (e.g., Evans, Kleine, Landry, & Crosby, 2000;Leigh & McGraw, 1989;Rapp, Ahearne, Mathieu, & Schillewaert, 2006;Sharma, Levy, & Evanschitzky, 2000;Sujan, Weitz, & Sujan, 1988;Wilken, Cornelißen, Backhaus, & Schmitz, 2010). Previous research in this area has found that greater knowledge allows salespeople to handle different selling situations more effectively without experiencing undue cognitive stress (Evans et al, 2000). In addition, more effective salespeople were found to have more elaborate scripts (Leong, Busch, & John, 1989), show more variations in selling behaviors across customer types (Leigh & McGraw, 1989), and demonstrate more complete and complex selling strategies (Sharma et al, 2000).…”

Customer equity of Pakistani fast food restaurant: A study of attitudinal customer equity

“…Branding is prerequisite of relationship and strong branding helps a customer differentiate a brand from the other products. Brand equity tells us how a person thinks about the quality of the product (Aaker, 1996;Dwyer, 1997;Evans et al, 2000;Kim et al, 2001;Kumar & Petersen, 2005).…”

“…Transactional or sales formula approach (Berger & Nasr, 1998;Rust et al, 2001) and attitudinal customer equity approach (Anderson & Simester, 2004;Evans et al, 2000).…”

The complex role of a salesperson in an appliance sales context

“…Extant research on service quality in retail specifies salespeople as important contributors to optimal service delivery through which a retailer could be distinguished as superior and could gain a competitive edge (Clopton et al, 2001;Evans et al, 2000;Goff et al, 1997;Grewal & Sharma, 1991;Jacobs et al, 2000;Reynolds & Beatty, 1999;Sharma & Levy, 1995). Not surprising then, is the fact that many retailers nowadays often refer to their salespeople as either a sales assistants or sales executives to acknowledge their potential contribution in the work place.…”

“…Despite an abundance of research on the salesperson per se, the role of a salesperson apparently still seems ill structured (Evans et al, 2000). Attempts to understand and improve salespeople's performance in retail have generated a considerable amount of research (Churchill et al, 1990:334, 335;Plank & Reid, 1994).…”