The revolution in information availability and the advances in novel interaction technologies have ushered in two major shifts that call into question the traditional assumptions of buyer–seller ...interactions. First, buyer–seller
information asymmetry
has greatly decreased in many interactions. Second, face-to-face communication is no longer the main format of buyer–seller interactions. In this article, the authors review empirical research on how these shifts have changed buyer–seller negotiations, an important type of buyer–seller interactions. Several insights arise from this review. First, the shifts have caused fundamental changes in buyers’ and sellers’ roles, power, and aspirations and information processing. Second, the shifts and these fundamental changes together cause major changes in buyer–seller interactional processes and outcomes, including (1) change in buyers’ attitude and behavior, (2) change in sellers’ effectiveness in interacting with buyers, and (3) change in buyer–seller interactional processes. Based on these insights, the authors develop a research agenda to guide the reexamination of existing theories and the development of new theories of buyer–seller interactions.
This research addresses a challenge within cross-national surveys of salespeople and sales managers: systematic differences between respondents from different countries in their interpretation of ...response categories associated with survey items measuring a construct of interest. As a result of these discrepancies in interpretation, analyses based on uncorrected survey responses may yield misleading results. The authors mathematically demonstrate the issue and then, drawing on the literature in education and political science, demonstrate a potential solution, the use of anchoring vignettes, which possesses substantial appeal in contexts where a researcher is interested in comparing construct means across contexts where intergroup differences would otherwise make such comparisons problematic. The authors use the proposed method on data from a cross-national survey of 1,051 salespeople and 163 sales managers across three countries (Brazil, Japan, and the United Kingdom) to evaluate self-assessments and upward assessments of a sales manager's drive. The findings highlight the importance of correcting for systematic differences in survey responses driven by cross-national differences, especially when the goal is to compare construct means. Further, the authors demonstrate the value of anchoring vignettes concerning several analytical goals relevant to academics and practitioners.
Performance rankings are a widely used motivational tool in sales organizations, yet their effectiveness in influencing important salesperson outcomes remains largely underexplored. Moreover, the ...impact of presenting different types of information alongside rankings has not been previously investigated. This research, spanning two studies with more than 27,000 salespeople from over 170 firms representing 83 countries, directly addresses this research gap, examining the effects of three distinct information conditions: anonymized performance rankings, identifiable performance rankings, and identifiable rankings with quotas on salesperson quota attainment and turnover. Additionally, the authors examine the role of variable compensation share and ranking group size, offering nuanced insights into their moderating effects. The findings reveal that anonymous rankings, while beneficial for quota attainment, increase turnover. On the other hand, identifiable rankings coupled with quotas do not significantly improve quota attainment but effectively reduce turnover. The authors find that disclosing performance rankings with salespeople’s identities is the sole condition that simultaneously elevates quota attainment and reduces turnover. By delineating these nuances, this research provides new and important implications to several literature streams and equips sales managers with strategic guidance on tailoring the presentation of performance rankings to enhance critical outcomes within the specific context of their organizations.
The ready availability of information about purchase options has shifted the point at which customers make purchase decisions; they often come into the sales interaction knowing what they want (i.e., ...have higher preference certainty). Yet companies continue to base their selling strategies, spending billions of dollars, on a model of the customer decision process that is predicated on low preference certainty. Therefore, understanding the impact of customer preference certainty on the efficacy of the traditional selling paradigm is crucial. Through an extensive field study spanning four months across 15 different stores of a durable goods retailer and two experiments, the authors examine the consequences of this shift toward higher preference certainty for the practice of selling. Drawing on the theory of cognitive dissonance and adaptive selling, they find that a lack of consideration of the shift in customer decision making can hurt both salespeople and customers. Specifically, they find that ignoring customer preference certainty and unconditionally employing tactics that involve educating and challenging customers can have negative repercussions on purchase probability and sales revenue.
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