Salespeople routinely sell to multiple members with influence over the purchasing decision in the customer organization. Given these buying center members’ varying needs, wants, perspectives, and ...motivations, dispositions toward a sales discussion can be heterogeneous. Salespeople may encounter situations in which members of the buying center react positively to the sales discussion, with the exception of a dissenter who exerts a negative impact on the salesperson in the interaction. Through a qualitative research design, this article provides insight into salespeople’s approaches in dealing with a dissenter in the buying center. The findings provide an integrated understanding of salespeople’s experiences of dissent encounters in business-to-business selling. In-meeting mitigation and post-meeting remediation strategies are advanced along with influencing situational factors. In illustrating how salespeople handle dissenters, the article contributes to scholarship, provides managerial guidance, and advances avenues for future research.
The study used questionnaire survey research to examine the relationships among service training (ST), the frequency of contacting difficult customers (FQ), emotional labor (EL) and positive ...affective delivery (PAD) using a sample of 184 first line volunteers, and the response rate was 77%. The results revealed that service training (ST) influenced emotional labor (EL) positively; frequency of contacting difficult customers (FQ) affected emotional labor (EL) negatively; emotional labor (EL) has a positive effect on volunteers' positive affective delivery (PAD). The study discusses the implications for theory and practices. The results also suggest that focusing on developing human resource strategies for volunteers could enhance understanding of how volunteers manage their emotions on duty and suggestions for the further studies.
Responding to economic liberalization and realizing the great market potential, a number of multinational enterprises (MNEs) based in developed countries are expanding their operations to the ...developing world, either through foreign direct investment or through joint ventures. These MNEs are trying to translocate product quality standards as well as customer service standards from their home countries to host countries. In the process, customer expectations from these MNEs in the developing countries have risen very high, but the MNEs are struggling to meet them, especially with respect to the customer service aspect. They are facing many constraints; the major ones have to do with the archaic outlook and traditional mode of doing business by their dealerships. This case summarizes some such problems being faced by one multi-national automobile giant in India—FastTrack Motors India Limited. The case has a strong essence of customer satisfaction and deals with different stages of customer reaction.
