Description
What makes a successful salesman?" has been one of the most frequently asked and incompletely answered questions in marketing.
Interpersonal Communication
and Salesman Effectiveness
FREDERICK E.
WEBSTER, JR.
Behavioral science offers
some Important new insights
into the determinants of a
salesman's ef f ect i veness.
These insights can lead to
the development of more
productive sales presenta-
tions and sales training pro-
grams to maximize the con-
tribution of personal selling
in the marketing communi-
cations program.
Journal of Marketing. Vol. 32 (July,
1968), pp. 7-13.
makes a successful salesman?" has been one of the
most frequently asked and incompletely answered questions
in marketing. The purpose of this paper is to trace briefly the
evolution of answers to this question and to show how research
findings from behavioral science suggest some new answers. An
evaluation of historical explanations of salesman effectiveness sug-
gests some more complex but more productive ways of looking
at personal selling. A better understanding of the personal sell-
ing process can lead to more effective sales strategies and sales
force development programs.
Historical Explanations of Salesman Effectiveness
The earliest, and the most persistent, answers to the question
"What makes a successful salesman?" consisted of lists of the
personal characteristics and traits of the salesman himself. Some
of these lists generated criteria for evaluating application blanks:
age, height, appearance, education, previous business experience,
etc. Other lists formed tbe bases for, or were generated by,
psychological tests: ag-gressiveness, dominance, extroversion, opti-
mism, competitive spirit, etc. Despite some disenchantment with
the efficacy of psychological tests, the search for the traits of suc-
cessful salesmen has continued unabated, and more sophisticated and
complex traits, such as "empathy" and "ego drive," have recently
been suggested.^
Another set of answers concentrated on the salesman's actions
rather than his traits. Perhaps the simplest answers were those
which described the steps in the successful sales call, for example,
the AIDA formula: (1) get Attention; (2) arouse Interest; (3)
stimulate Desire; (4) get buying Action. This "salesmanship"
approach assumed that the outcome of the sales call depends on the
specific actions of the salesman.
Recognizing that the buyer played a part in determining the
outcome of the call, other answers suggested that the buyer's
actions were also important.
The so-called "stimulus-response theory" of selling saw the
salesman as being able to elicit the desired responses if he could
provide the right stimuli, and treated the prospect in essentially
mechanistic terms. Like the "salesman's traits" approach, the
"salesman's action" approach credited the salesman with virtually
complete responsibility for the outcome of the call.
David Mayer and Herbert M. Greenherg, "What Makes a Gooc
Salesman," Harvard Business Review, Vol. 42 {July-August, 1964)
pp. 119-125.
8
Journal of Marketing, July, 1968
With increasing emphasis on a consumer orien-
tation in marketing, "need satisfaction theory"
provided some slightly different answers to the ques-
tion "What makes a successful salesman?" These
answers showed that the successful salesman was
the one who could identify the prospect's needs and
turn them into buying motives. Guided by this
theory, the salesman learns to ask questions de-
signed to uncover the prospect's needs, to listen
carefully to the answers, and then to show how his
product meets those needs. Having built the
groundwork, the salesman moves in with the presen-
tation and close. Need satisfaction theory was
really a variant of stimulus-response theory. Needs
were seen as a determinant of response; to get the
desired response the salesman must choose the right
stimuli (selling points) which show the prospect
how buying will satisfy his needs. Authors of
books that define selling as "helping pi'ospects buy"
have used this explanation. While these "salesman-
ship" theories recognized that the prospect has a
role, he was still viewed in passive terms.-
These three kinds of "theory" identify three im-
portant determinants of selling effectiveness: the
salesman's characteristics and traits, the salesman's
actions, and the prospect's needs. These elements
are plausible and valid, but incomplete for explain-
ing and predicting the outcome of the sales inter-
view. Why is it that the same salesman, using the
same actions, is not always effective with prospects
with the same kinds of needs? One logical and
simple explanation is that there are attributes of
prospects, other than their needs, which influence
the outcome of the sales call. Or, there are some
complex ways in which salesman characteristics and
actions combine with prospect characteristics and
actions to determine outcomes.
Interaction Theory
Evans was among the first to challenge seriously
the traditional "salesmanship" explanations of sell-
ing effectiveness and to suggest that the prospect
played an active role in determining the progress
and outcome of the sales call. He observed that:
"Very little is known about what takes place
when the salesman and his prospect meet. The
two parties meet in a highly structured situation,
and the outcome of the meeting depends upon the
resulting interaction. In this sense, the 'sale' is
a social situation involving two persons. The
interaction of the two persons, in turn, depends
upon the economic, social, physical, and personality
characteristics of each of them. To understand
the process, however, it is necessary to look at
both parties to the sale as a dyad, not
individually."''
In his study of life insurance salesmen, Evans
found evidence that the probability of a sale was
influenced by the extent to which there was a match-
ing of the prospect's and the salesman's character-
istics. This was true for such factors as age, height,
income, political opinions, religious beliefs, and
smoking. Perceived similarity for religion and poli-
tics was more important than actual similarity. Evans
concluded that the successful sale was situation-
ally determined by the interaction between prospect
and salesman, and not solely by the particular charac-
teristics of one or the other party to the interaction.-*
Other researchers have also reported evidence that
successful salesmen tend to concentrate on particu-
lar kinds of prospects.'' However, Evans' study did
not consider the behavioral djTiamics of the sales
interaction itself.
Applying interaction theory to the study of sell-
ing recognized that selling is more than individual
behavior. Rather, it is social behavior, behavior that
is rewarded or punished, accepted or rejected, by
another person. The essential feature of social be-
havior is that each of the persons in face-to-face
interaction influences the behavior of the other."
Selling certainly fits this definition. Social behavior,
or "interpersonal interaction," has also been char-
acterized as behavior influenced by "How one per-
son thinks and feels about another person, how he
perceives him and what he expects him to do or
think, how he reacts to the actions of the
other. . . ."'
2 These theories are summarized in Harold C. Cash
and W. J. E. Crissy, "Ways of Looking at Selling"
in William Lazer and Eugene J. Kelley (eds.). Mana-
gerial Marketing: Perspectives and Viewpoints, 2nd
ed. (Homewood, 111.: Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1962),
pp. 554-559.
•t Franklin B. Evans, "Selling as a Dyadic Relationship
—A New Approach," The Americayi Behavioral Sci-
entist, Vol. VI (May, 1963), pp. 76-79, at p. 76.
•• Same reference as footnote 3, at p. 79.
f» M. S. Gadel, "Concentration by Salesmen on Con-
genial Prospects," JOURNAL OF MARKETING. Vol. 28
(April, 1964), pp. 64-66; and Lauren Edgar Crane,
"The Salesman's Role in Household Decision-Mak-
ing," in L. George Smith (ed.), Reftectiovs on Prog-
ress in Marketing (Chicago: American Marketing As-
sociation, 1964), pp. 184-196.
« George Caspar Homans, Social Behavior: Its Elenien-
tary Fortns (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.
Inc., 1961), pp. 2-3.
^ Fritz Heider, The Psychology of Interpersonal Rela-
tions (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1958),
p. 1.
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR. Frederick E.
Webster is Associate Professor at The
Amos Tuck School of Business Adminis-
fration, Dartmouth College. He is the
author of several recent articles on buyer
behavior and sales force management
and. with K. R. Davis, of SALES FORCE
MANAGEMENT (Ronald Press Co.,
1968). Dr. Webster is active as a con-
sultant and as a lecturer in several
management development programs for
sales and marketing executives.
Interpersonal Communication and Salesman Effectiveness
Recognition that selling is, indeed, social behav-
ior forces us to look beyond the salesman for factors
determining his effectiveness. Specifically, we must
take into account not only the characteristics and
traits but also the actions, attitudes, perceptions,
expectations, and reactions of hoth the prospect and
the salesman. Analysis of the sales interaction
along these lines suggests some important factors
to consider in developing effective selling strategies.
In this expanded view of the sales interaction, it
can be seen that the salesman's effectiveness is de-
termined by a complex set of factors surrounding
both the prospect and the salesman. The outcome
of the sales call depends upon how well the salesman
and the prospect have communicated with each other
—how well they have achieved a common under-
standing that will enable both to fill their needs
and achieve their goals. Following is a considera-
tion of the factors involved in interpersonal com-
munication and their significance for the sales
manager.
Perception
It is a well-known fact that human beings re-
spond to their environment in terms of their per-
ception of that environment, not necessarily the
objective facts of the environment. Perception is
a subjective process. How a person views the en-
vironment, including other persons, is a function
of his psychological structure—his goals, values,
attitudes, feelings, needs, and so on. An individual's
perceptions of other people in the environment is
complicated further by the fact that he makes in-
ferences about the intentions, attitudes, emotions,
ideas, abilities, etc., which cause their behavior.
Other human beings are described not only in terms
of their actual behavior but in terms of the psy-
chological attributes of their behavior. Most im-
portant of all, these attributes are looked upon as
being directed toward us and having particular
meaning for us. In other words, our reaction to
others depends upon how we think they view their
environment, including us.^ One inference from
this fact for the salesman is that just as he "sizes
up" the prospect, so does the prospect "size up" the
salesman. The prospect's perception of the sales-
man is an important determinant of the salesman's
effectiveness.
Role Expectations
How each person perceives or "sizes up" the other
is determined by his predispositions: the set of
opinions, attitudes, and beliefs which determines
the perceiver's cognitive structure. One of the most
important sources of an individual's predispositions
is the role that he is in. A role is the social posi-
tion occupied by an individual, including the goals
of that position, and the behavioral repertoire ap-
propriate to that position and to the attainment of
those goals. Social positions (like "father," "Prot-
estant," "Republican," "salesman," and "purchas-
ing agent") have associated with them a set of
expectations as to how persons occupying that
role should behave. These expectations are "bi-
dimensional" in that they specify both how persons
in that role should behave and how others should
behave toward them.» Role expectations, therefore,
provide important components of structure in the
sales interaction in that they define the kinds of
behavior that each of the actors expects both of
himself and of the other person. To the extent that
the prospect and the salesman have consistent role
expectations (for both themselves and for each
other) there will be more effective interaction and
communication.
Sources of Role Expectations for the Salesman
There are two particularly important sources of
prospects' role expectations for salesmen. The first
is the stereotype of the salesman. A "stereotype" can
be defined as a "consensus of role expectations
shared by a large segment of the population." It is
a well-known fact that there is a stereotype of the
salesman that describes him as "talkative," "easy
going," "competitive," "optimistic," and "excitable."
Kirchner and Dunnette found that salesmen de-
scribe themselves in these terms."^ This stereotype
is one of the reasons why the salesman is not highly
regarded by a large segment of the population.^i
Perception is subjective, and it is not important
whether or not the stereotype is an objectively accu-
rate one. The prospect who does not have previous
experience with a particular salesman will respond
to that salesman in terms of the stereotype which
he has of salesmen in general. "Inaccurate" percep-
tion of the salesman by the prospect may lead to
a lack of communication. On the other hand, by
the virtue of their occupation, all salesmen are re-
garded as having manipulative intent—they want
the prospect to behave in a particular way—and
communications theory indicates that the percep-
tion of manipulative intent in the communicator
Renato Tagiuri and Luigi PetruUo (eds.). Person
Perception and Interpersonal Behavior (Stanford,
California: Stanford University Press, 1958),pp. x-xi.
9 Theodore Sarbin, "Role Theory," in Garner Lindzey
(ed.), Handbook of Social Psychology, Vol. I (Cam-
bridge. Mass.: Addison-Wesley, Inc.. 1954), pp. 223-
258.
1" Wayne K. Kirehner and Marvin D. Dunnette. "How
Salesmen and Teehnieal Men Differ in Describing
Themselves," Personnel Journal, Vol.37 (April, 1959),
pp. 418-419.
11 John L. Mason, "The Low Prestige of Personal Sell-
ing," JOURNAL OF MARKETING, Vol. 29 (October, 1965).
pp. 7-10.
10
Journal of Marketing, July, 1968
leads to certain resistance.^- This is one reason
why some door-to-door salesmen deceptively pose as
survey interviewers; they know how housewives re-
spond to door-to-door salesmen.
A second important source of "role expectations"
held by a prospect for a salesman is the reputation
of the selling company. This is a special case of
the generalized concept of "source credibility" in
communications theory. Several research studies
have confirmed that the reputation of the source
is an important determinant of response to per-
suasive communication.^-^ In a recently published
study, Levitt found that industrial purchasing
agents' and chemists' responses to sales presenta-
tions were influenced strongly by the reputation of
the company (source) which the salesman (com-
municator) represented. In general, the salesman
for the company with the better reputation (cre-
ated through advertising, for example) always ob-
tained a more favorable response to his presenta-
tion.
On the other hand. Levitt also found that re-
spondents tended to rank the salesman as lower in
"trustworthiness" than they ranked the company
that the salesman represented. While this finding
probably reflects, in part, the low occupational pres-
tige of the salesman, Levitt suggested that there
was more involved. He concluded that the prospect's
perception of the trustworthiness of the salesman
was not as closely related to the salesman's prod-
uct knowledge as it was to the overall quality of
the sales presentation.'•* Furthermore, a poor pre-
sentation resulted in a reduction in the perceived
trustworthiness of the company. Finally, Levitt's
research suggested that for a company with an
excellent reputation, the prospect has very high ex-
pectations for the kind of salesman that will repre-
sent that company—so high, in fact, that salesmen
may not be able to meet these expectations. This
finding emphasizes the importance of sales training.
To summarize briefly, the sales interaction is in-
terpersonal communication in which the prospect's
expectations about how the salesman will and should
behave have an important influence on the outcome
of the sales call. Further, we have said that the
stereotype of the salesman and the reputation of the
salesman's company are important determinants of
the prospect's response. Next, consideration is
•2 Carl I. Hovland, Irving L. Janis, and Harold H.
Kelley, Comniiinication and Persuasion: Psychological
Studies of Opinion Change (New Haven: Yale Uni-
versity Press, 1953), p. 295.
13 Carl I. Hovland and Walter Weiss, "The Influence of
Source Credibility on Communication Effectiveness,"
Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 15 (Winter, 1951-52),
pp. 635-650.
!•* Theodore Levitt, Industrial Purchasing Behavior: A
Study of Contmuncations Effects (Boston: Division of
Research, Graduate School of Business Administra-
tion, Harvard University, 1965), pp. 31-32.
given to how the prospect's and the salesman's per-
ceptions of their own roles influence the direction
of the sales interaction.
Determinants of How the Prospect
"Plays His Role"
Interaction theory explains that the needs of the
actors are important determinants of their predis-
positions and that these predispositions influence
their perceptions of the situation. As Jones and
Thibaut have stated:
If we can successfully identify the goals for which
an actor is striving in the interaction situation,
we can begin to say something about the cues to
which he will attend, and the meaning he is most
likely to assign to them.^''
The old "need satisfaction" theory of salesmanship
recognized this basic fact, but said little about the
true complexity of the pi'ospect's needs.
Every prospective buyer has at least two kinds of
needs: his personal needs which motivate his be-
havior and his social needs which define the kinds
of need fulfillment activity which will be acceptable
to relevant other persons in the social situation.
While this is only a ci'ude cut across the complex
set of needs which determine behavior, it makes an
important distinction. For example, the industrial
buyer may be motivated by a personal need for
recognition and advancement and by the social need
to satisfy the using department. His need for the
salesman's product will not exist unless he can see
how a buying decision will allow him to satisfy
both sets of needs. Those particular personal and
social needs will determine: (1) whether the pros-
pect grants an interview to the salesman, (2) which
parts of the presentation he really listens to, (3)
the information he will remember, and (4) the in-
fluence of the sales presentation on his decision to
buy. In psychological terms, these are the pro-
cesses of selective exposure, selective attention, and
selective retention, and the final step of conviction
or attitude change.
The prospect's social needs are defined by his
social roles and relationships. Thus, the industrial
buyer must consider how management expects him
to perform his job, and the family buyer must re-
member his role of "father," for example, in buying
an automobile. Role expectations define particular
buying needs and appropriate buying behavior for
the individual.
An important dimension of how the prospect be-
haves is his self-confidence in his ability to play the
role. The prospect's self-confidence is a determinant
Edward E. Jones and John W. Thibaut, "Interaction
Goals as Bases of Inferences in Interpersonal Percep-
tion," in Taguiri and PetruUo, same reference as foot-
note 8, pp. 151-178, at p. 152.
Interpersonal Communication and Salesman EffectiveTiess 11
of how much risk he perceives in the buying deci-
sion he is asked to make. Levitt's research, men-
tioned above, found that the influence of the sales-
man's presentation was in part determined by the
riskiness of the decision (that is, actual purchase
vs. recommend for further consideration) and by
the self-confidence of the prospect. Cox found that
women responded to a sales presentation for nylon
hosiery according to their self-confidence. Women
of medium self-confidence were most responsive.
Those of low self-confidence tended to reject the
salesgirl's advice because they didn't t rust their
ability to make a decision and because of the need
to defend their egos. Those of high self-confidence
rejected the advice because they didn't feel they
needed it and rather preferred to t rust their own
judgment.^"^
Thus, the prospect's behavior in the sales inter-
view is a function of his personal needs, his social
needs, and his self-confidence, as well as the amount
of risk he perceives in the buying decision. How
the prospect perceives and plays his role as "buyer"
determines the success of the sales call.
Another set of factors determining how the pros-
pect plays his role in a specific sales interaction is
other sources of information to which he has been
exposed concerning the salesman's product. These
can be grouped into two categories: impersonal,
commercial sources of information such as media
advertising and direct mail; and personal, non-
commercial sources such as colleagues, friends, and
neighbors. (The salesman can be characterized as
a personal, commercial source of information.) Gen-
erally speaking, personal sources of information
are known to be more effective in producing atti-
tude change than impersonal sources.^^ On the other
hand, commercial sources tend to be less effective
than noncommercial sources. Therefore, salesmen
tend to be more effective than advertising, but less
effective than peers fsuch as colleagues and friends)
in developing favorable attitudes toward products.
However, the importance of alternative sources
of information varies with the stage of the buyer's
decision and the product life cycle. As the buyer
goes through the mental stages of deciding to buy
a new product (or the "adoption process"—aware-
ness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption), he
relies on different sources of information. Further-
more, the people who buy a new product early in
16 Donald E. Cox, "Information and Uncertainty: Their
Effects on Consumer Product Evaluations," unpub-
hshed doctoral dissertation. Graduate School of Busi-
ness Administration, Harvard University, 1962.
17 Elihu Katz and Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Personal Influence
(Glencoe, 111.: The Free Press, 1955), pp. 183-184;
and Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel
Gaudet, The People's Choice (New York: Duell, Sloan,
and Pearce, 1944), pp. 49-50.
its life cycle (the innovators and early adopters)
tend to rely upon different sources of information
than later adopters.'^
In reviewing the literature on the adoption of
Pharmaceuticals by physicians, Bauer and Wortzel
found that doctors consistently ranked detailmen as
the most important source of information.'^ Earlier
studies found the detailman was more important as
a source of first knowledge than as a source of
influence, while colleagues and medical journal arti-
cles were more important as sources of influence
than as sources of first knowledge.-"'* Rogers and
Beal found that dealers and salesmen served differ-
ent functions (awareness, evaluation, etc.) for dif-
ferent adopter categories (early adopters vs. later
adopters) in the acceptance of new farm products.-^
Thus, the salesman's influence and effectiveness are
determined, in part, by the relative "innovativeness"
of the prospect and the stage of the prospect's buy-
ing decision process. The prospect's innovativeness
and his buying stages influence how he will use
and respond to information provided by the salesman
relative to the other commercial and noncommer-
cial sources of information to which he is exposed.
To summarize, how the prospect "plays his role"
in the sales interaction and how he responds to the
salesman's effort is determined by his personal
needs, his social needs, his self-confidence, the per-
ceived risk in the buying decision, his innovative-
ness, and the stage of his buying decision process.
Determinants of How the Salesman
' Tl ays His Role"
Many of the points developed above for the pros-
pect apply to the salesman as well. The salesman's
behavior is determined by his personal needs (for
example, his desire to earn a commission on the
sale) and his social needs. The salesman's behav-
ior will be influenced by his desire to meet the ex-
pectations of relevant other persons including his
manager, his salesman-peers, and the prospect him-
self. The salesman's confidence in his own ability
to "play the role" of salesman is important in de-
termining his behavior and is determined by his
knowledge, training, personality, and previous
experience.
^s Everett M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations (New
York: The Free Press, 1962).
1^ Raymond A. Bauer and Lawrence H. Wortzel, "Doc-
tor's Choice: The Physician and His Sources of In-
formation About Drugs," Journal of Marketing Re-
search, Vol. 3 (February, 1966), pp. 40-47.
20 Ehhu Kat z, "The Social I t i ne r a r y of Techni cal
Change: Two St udi es on t he Diffusion of I nnovat i on, "
Human Organization, Vol. 20 ( Summer , 1961) , pp.
70-82.
21 Ever et t M. Roger s and George M. Beal , " The I m-
por t ance of Per sonal Influence in t he Adopt i on of
Techni cal Changes , " Social Forces, Vol. 36 ( May,
1958) , pp. 329-335.
12
Journal of Marketing, July, 1968
Because of the importance of the prospect's be-
havior in determining the success of the sales call,
the salesman's ability to infer the prospect's role
expectations of him is a vitally important factor.
This ability has been defined as "empathy" or "em-
pathic ability"—the ability to put oneself into the
position of another person, a feeling of oneness
with the other person. There is an unresolved con-
troversy about "empathy": whether it is an inborn
personality trait or can be taught and learned; and
whether persons who have empathic ability are al-
ways more effective or only more effective in inter-
actions with specific types of persons. Nonetheless,
the ability to sense how the prospect expects him
to behave and how the prospect is reacting to what
he says is an important determinant of how suc-
cessfully t^e salesman plays his role.
The salesman's behavior will also reflect his per-
ception of how his manager expects him to play the
role of salesman. If these expectations have not
been stated clearly by the manager, the salesman's
behavior may not be consistent with management's
expectations. Furthermore, management must be
sure that its expectations about salesmen's behavior
are consistent with buyer's expectations. Otherwise,
the salesman is in the difficult position of having
to resolve conflicting role expectations, which will
lead to some frustration and anxiety, as well as re-
duction in his effectiveness.
The salesman's effectiveness also depends on his
ability to determine the locus of responsibility for
buying decisions within the buying organization.
This is true for family buying decisions as well
as industrial buying decisions. Where more than one
person is involved in the buying decision (e.g., a
purchasing agent and an engineer), the salesman
may be faced with conflicting role expectations.
Once again, the ability to sense and resolve conflicts
in buyers' role expectations is an important de-
terminant of his behavior.
To summarize, how the salesman plays his role
is determined by his ability to infer the expecta-
tions of relevant others for how he should play his
role. "Relevant others" include his manager and
the buying decision influencers within the buying
organization.
The Sales Presentation
Of course, a major determinant of the salesman's
effectiveness is the quality of the sales presentation
he delivers to the prospect. Viewing personal selling
as interpersonal interaction suggests that the pre-
sentation should be tailored to fit the needs and ex-
pectations of the prospective customer. In addition,
communications theory suggests several specific
characteristics of effective sales presentations.
The quality of the sales presentation is an impor-
tant factor both in getting a favorable first hearing
for the salesman and in inducing buying action.
In the sales presentation, the salesman should first
arouse the interest and identify the needs of the
prospect and then show how his product can fill those
needs. He should present the prospect with the posi-
tive features and arguments first, saving negative
features such as price for the last stages of the
presentation. Wherever possible, he should attempt
to get early commitment by taking the prospect
through a series of minor decisions first and by
encouraging the prospect to agree with a series of
statements supporting the value of buying the
product.
In a competitive situation, the salesman can "in-
sulate" the prospect against competitors' claims by
facing up to any limitations of his product and
showing the prospect why his product has greater
value. Communications theory suggests that a "two-
sided" argument can be effective in anticipating
and negating the effects of counter-arguments. The
salesman should explicitly point out the advantages
of using his product and the need satisfactions to
be derived. This conclusion-drawing can avoid the
prospect's "missing the point," but must be used
cautiously where the buyer is more "expert" than
the salesman (such as when book salesmen call on
college teachers).
Finally, emotional appeals are useful in heighten-
ing interest and attention, but only up to a point.
Beyond that point, the prospect's increased anxiety
and emotional involvement may actually decrease the
effectiveness of the presentation by reducing atten-
tion, comprehension, and acceptance. All of these
comments on sales presentations are drawn directly
from the findings of communications research.--
Implications for Salesman Training
This analysis of the sales interaction suggests
the value of viewing selling as a communication
process. We have seen that the source (company),
the communicator (salesmen), the message (pre-
sentation), and the receiver (prospect) all have an
important influence on the outcome of the sales
interaction. This expanded view of the determi-
nants of salesman effectiveness has some clear im-
plications for salesman training. Compared with
the historical explanations of salesman effectiveness,
this expanded view suggests more emphasis on
training and less emphasis on selection criteria for
sales force development.
First, the effective salesman needs sharply devel-
22 Same reference as footnote 12. For a more thorough
description of these research findings and their im-
plications for selling strategy, see Kenneth R. Davis
and Frederick E. Webster. Jr., Sales Force Manage-
ment: Text and Cases (New York: Ronald Press
Company, 1968), especially Chapter 3, "The Com-
munications Process."
Interpersonal Communication and Salesman Effectiveness
13
oped listening skills. He must listen carefully to
the prospect's description of problems and to an-
swers to his (the salesman's) questions designed
to uncover the prospect's personal and social needs.
He must understand how these motivate and legiti-
mate buying behavior. He must be able to infer
such needs as they are implied by the prospect's
objections. Only when he knows the prospect's per-
sonal and social needs can he then develop the pros-
pect's need for the produA. Product needs do not
exist per se, but only in the context of these broader
and deeper personal and social needs. Thus, to aid
his listening, the effective salesman needs a basic
understanding of buyer behavior and the ability to
analyze what he hears. Tape-recordings of actual
sales calls can be a helpful aid to this kind of
learning.
Second, the salesman needs the ability to sense the
prospect's predispositions and, especially, how the
prospect expects him to behave. He must be able to
sense the impact of his comments on the prospect
and to modify his comments in response to the feed-
back he receives on prospect reactions. These skills
can be developed through well-designed role playing,
but it is crucial that the salesman be exposed to
many different kinds of "prospects" in the role play-
ing session. To develop interaction skills through
role playing limited to either a manager or a trainer
as the "prospect" is a very narrow and unsatisfac-
tory approach. The use of video-tape-recorders can
help the salesman develop his ability to assess his
impact on others.
Third, salesmen need some basic understanding
of the nature of interpersonal interaction and the
communication process. They need to know how
the characteristics of receivers, messages, and com-
municators interact to determine selling effective-
ness. They can also benefit from an awareness of
how sales presentations can be tailored (in terms of
order of arguments, types of appeals, for example)
to meet a specific prospect's communication patterns.
Some recent textbooks on salesmanship have incor-
porated communication theory in a way useful for
this type of training.-^
See, for example, Joseph W. Thompson: Selling: A
Behavioral Science Approach (New York: McGraw-
Hill Book Co., 1966).
Other Guides to Effective Selling Strategy
This analysis has also suggested several other
guidelines for the development of effective selling
strategies. The reputation of the company (devel-
oped through advertising, research and publicity)
is very important in determining how prospects re-
spond to the salesman and his presentation. Sales-
men for companies with good reputations will obtain
better response to their efforts. But company repu-
tation also creates expectations for that company's
salesmen, and a high level of sales training must be
maintained to assure that salesmen can fulfill these
expectations.
A recognition that customers who buy early are
different in many respects from those who buy later
indicates the need to tailor selling strategy to fit the
product life cycle. Early buyers tend to rely upon
different sources of information and to use these
sources for different functions, than later buyers.
The sales manager needs to explore and analyze
systematically the particular nature of these differ-
ences in the markets served by his company. Studies
of the adoption process suggest that the salesman
is particularly important at the trial stage, to pro-
vide assistance and knowledge in product testing and
the interpretation of trial results. Whether the
product is an industrial chemical or a vacuum
cleaner, successful demonstration and trial is a criti-
cal step in the prospect's buying decision. Once
again, there are clear implications for salesman
training.
Summary
The determinants of the salesman's effectiveness
go considerably beyond the salesman hiniself. Think-
ing of selling as a form of communication leads to
some new insights into the selling process and to
some clear indications for salesman training and
the development of selling strategies. The impor-
tance of personal selling in the marketing communi-
cations mix should be modified over the product life
cycle to reflect differences in buyer characteristics.
The company's reputation and the sales manager's
expectations are also important determinants of
salesman effectiveness. The sales manager who de-
velops his understanding of buyer' behavior and
communications theory will be rewarded with sig-
nificant clues for the development of more effective
sales strategies.
doc_597824110.pdf
What makes a successful salesman?" has been one of the most frequently asked and incompletely answered questions in marketing.
Interpersonal Communication
and Salesman Effectiveness
FREDERICK E.
WEBSTER, JR.
Behavioral science offers
some Important new insights
into the determinants of a
salesman's ef f ect i veness.
These insights can lead to
the development of more
productive sales presenta-
tions and sales training pro-
grams to maximize the con-
tribution of personal selling
in the marketing communi-
cations program.
Journal of Marketing. Vol. 32 (July,
1968), pp. 7-13.
makes a successful salesman?" has been one of the
most frequently asked and incompletely answered questions
in marketing. The purpose of this paper is to trace briefly the
evolution of answers to this question and to show how research
findings from behavioral science suggest some new answers. An
evaluation of historical explanations of salesman effectiveness sug-
gests some more complex but more productive ways of looking
at personal selling. A better understanding of the personal sell-
ing process can lead to more effective sales strategies and sales
force development programs.
Historical Explanations of Salesman Effectiveness
The earliest, and the most persistent, answers to the question
"What makes a successful salesman?" consisted of lists of the
personal characteristics and traits of the salesman himself. Some
of these lists generated criteria for evaluating application blanks:
age, height, appearance, education, previous business experience,
etc. Other lists formed tbe bases for, or were generated by,
psychological tests: ag-gressiveness, dominance, extroversion, opti-
mism, competitive spirit, etc. Despite some disenchantment with
the efficacy of psychological tests, the search for the traits of suc-
cessful salesmen has continued unabated, and more sophisticated and
complex traits, such as "empathy" and "ego drive," have recently
been suggested.^
Another set of answers concentrated on the salesman's actions
rather than his traits. Perhaps the simplest answers were those
which described the steps in the successful sales call, for example,
the AIDA formula: (1) get Attention; (2) arouse Interest; (3)
stimulate Desire; (4) get buying Action. This "salesmanship"
approach assumed that the outcome of the sales call depends on the
specific actions of the salesman.
Recognizing that the buyer played a part in determining the
outcome of the call, other answers suggested that the buyer's
actions were also important.
The so-called "stimulus-response theory" of selling saw the
salesman as being able to elicit the desired responses if he could
provide the right stimuli, and treated the prospect in essentially
mechanistic terms. Like the "salesman's traits" approach, the
"salesman's action" approach credited the salesman with virtually
complete responsibility for the outcome of the call.
David Mayer and Herbert M. Greenherg, "What Makes a Gooc
Salesman," Harvard Business Review, Vol. 42 {July-August, 1964)
pp. 119-125.
8
Journal of Marketing, July, 1968
With increasing emphasis on a consumer orien-
tation in marketing, "need satisfaction theory"
provided some slightly different answers to the ques-
tion "What makes a successful salesman?" These
answers showed that the successful salesman was
the one who could identify the prospect's needs and
turn them into buying motives. Guided by this
theory, the salesman learns to ask questions de-
signed to uncover the prospect's needs, to listen
carefully to the answers, and then to show how his
product meets those needs. Having built the
groundwork, the salesman moves in with the presen-
tation and close. Need satisfaction theory was
really a variant of stimulus-response theory. Needs
were seen as a determinant of response; to get the
desired response the salesman must choose the right
stimuli (selling points) which show the prospect
how buying will satisfy his needs. Authors of
books that define selling as "helping pi'ospects buy"
have used this explanation. While these "salesman-
ship" theories recognized that the prospect has a
role, he was still viewed in passive terms.-
These three kinds of "theory" identify three im-
portant determinants of selling effectiveness: the
salesman's characteristics and traits, the salesman's
actions, and the prospect's needs. These elements
are plausible and valid, but incomplete for explain-
ing and predicting the outcome of the sales inter-
view. Why is it that the same salesman, using the
same actions, is not always effective with prospects
with the same kinds of needs? One logical and
simple explanation is that there are attributes of
prospects, other than their needs, which influence
the outcome of the sales call. Or, there are some
complex ways in which salesman characteristics and
actions combine with prospect characteristics and
actions to determine outcomes.
Interaction Theory
Evans was among the first to challenge seriously
the traditional "salesmanship" explanations of sell-
ing effectiveness and to suggest that the prospect
played an active role in determining the progress
and outcome of the sales call. He observed that:
"Very little is known about what takes place
when the salesman and his prospect meet. The
two parties meet in a highly structured situation,
and the outcome of the meeting depends upon the
resulting interaction. In this sense, the 'sale' is
a social situation involving two persons. The
interaction of the two persons, in turn, depends
upon the economic, social, physical, and personality
characteristics of each of them. To understand
the process, however, it is necessary to look at
both parties to the sale as a dyad, not
individually."''
In his study of life insurance salesmen, Evans
found evidence that the probability of a sale was
influenced by the extent to which there was a match-
ing of the prospect's and the salesman's character-
istics. This was true for such factors as age, height,
income, political opinions, religious beliefs, and
smoking. Perceived similarity for religion and poli-
tics was more important than actual similarity. Evans
concluded that the successful sale was situation-
ally determined by the interaction between prospect
and salesman, and not solely by the particular charac-
teristics of one or the other party to the interaction.-*
Other researchers have also reported evidence that
successful salesmen tend to concentrate on particu-
lar kinds of prospects.'' However, Evans' study did
not consider the behavioral djTiamics of the sales
interaction itself.
Applying interaction theory to the study of sell-
ing recognized that selling is more than individual
behavior. Rather, it is social behavior, behavior that
is rewarded or punished, accepted or rejected, by
another person. The essential feature of social be-
havior is that each of the persons in face-to-face
interaction influences the behavior of the other."
Selling certainly fits this definition. Social behavior,
or "interpersonal interaction," has also been char-
acterized as behavior influenced by "How one per-
son thinks and feels about another person, how he
perceives him and what he expects him to do or
think, how he reacts to the actions of the
other. . . ."'
2 These theories are summarized in Harold C. Cash
and W. J. E. Crissy, "Ways of Looking at Selling"
in William Lazer and Eugene J. Kelley (eds.). Mana-
gerial Marketing: Perspectives and Viewpoints, 2nd
ed. (Homewood, 111.: Richard D. Irwin, Inc., 1962),
pp. 554-559.
•t Franklin B. Evans, "Selling as a Dyadic Relationship
—A New Approach," The Americayi Behavioral Sci-
entist, Vol. VI (May, 1963), pp. 76-79, at p. 76.
•• Same reference as footnote 3, at p. 79.
f» M. S. Gadel, "Concentration by Salesmen on Con-
genial Prospects," JOURNAL OF MARKETING. Vol. 28
(April, 1964), pp. 64-66; and Lauren Edgar Crane,
"The Salesman's Role in Household Decision-Mak-
ing," in L. George Smith (ed.), Reftectiovs on Prog-
ress in Marketing (Chicago: American Marketing As-
sociation, 1964), pp. 184-196.
« George Caspar Homans, Social Behavior: Its Elenien-
tary Fortns (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.
Inc., 1961), pp. 2-3.
^ Fritz Heider, The Psychology of Interpersonal Rela-
tions (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1958),
p. 1.
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR. Frederick E.
Webster is Associate Professor at The
Amos Tuck School of Business Adminis-
fration, Dartmouth College. He is the
author of several recent articles on buyer
behavior and sales force management
and. with K. R. Davis, of SALES FORCE
MANAGEMENT (Ronald Press Co.,
1968). Dr. Webster is active as a con-
sultant and as a lecturer in several
management development programs for
sales and marketing executives.
Interpersonal Communication and Salesman Effectiveness
Recognition that selling is, indeed, social behav-
ior forces us to look beyond the salesman for factors
determining his effectiveness. Specifically, we must
take into account not only the characteristics and
traits but also the actions, attitudes, perceptions,
expectations, and reactions of hoth the prospect and
the salesman. Analysis of the sales interaction
along these lines suggests some important factors
to consider in developing effective selling strategies.
In this expanded view of the sales interaction, it
can be seen that the salesman's effectiveness is de-
termined by a complex set of factors surrounding
both the prospect and the salesman. The outcome
of the sales call depends upon how well the salesman
and the prospect have communicated with each other
—how well they have achieved a common under-
standing that will enable both to fill their needs
and achieve their goals. Following is a considera-
tion of the factors involved in interpersonal com-
munication and their significance for the sales
manager.
Perception
It is a well-known fact that human beings re-
spond to their environment in terms of their per-
ception of that environment, not necessarily the
objective facts of the environment. Perception is
a subjective process. How a person views the en-
vironment, including other persons, is a function
of his psychological structure—his goals, values,
attitudes, feelings, needs, and so on. An individual's
perceptions of other people in the environment is
complicated further by the fact that he makes in-
ferences about the intentions, attitudes, emotions,
ideas, abilities, etc., which cause their behavior.
Other human beings are described not only in terms
of their actual behavior but in terms of the psy-
chological attributes of their behavior. Most im-
portant of all, these attributes are looked upon as
being directed toward us and having particular
meaning for us. In other words, our reaction to
others depends upon how we think they view their
environment, including us.^ One inference from
this fact for the salesman is that just as he "sizes
up" the prospect, so does the prospect "size up" the
salesman. The prospect's perception of the sales-
man is an important determinant of the salesman's
effectiveness.
Role Expectations
How each person perceives or "sizes up" the other
is determined by his predispositions: the set of
opinions, attitudes, and beliefs which determines
the perceiver's cognitive structure. One of the most
important sources of an individual's predispositions
is the role that he is in. A role is the social posi-
tion occupied by an individual, including the goals
of that position, and the behavioral repertoire ap-
propriate to that position and to the attainment of
those goals. Social positions (like "father," "Prot-
estant," "Republican," "salesman," and "purchas-
ing agent") have associated with them a set of
expectations as to how persons occupying that
role should behave. These expectations are "bi-
dimensional" in that they specify both how persons
in that role should behave and how others should
behave toward them.» Role expectations, therefore,
provide important components of structure in the
sales interaction in that they define the kinds of
behavior that each of the actors expects both of
himself and of the other person. To the extent that
the prospect and the salesman have consistent role
expectations (for both themselves and for each
other) there will be more effective interaction and
communication.
Sources of Role Expectations for the Salesman
There are two particularly important sources of
prospects' role expectations for salesmen. The first
is the stereotype of the salesman. A "stereotype" can
be defined as a "consensus of role expectations
shared by a large segment of the population." It is
a well-known fact that there is a stereotype of the
salesman that describes him as "talkative," "easy
going," "competitive," "optimistic," and "excitable."
Kirchner and Dunnette found that salesmen de-
scribe themselves in these terms."^ This stereotype
is one of the reasons why the salesman is not highly
regarded by a large segment of the population.^i
Perception is subjective, and it is not important
whether or not the stereotype is an objectively accu-
rate one. The prospect who does not have previous
experience with a particular salesman will respond
to that salesman in terms of the stereotype which
he has of salesmen in general. "Inaccurate" percep-
tion of the salesman by the prospect may lead to
a lack of communication. On the other hand, by
the virtue of their occupation, all salesmen are re-
garded as having manipulative intent—they want
the prospect to behave in a particular way—and
communications theory indicates that the percep-
tion of manipulative intent in the communicator
Renato Tagiuri and Luigi PetruUo (eds.). Person
Perception and Interpersonal Behavior (Stanford,
California: Stanford University Press, 1958),pp. x-xi.
9 Theodore Sarbin, "Role Theory," in Garner Lindzey
(ed.), Handbook of Social Psychology, Vol. I (Cam-
bridge. Mass.: Addison-Wesley, Inc.. 1954), pp. 223-
258.
1" Wayne K. Kirehner and Marvin D. Dunnette. "How
Salesmen and Teehnieal Men Differ in Describing
Themselves," Personnel Journal, Vol.37 (April, 1959),
pp. 418-419.
11 John L. Mason, "The Low Prestige of Personal Sell-
ing," JOURNAL OF MARKETING, Vol. 29 (October, 1965).
pp. 7-10.
10
Journal of Marketing, July, 1968
leads to certain resistance.^- This is one reason
why some door-to-door salesmen deceptively pose as
survey interviewers; they know how housewives re-
spond to door-to-door salesmen.
A second important source of "role expectations"
held by a prospect for a salesman is the reputation
of the selling company. This is a special case of
the generalized concept of "source credibility" in
communications theory. Several research studies
have confirmed that the reputation of the source
is an important determinant of response to per-
suasive communication.^-^ In a recently published
study, Levitt found that industrial purchasing
agents' and chemists' responses to sales presenta-
tions were influenced strongly by the reputation of
the company (source) which the salesman (com-
municator) represented. In general, the salesman
for the company with the better reputation (cre-
ated through advertising, for example) always ob-
tained a more favorable response to his presenta-
tion.
On the other hand. Levitt also found that re-
spondents tended to rank the salesman as lower in
"trustworthiness" than they ranked the company
that the salesman represented. While this finding
probably reflects, in part, the low occupational pres-
tige of the salesman, Levitt suggested that there
was more involved. He concluded that the prospect's
perception of the trustworthiness of the salesman
was not as closely related to the salesman's prod-
uct knowledge as it was to the overall quality of
the sales presentation.'•* Furthermore, a poor pre-
sentation resulted in a reduction in the perceived
trustworthiness of the company. Finally, Levitt's
research suggested that for a company with an
excellent reputation, the prospect has very high ex-
pectations for the kind of salesman that will repre-
sent that company—so high, in fact, that salesmen
may not be able to meet these expectations. This
finding emphasizes the importance of sales training.
To summarize briefly, the sales interaction is in-
terpersonal communication in which the prospect's
expectations about how the salesman will and should
behave have an important influence on the outcome
of the sales call. Further, we have said that the
stereotype of the salesman and the reputation of the
salesman's company are important determinants of
the prospect's response. Next, consideration is
•2 Carl I. Hovland, Irving L. Janis, and Harold H.
Kelley, Comniiinication and Persuasion: Psychological
Studies of Opinion Change (New Haven: Yale Uni-
versity Press, 1953), p. 295.
13 Carl I. Hovland and Walter Weiss, "The Influence of
Source Credibility on Communication Effectiveness,"
Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 15 (Winter, 1951-52),
pp. 635-650.
!•* Theodore Levitt, Industrial Purchasing Behavior: A
Study of Contmuncations Effects (Boston: Division of
Research, Graduate School of Business Administra-
tion, Harvard University, 1965), pp. 31-32.
given to how the prospect's and the salesman's per-
ceptions of their own roles influence the direction
of the sales interaction.
Determinants of How the Prospect
"Plays His Role"
Interaction theory explains that the needs of the
actors are important determinants of their predis-
positions and that these predispositions influence
their perceptions of the situation. As Jones and
Thibaut have stated:
If we can successfully identify the goals for which
an actor is striving in the interaction situation,
we can begin to say something about the cues to
which he will attend, and the meaning he is most
likely to assign to them.^''
The old "need satisfaction" theory of salesmanship
recognized this basic fact, but said little about the
true complexity of the pi'ospect's needs.
Every prospective buyer has at least two kinds of
needs: his personal needs which motivate his be-
havior and his social needs which define the kinds
of need fulfillment activity which will be acceptable
to relevant other persons in the social situation.
While this is only a ci'ude cut across the complex
set of needs which determine behavior, it makes an
important distinction. For example, the industrial
buyer may be motivated by a personal need for
recognition and advancement and by the social need
to satisfy the using department. His need for the
salesman's product will not exist unless he can see
how a buying decision will allow him to satisfy
both sets of needs. Those particular personal and
social needs will determine: (1) whether the pros-
pect grants an interview to the salesman, (2) which
parts of the presentation he really listens to, (3)
the information he will remember, and (4) the in-
fluence of the sales presentation on his decision to
buy. In psychological terms, these are the pro-
cesses of selective exposure, selective attention, and
selective retention, and the final step of conviction
or attitude change.
The prospect's social needs are defined by his
social roles and relationships. Thus, the industrial
buyer must consider how management expects him
to perform his job, and the family buyer must re-
member his role of "father," for example, in buying
an automobile. Role expectations define particular
buying needs and appropriate buying behavior for
the individual.
An important dimension of how the prospect be-
haves is his self-confidence in his ability to play the
role. The prospect's self-confidence is a determinant
Edward E. Jones and John W. Thibaut, "Interaction
Goals as Bases of Inferences in Interpersonal Percep-
tion," in Taguiri and PetruUo, same reference as foot-
note 8, pp. 151-178, at p. 152.
Interpersonal Communication and Salesman EffectiveTiess 11
of how much risk he perceives in the buying deci-
sion he is asked to make. Levitt's research, men-
tioned above, found that the influence of the sales-
man's presentation was in part determined by the
riskiness of the decision (that is, actual purchase
vs. recommend for further consideration) and by
the self-confidence of the prospect. Cox found that
women responded to a sales presentation for nylon
hosiery according to their self-confidence. Women
of medium self-confidence were most responsive.
Those of low self-confidence tended to reject the
salesgirl's advice because they didn't t rust their
ability to make a decision and because of the need
to defend their egos. Those of high self-confidence
rejected the advice because they didn't feel they
needed it and rather preferred to t rust their own
judgment.^"^
Thus, the prospect's behavior in the sales inter-
view is a function of his personal needs, his social
needs, and his self-confidence, as well as the amount
of risk he perceives in the buying decision. How
the prospect perceives and plays his role as "buyer"
determines the success of the sales call.
Another set of factors determining how the pros-
pect plays his role in a specific sales interaction is
other sources of information to which he has been
exposed concerning the salesman's product. These
can be grouped into two categories: impersonal,
commercial sources of information such as media
advertising and direct mail; and personal, non-
commercial sources such as colleagues, friends, and
neighbors. (The salesman can be characterized as
a personal, commercial source of information.) Gen-
erally speaking, personal sources of information
are known to be more effective in producing atti-
tude change than impersonal sources.^^ On the other
hand, commercial sources tend to be less effective
than noncommercial sources. Therefore, salesmen
tend to be more effective than advertising, but less
effective than peers fsuch as colleagues and friends)
in developing favorable attitudes toward products.
However, the importance of alternative sources
of information varies with the stage of the buyer's
decision and the product life cycle. As the buyer
goes through the mental stages of deciding to buy
a new product (or the "adoption process"—aware-
ness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption), he
relies on different sources of information. Further-
more, the people who buy a new product early in
16 Donald E. Cox, "Information and Uncertainty: Their
Effects on Consumer Product Evaluations," unpub-
hshed doctoral dissertation. Graduate School of Busi-
ness Administration, Harvard University, 1962.
17 Elihu Katz and Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Personal Influence
(Glencoe, 111.: The Free Press, 1955), pp. 183-184;
and Paul F. Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel
Gaudet, The People's Choice (New York: Duell, Sloan,
and Pearce, 1944), pp. 49-50.
its life cycle (the innovators and early adopters)
tend to rely upon different sources of information
than later adopters.'^
In reviewing the literature on the adoption of
Pharmaceuticals by physicians, Bauer and Wortzel
found that doctors consistently ranked detailmen as
the most important source of information.'^ Earlier
studies found the detailman was more important as
a source of first knowledge than as a source of
influence, while colleagues and medical journal arti-
cles were more important as sources of influence
than as sources of first knowledge.-"'* Rogers and
Beal found that dealers and salesmen served differ-
ent functions (awareness, evaluation, etc.) for dif-
ferent adopter categories (early adopters vs. later
adopters) in the acceptance of new farm products.-^
Thus, the salesman's influence and effectiveness are
determined, in part, by the relative "innovativeness"
of the prospect and the stage of the prospect's buy-
ing decision process. The prospect's innovativeness
and his buying stages influence how he will use
and respond to information provided by the salesman
relative to the other commercial and noncommer-
cial sources of information to which he is exposed.
To summarize, how the prospect "plays his role"
in the sales interaction and how he responds to the
salesman's effort is determined by his personal
needs, his social needs, his self-confidence, the per-
ceived risk in the buying decision, his innovative-
ness, and the stage of his buying decision process.
Determinants of How the Salesman
' Tl ays His Role"
Many of the points developed above for the pros-
pect apply to the salesman as well. The salesman's
behavior is determined by his personal needs (for
example, his desire to earn a commission on the
sale) and his social needs. The salesman's behav-
ior will be influenced by his desire to meet the ex-
pectations of relevant other persons including his
manager, his salesman-peers, and the prospect him-
self. The salesman's confidence in his own ability
to "play the role" of salesman is important in de-
termining his behavior and is determined by his
knowledge, training, personality, and previous
experience.
^s Everett M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations (New
York: The Free Press, 1962).
1^ Raymond A. Bauer and Lawrence H. Wortzel, "Doc-
tor's Choice: The Physician and His Sources of In-
formation About Drugs," Journal of Marketing Re-
search, Vol. 3 (February, 1966), pp. 40-47.
20 Ehhu Kat z, "The Social I t i ne r a r y of Techni cal
Change: Two St udi es on t he Diffusion of I nnovat i on, "
Human Organization, Vol. 20 ( Summer , 1961) , pp.
70-82.
21 Ever et t M. Roger s and George M. Beal , " The I m-
por t ance of Per sonal Influence in t he Adopt i on of
Techni cal Changes , " Social Forces, Vol. 36 ( May,
1958) , pp. 329-335.
12
Journal of Marketing, July, 1968
Because of the importance of the prospect's be-
havior in determining the success of the sales call,
the salesman's ability to infer the prospect's role
expectations of him is a vitally important factor.
This ability has been defined as "empathy" or "em-
pathic ability"—the ability to put oneself into the
position of another person, a feeling of oneness
with the other person. There is an unresolved con-
troversy about "empathy": whether it is an inborn
personality trait or can be taught and learned; and
whether persons who have empathic ability are al-
ways more effective or only more effective in inter-
actions with specific types of persons. Nonetheless,
the ability to sense how the prospect expects him
to behave and how the prospect is reacting to what
he says is an important determinant of how suc-
cessfully t^e salesman plays his role.
The salesman's behavior will also reflect his per-
ception of how his manager expects him to play the
role of salesman. If these expectations have not
been stated clearly by the manager, the salesman's
behavior may not be consistent with management's
expectations. Furthermore, management must be
sure that its expectations about salesmen's behavior
are consistent with buyer's expectations. Otherwise,
the salesman is in the difficult position of having
to resolve conflicting role expectations, which will
lead to some frustration and anxiety, as well as re-
duction in his effectiveness.
The salesman's effectiveness also depends on his
ability to determine the locus of responsibility for
buying decisions within the buying organization.
This is true for family buying decisions as well
as industrial buying decisions. Where more than one
person is involved in the buying decision (e.g., a
purchasing agent and an engineer), the salesman
may be faced with conflicting role expectations.
Once again, the ability to sense and resolve conflicts
in buyers' role expectations is an important de-
terminant of his behavior.
To summarize, how the salesman plays his role
is determined by his ability to infer the expecta-
tions of relevant others for how he should play his
role. "Relevant others" include his manager and
the buying decision influencers within the buying
organization.
The Sales Presentation
Of course, a major determinant of the salesman's
effectiveness is the quality of the sales presentation
he delivers to the prospect. Viewing personal selling
as interpersonal interaction suggests that the pre-
sentation should be tailored to fit the needs and ex-
pectations of the prospective customer. In addition,
communications theory suggests several specific
characteristics of effective sales presentations.
The quality of the sales presentation is an impor-
tant factor both in getting a favorable first hearing
for the salesman and in inducing buying action.
In the sales presentation, the salesman should first
arouse the interest and identify the needs of the
prospect and then show how his product can fill those
needs. He should present the prospect with the posi-
tive features and arguments first, saving negative
features such as price for the last stages of the
presentation. Wherever possible, he should attempt
to get early commitment by taking the prospect
through a series of minor decisions first and by
encouraging the prospect to agree with a series of
statements supporting the value of buying the
product.
In a competitive situation, the salesman can "in-
sulate" the prospect against competitors' claims by
facing up to any limitations of his product and
showing the prospect why his product has greater
value. Communications theory suggests that a "two-
sided" argument can be effective in anticipating
and negating the effects of counter-arguments. The
salesman should explicitly point out the advantages
of using his product and the need satisfactions to
be derived. This conclusion-drawing can avoid the
prospect's "missing the point," but must be used
cautiously where the buyer is more "expert" than
the salesman (such as when book salesmen call on
college teachers).
Finally, emotional appeals are useful in heighten-
ing interest and attention, but only up to a point.
Beyond that point, the prospect's increased anxiety
and emotional involvement may actually decrease the
effectiveness of the presentation by reducing atten-
tion, comprehension, and acceptance. All of these
comments on sales presentations are drawn directly
from the findings of communications research.--
Implications for Salesman Training
This analysis of the sales interaction suggests
the value of viewing selling as a communication
process. We have seen that the source (company),
the communicator (salesmen), the message (pre-
sentation), and the receiver (prospect) all have an
important influence on the outcome of the sales
interaction. This expanded view of the determi-
nants of salesman effectiveness has some clear im-
plications for salesman training. Compared with
the historical explanations of salesman effectiveness,
this expanded view suggests more emphasis on
training and less emphasis on selection criteria for
sales force development.
First, the effective salesman needs sharply devel-
22 Same reference as footnote 12. For a more thorough
description of these research findings and their im-
plications for selling strategy, see Kenneth R. Davis
and Frederick E. Webster. Jr., Sales Force Manage-
ment: Text and Cases (New York: Ronald Press
Company, 1968), especially Chapter 3, "The Com-
munications Process."
Interpersonal Communication and Salesman Effectiveness
13
oped listening skills. He must listen carefully to
the prospect's description of problems and to an-
swers to his (the salesman's) questions designed
to uncover the prospect's personal and social needs.
He must understand how these motivate and legiti-
mate buying behavior. He must be able to infer
such needs as they are implied by the prospect's
objections. Only when he knows the prospect's per-
sonal and social needs can he then develop the pros-
pect's need for the produA. Product needs do not
exist per se, but only in the context of these broader
and deeper personal and social needs. Thus, to aid
his listening, the effective salesman needs a basic
understanding of buyer behavior and the ability to
analyze what he hears. Tape-recordings of actual
sales calls can be a helpful aid to this kind of
learning.
Second, the salesman needs the ability to sense the
prospect's predispositions and, especially, how the
prospect expects him to behave. He must be able to
sense the impact of his comments on the prospect
and to modify his comments in response to the feed-
back he receives on prospect reactions. These skills
can be developed through well-designed role playing,
but it is crucial that the salesman be exposed to
many different kinds of "prospects" in the role play-
ing session. To develop interaction skills through
role playing limited to either a manager or a trainer
as the "prospect" is a very narrow and unsatisfac-
tory approach. The use of video-tape-recorders can
help the salesman develop his ability to assess his
impact on others.
Third, salesmen need some basic understanding
of the nature of interpersonal interaction and the
communication process. They need to know how
the characteristics of receivers, messages, and com-
municators interact to determine selling effective-
ness. They can also benefit from an awareness of
how sales presentations can be tailored (in terms of
order of arguments, types of appeals, for example)
to meet a specific prospect's communication patterns.
Some recent textbooks on salesmanship have incor-
porated communication theory in a way useful for
this type of training.-^
See, for example, Joseph W. Thompson: Selling: A
Behavioral Science Approach (New York: McGraw-
Hill Book Co., 1966).
Other Guides to Effective Selling Strategy
This analysis has also suggested several other
guidelines for the development of effective selling
strategies. The reputation of the company (devel-
oped through advertising, research and publicity)
is very important in determining how prospects re-
spond to the salesman and his presentation. Sales-
men for companies with good reputations will obtain
better response to their efforts. But company repu-
tation also creates expectations for that company's
salesmen, and a high level of sales training must be
maintained to assure that salesmen can fulfill these
expectations.
A recognition that customers who buy early are
different in many respects from those who buy later
indicates the need to tailor selling strategy to fit the
product life cycle. Early buyers tend to rely upon
different sources of information and to use these
sources for different functions, than later buyers.
The sales manager needs to explore and analyze
systematically the particular nature of these differ-
ences in the markets served by his company. Studies
of the adoption process suggest that the salesman
is particularly important at the trial stage, to pro-
vide assistance and knowledge in product testing and
the interpretation of trial results. Whether the
product is an industrial chemical or a vacuum
cleaner, successful demonstration and trial is a criti-
cal step in the prospect's buying decision. Once
again, there are clear implications for salesman
training.
Summary
The determinants of the salesman's effectiveness
go considerably beyond the salesman hiniself. Think-
ing of selling as a form of communication leads to
some new insights into the selling process and to
some clear indications for salesman training and
the development of selling strategies. The impor-
tance of personal selling in the marketing communi-
cations mix should be modified over the product life
cycle to reflect differences in buyer characteristics.
The company's reputation and the sales manager's
expectations are also important determinants of
salesman effectiveness. The sales manager who de-
velops his understanding of buyer' behavior and
communications theory will be rewarded with sig-
nificant clues for the development of more effective
sales strategies.
doc_597824110.pdf