Biography:Graham W. Pascoe is Associate

Professor of Marketing in theSchool of Marketing andManagement, Faculty ofCommerce, Charles SturtUniversity,Bathurst NSW 2795

What IndustrialBuyers PreferSalespeople to Knowand Do and WhatSalespeople BelieveThey Preferby Graham W Pascoe

Asia - Australia Marketing Journal Vol. 3, No.1· 49

AbstractAn exploratory study of indus­

trial buyers and sellers in Australiareveals some discrepanciesbetween what buyers prefer sales­people to know and do and whatsalespeople believe buyers prefer.Individual, in-depth personal inter­views were conducted with 53buyers and 42 sales representa­tives. Three aspects of salesper­sons' on-the-job behaviour wereinvestigated: knowledge, behav­iour and competence. Results arereported for three categories ofindustrial selling situations: sellingto supermarkets, selling to thetrade (excluding supermarkets),and new business and technicalselling situations. The researchsuggests that salespeople may havesome inaccurate beliefs about buy­ers' preferences. Sales representa­tives who sell to in-store supermar­ket buyers seem especially to suf­fer from this problem. On the otherhand, salespeople engaged in newbusiness and technical sellingseem to have correct beliefs aboutbuyers' preferences.

IntroductionThe attention which has been

given to marketing and marketingstrategy has not detracted from theold adage "Nothing moves untilthe sale is made".

In many respects, an organisa­tion's salespeople are its revenueproducers. The sales team's perfor­mance is critical to the success ofmost organisations. Much attentionhas been given to consideration ofthe factors which determine salesforce performance and contributeto salespersons' success or failure.Those factors have been classifiedas environmental, organisational orpersonal variables (Churchill,Ford, Hartley and Walker 1985).

With respect to the personal

variables which account for sales­persons' performance, some are ofthe nature of physical characteris­tics, mental abilities, personalitycharacteristics and experience orbackground. A meta-analysis ofprevious research found that ' ...thestrength of the relationshipsbetween some personal character­istics and sales performance variedwidely across studies' (Churchill,Ford, Hartley and Walker 1985).Other studies have suggested thatwhat salespeople do, as distinctfrom what they are, distinguishesthe strong and weak performers.Salespersons' behaviours mayrelate to their behaviour in theactual selling situation or behav­iours such as time and territorymanagement (Smith 1991) or'good work habits/hard work'(Ingram, Schwepker and Hutson1992).

Interest in the behaviour ofsalespeople is not new. For manyyears, various models or theoriesof selling, such as AIDA, stimulus­response and need-satisfaction,have suggested what salespeopleshould do to sell successfully.

Since 1977, readers ofPurchasing magazine in U.S.A.have been invited to report on thethree top characteristics of out­standing sales representatives whocall on them. The attributes ofsalespeople are divided into tencategories. The most frequentlymentioned set of attributes is, andhas been, (1) thoroughness and fol­low through, (2) knowledge of thesales representative's product line,and (3) 'willingness to go to batfor the buyer within the supplier'sfirm' (Williams and Seminerio1985).

Gellerman (1990) concludedthat a critical factor in the successof an industrial salesperson is thefocus of discussion with the buyer.

He spent one full day with eachmember of a 25-person sales teamselling automobile parts to repair­ers and managers of parts depart­ments, observing the sellers' andbuyers' behaviour. Calls in whichthe discussion was sales-focussed'tended to produce the largestorders'. Calls which dwelt on othermatters such as small talk and cus­tomers' complaints were less' suc­cessful in terms of orders generat­ed. He concluded:

The focus of discussion seemedto depend on how seriously thecustomer took the seller. It was amatter of whether a seller haddemonstrated both competenceand usefulness to the customer.

Weitz (1978) examined the wayin which salespeople influencecustomers' choice decisions. Heinvestigated salespersons' abilityto form accurate impressions abouttheir customers' beliefs and atti­tudes and its relationship to salesstrategy and salesperson perfor­mance. Impressive relationshipswere found and he concluded thatsalespeople might improve theirperformance if they improve theirunderstanding of their customers'needs and beliefs.

The virtue of salespeople adapt­ing their sales approaches accord­ing to the nature of the customer(buyer) to whom they are sellinghas been advocated by Weitz,Sujan and Sujan (1986).

Their model of an adaptive sell­ing framework identified certainskills and capabilities of a sales­person and proposed that they arerelated to the practice of adaptiveselling, which leads in tum to per­formance. They defined adaptiveselling as 'the altering of salesbehaviours during a customerinteraction or across customerinteractions based on perceivedinformation about the selling situa-

so •Asia - Australia Marketing Journal Vol. 3, No.1

tion'. Extremely adaptive sales­people, for example, use uniquesales presentations for each cus­tomer and alter their behaviourduring the presentation. At theother extreme, the use of the so­called 'canned' presentation is notat all adaptive.

Thus, Sujan, Weitz and Sujan(1988) concluded that better sales­people work smarter: 'the perfor­mance of industrial salespeople ismore strongly related to whatsalespeople do rather than howhard they work'. Specifically, theyurged sales managers to foster anenvironment conducive to adaptiveselling.

Adaptiveness in salespersonbehaviour has been proposedspecifically as a contributor to cus-

. tomer satisfaction. Factors such asthe type and strength of the mes­sage in the sales presentation andthe credibility of the salespersonaffect customer expectations withrespect to product performance;these expectations, in turn, affectcustomer satisfaction (Grewal andSharma 1991).

Castleberry and Shepherd(1993) proposed a model of adap­tive selling, broadly similar to thatdeveloped by Weitz, Sujan andSujan (1986), which addressesspecifically the salesperson's per­ception of the customer's beliefsand values as antecedents of adap­tive selling behaviour. However,little empirical research hasfocussed on this particular topic,from the perspective of salespeo­ple or buyers.

Hayes and Hartley (1989) pro­posed that: Ideally, a comprehen­sive model of personal sellingbehaviour would indicate howbuyer preferences might vary as afunction of the buyer's situation,and would provide guidance to thesalesperson for every selling situa­tion.

They investigated the prefer­ences of buyers for salespersonbehaviour, knowledge and compe­tence. The buyers were from threefunctional areas - purchasing,engineering and operations - in136 privately owned electric utili­ties in U.S.A. Data was collectedby means of structured, self­administered questionnaires. Theyfound that buyers from the threefunctional areas vary significantlyin their preferences for salespersonbehaviour. For example, buyers inthe purchasing function regardprice and the terms and conditionsof sale as the most important mat­ters for discussion with salespeo­ple. Those in engineering andoperations functions are more con­cerned about discussing productmatters including product detail,application and operation. Thestrong variation in preferencebetween buyers in the three differ­ent functions was not found withrespect to salespersons' knowledgeor competence.

In view of the increasing inter­est in adaptive selling, the lack ofresearch information on what buy­ers prefer salespeople to do in sell­ing situations needs to beaddressed. This study is a move inthat direction. It explores buyerpreferences for salesperson behav­iour in Australia. It is similar to thestudy by Hayes and Hartley (1989)in that it investigates selling toindustry and it examines buyers'preferences with respect to sales­persons' knowledge, behaviourand competence. However, apartfrom the fact that this study wasconducted in Australia, it investi­gates not only what buyers preferbut also what salespeople believebuyers prefer.

Research Objectivesand MethodThe objectives of the research

were to gain insights into (1) whatindustrial buyers' preferences arewith respect to the knowledge,competence and behaviour of thepeople who sell to them, and (2)whether salespeople in differenttypes of industrial selling situa­tions have correct beliefs of thosebuyer preferences. The researchdoes not examine retail selling toconsumers for their personal use.

The research examines the pref­erences of buyers in different buy­ing/selling situations. These situa­tions are based on the classifica­tion of industrial selling situationswhich was developed by Newton(1973). The types of selling situa­tions investigated are:1. Trade selling, where the sales

force's primary responsibility isto increase business by provid­ing customers and prospectswith merchandising and promo­tional assistance (e.g. selling toretailers). Two types of tradeselling situations were investi­gated: supermarket and other ie.non-supermarket;

2. Technical selling, where themain responsibility of the salesforce is to increase businessfrom existing and prospectivecustomers by providing themwith technical and engineeringinformation;

3. New business selling, in whichthe salesperson's primaryresponsibility is to identify andobtain business from new cus­tomers.Individual, in-depth personal

(face-to-face) interviews were con­ducted in September and October,1993, with 53 buyers and 42 sell­ers in each of the above categories.The composition of the sample issummarised in Table 1. Further

Asia - Australia Marketing Journal Vol. 3, No.1· 51

TABLE 1

Number of Buyers and Salespeople Interviewed in Each Category

Category Buyers Sales Reps

Supermarkets(Store level only) 18 12

Trade (Independent storesand outlets, not supermarkets) 19 14

New business and technicalmaterials, equipment and services 16 16

Total Interviews 53 42

information is included in appen­dix A. Within each category, aconvenience sample was selected.The research is of an exploratorynature, investigating buyer prefer­ences for three dimensions ofsalespersons' selling activities:knowledge, behaviour and compe­tence. The definitions of thosedimensions which had been adopt­ed by Hayes and Hartley (1989)were used in this study:1. Knowledge was defined to

include salient dimensions ofthe salesperson's job-relatedknowledge, both product andnon-product related.

2. Behaviour was defined toinclude those aspects of thesalespersons' behaviour thattypically occur in the buyers'premIses.

3. Competence was defined toinclude skills with which vari­ous activities are actually car­ried out.

ResultsThe results of the research are

reported separately for three cate­gories of selling situation: super­market, trade (excluding supermar­ket), and technical/new business.(The findings with respect to tech­nical and new business selling situ­ations are combined in this report.)Within each category, the prefer­ences expressed by buyers aredescribed first, followed by thesellers' beliefs about those prefer­ences and, finally, the two arecompared. In the conclusions sec­tion, the findings are generalised.

Supermarket Buyers'PreferencesSupermarket buyers' prefer­ences with respect to whatsalespeople should knowAt store level, as distinct from

head office or central buying level,supermarket buyers' preferences

dictate that salespeople who sell tothem should be well informed onmatters such as:- salesperson's own company's

products, including shelf-life,turnover rates, shipper contents,availability, out-of-stocks, newproducts and deletions;

- supplier's current and plannedpromotions;

- supplier's policies and capabili­ties in respect of buyers;

- market trends in the supplier'sindustry;

- products which are competitiveto the supplier's products.Additionally, buyers who work

in supermarkets expect the sales­people to be knowledgeable aboutthe supermarket to whom they areselling: its policies, its target cus­tomers and those customers whowill buy the supplier's products.Many buyers expect the salespeo­ple to be sensitive to their individ­ual, as distinct from organisational,

52 • Asia - Australia Marketing Journal Vol. 3, No.1

needs such as what the buyer mustknow to make the correct purchasedecision.

Supermarket buyers' prefer­ences with respect to howsalespeople should behaveWhilst this exploratory study

found a considerable degree ofuniformity in supermarket buyers'preferences for knowledge, therewas some variation in their prefer­ences for salesperson behaviour.

At the beginning of each call,buyers expect salespeople to openthe call in an appropriate manner,for example, by advising the buyeror store manager of their presencein the store. Many buyers expectthat the salesperson will then rou­tinely check and adjust displays ofthe supplier's own products, rotat­ing stock and removing out-of-datestock. Some buyers wish to giveexpress permission before any dis­plays are adjusted and there is astrong feeling amongst buyers thatsalespeople should not re-arrangedisplays of their competitors'products.

Buyers expect that the sales callwill involve a discussion about thesupplier's products and promotionsso that they learn about new prod­ucts and forthcoming promotionsby the supplier and about plannedproduct deletions.

Although supermarket buyersexpect salespeople to know aboutcompetitive products, several stat­ed specifically that they do notwish salespeople to discuss eitherthem or general industry matters. Itmight be presumed that buyersbelonging to supermarket chainsprefer to get their information onany such matters from othersources, such as their own headoffices and trade magazines.

Some buyers expressed a pref­erence for discussions to includematters such as prices, and terms

of sale, whilst others prefer not todiscuss such things, noting thatthey were matters to be determinedat head office level. This mayreflect differences in what the storebuys directly and what is suppliedfrom chain warehouses.

'Pushy' and arrogant salespeo­ple are encountered from time totime. Not surprisingly, buyers dis­approve of this behaviour.

Some supermarket buyers valueregular contact with salespeople,although it may be time-consum­ing. Calling at a convenient timeand advising the likely date of thenext call is often a preferred sales­person behaviour.

Supermarket buyers' prefer­ences with respect to the com­petences of salespeopleIt will not be surprising that

buyers prefer salespeople to beskilled at verbal communication,reliable (e.g. fulfiling promisesthey make, calling when expect­ed), and trustworthy. They expectthem to be able to answer, or getanswers to, questions on matterssuch as product availability, sup­plier promotions, etc.

They expect, generally, thatsalespeople will be able to set updisplays which are appropriate forthe store. As salespeople come intocontact with shop-floor staff aswell as buyers, salespersons needto be able to get on well with thosestaff if they are able to meet thebuyers' preferences.

Supermarket buyers are busypeople. They prefer salespeople todeal with them quickly and effi­ciently so that they can get on withthe job. Few prefer to deal withsalespeople who engage them inirrelevant 'small talk'.

Salespersons' beliefs aboutsupermarket buyers' prefer­encesPlanning and making effective

sales presentations and particularlythe application of the principles ofadaptive selling, require that sales­people understand their customers'needs and preferences. Does thisexploratory research indicate thatsalespeople who sell to supermar­ket buyers at store level have cor­rect beliefs about those prefer­ences? Yes and No! Yes, becausemany of the preferences whichbuyers have are known to sales­people; no, because salespeopledid not mention some of the super­market buyers' preferences.

The research suggests that thesalespeople who deal with super­market buyers do have correctbeliefs of buyers' preferences withrespect to their knowledge andtheir competences. When asked'What do your customers believeis important for you to haveknowledge about?' and 'Whatskills do your customers value in asalesperson?', the salespeople gen­erally described similar matters tothose mentioned by the buyers.However, one skill which few sell­ers mentioned, but was importantto almost all buyers, was the sales­person's ability to answer, or to getanswers to, buyers' questions.

As noted earlier, supermarketbuyers' preferences with respect tothe behaviour of the salespeoplevaried considerably. One wouldexpect that this would be reflectedin the responses of salespeople tothe question: 'I'd like you to tellme the way your customers likesalespeople to behave during salescalls. For example, what kinds ofmatters do they like (or don't like)you to discuss with them?' Whilstthis expectation was fulfiled, it isnoted that only two salespeople

Asia - Australia Marketing Journal Vol. 3, No.1· 53

referred to the etiquette of theentry to the store and the introduc­tion to the manager. (Perhaps theyregard the correct procedure asautomatic or perhaps they underes­timate its importance to buyers.)Furthermore, not one salespersonreferred-to the practice of adjusting

TABLE 2

displays of competitors' products;buyers had stated their strong dis­approval of that practice.

It is possible that people whosell to in-store supermarket buyersare not sufficiently sensitive to thebuyers' aversion to 'pushy' sales­people. Only one salesperson sug-

gested that buyers have a distastefor 'pushy' purveyors but this wasmentioned frequently by buyers.

Table 2 summarises the mostimportant similarities and differ­ences between supermarket buy­ers' preferences and salespeople'sbeliefs about those preferences.

Supermarket Situations: Buyers'Preferences and Salespeople's Concordance

Salespeople should: Buyers' Preference

Know their products and promotions Yes

Know the buyer's needs Yes

Salespeople's Concordance

Yes

Yes

Advise buyer or store manager of presence

Not change competitors' displays

Discuss new products & promotions

Avoid 'pushy' behaviour

Answer buyer's questions

Be reliable and trustworthy

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

May ~nderestimate

importance of this etiquette

No, often interferewith competitors' displays

Yes

No, may not besensitive to this

No, underestimateimportance of this skill

Yes

Summing up, whilst there were few discrepancies in the information received from the buyers and the sellersabout supermarket buyers' preferences for knowledge and competences in salespeople, that could not be saidabout their preferences for salespeople's behaviour.

54 • Asia - Australia Marketing Journal Vol. 3, No.1

Trade (ExcludingSupermarket) Buyers'PreferencesTrade buyers' preferenceswith respect to what salespeo­ple should knowTrade buyers in outlets other

than supermarkets expect salespeo­ple to be knowledgeable about theproducts they sell: their attributes,their benefits (to both the sellerand the end user) and, whereappropriate, how they should beused by the end user. Salespeopleare expected to have informationabout product availability andabout the past and projected salesof the products they sell. Buyersexpect them to be well informedabout competitive products.

Salespeople who sell to thetrade are expected to have knowl­edge of the buyers' industry andthe individual buyers' needs. Inaddition, buyers expect them toknow about needs and demand atthe end user level.

Trade buyers" preferences withrespect to how salespeople shouldbehave

Trade buyers expect salespeopleto discuss several important mat­terswith them during the salescall, reflecting the fact that thesebuyers make most of the purchasedecisions for their outlets.Specifically, they expect discus-.sion of:- prices, including price changes

and discount structures (by farthe most commonly mentionedtopic for discussion);

- the benefits and uses of the sup­plier's products (the buyersexpect to make use of this ·sup­plier information when they andtheir staff, in turn, sell to theirstore's customers);

- terms of sale, such as policy onreturns, guarantees;

- promotional support offered bythe supplier;

- recent sales history of the sup­plier's products;

- product availability.A discussion of industry mat­

ters and end user requirements isexpected by many trade buyers(more so than supermarket buy­ers), reflecting the buyers' need tobe well informed on the saleabilityof the products, and not having thesupermarket buyers' chain support.Some buyers also wish trade sales­people to provide advice on themerchandising of their products.

Trade buyers appear to be con­cerned about what their competi­tors are doing but have differingviews on whether sales representa­tives should discuss those activitieswith them: some buyers prefer thatthey do, others regard such mattersas confidential and prefer thatsalespeople do not discuss them.

Almost one half of the buyersprefer salespeople to call byappointment. 'Pushy' or hard-sellsales techniques are strongly dis­liked and many buyers prefer sell­ers to engage in a minimum ofsmall talk and then to get straightto the point of the call.

Trade buyers' preferenceswith respect to the compe­tences of the salespeopleAs in the supermarket situation,

trade buyers prefer strong verbalcommunication skills, reliability,and trustworthiness in the salesrepresentatives with whom theydeal. Unlike their supermarketbuying counterparts, they do notexpect salespeople g.enerally to beskilled at merchandising or displayof the products they sell, althoughany advice isw~lcome.

Salespersons' beliefs abouttrade buyers' preferencesThis exploratory research indi­

cates that sales representativeswho sell to the non-supermarkettrade have accurate beliefs aboutmany but not all of their cus­tomers' preferences. Matters suchas product knowledge; recognitionof the buyers' needs; discussion ofpolicies; terms of sale, promotion­al support and industry matters;communication skills and trust­worthiness, are correctly regardedby sellers as being important tobuyers.

However, salespeople appear toover-emphasise the importance tobuyers of knowing and discussingnew product developments. Theyseem to believe that buyers want tolearn about new products fromthem more than buyers say thatthis is so. This may reflect the con­cern of these non-supermarkettrade buyers with moving theirexisting stock rather than relyingon new products for their turnover.

In addition, salespeople sellingto the trade seem not to recognisesufficiently the preferences of buy­ers with respect to:- making appointments for sales

calls;- getting quickly to the point of

the visit;- knowing about their competi­

tors' products; -- not being 'pushy'during sales

presentations.A summary of the most impor­

tant similarities and differencesbetween trade buyers' preferencesand salespeople's beliefs. appearsin Table 3.

Asia - Australia Marketing Journal Vol.. 3, No.1· 55

TABLE 3

Trade Situations: Buyers' Preferences and Salespeople's Concordance

Salespeople should:

Know their products, benefits and end use

Know buyer's industry and needs

Know competitors' products

Discuss prices, terms of saleand promotional support

Discuss sales trends

Discuss new products

Avoid 'pushy' behaviour

Be reliable and trustworthy

Get to the point quickly

Make appointments

Buyers' Preference

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Not of major importance

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Salespeople's Concordance

Yes

Yes

No, may not berecognised sufficiently

Yes

Yes

Appears to be over-emphasised

No, may not be sensitive to this

Yes

No

No

Buyers' Preferences inNew Business andTechnical SellingSituationsMany industrial buyers, who are

not buying products for resale butfor their own use, cannot be sepa­rated satisfactorily into either thenew business or the technical sell­ing situation. Therefore, as notedearlier, the results for these twocategories have been combined inthis report.

New business and technicalbuyers' preferences withrespect to what salespeopleshould know.Buyers expect salespeople to

have a detailed knowledge of theirproducts: their attributes, benefitsto them as the end customer, and

how they should use the product toobtain those benefits. Salespeopleare expected to be well informedabout product availability. It isaxiomatic that these buyers believethat salespeople must be aware oftheir needs. Knowledge of thebuyer's industry and its needs isconsidered to be important also.

New business and technicalbuyers' preferences withrespect to how salespeopleshould behaveBuyers prefer that salespeople

discuss a range of product-relatedmatters with them, namely:- product attributes and, benefits,

and how the buyer should usethe product;

- prices (however, not one buyermentioned the on-going cost ofusing the product as distinct

from its purchase price);- terms of sale, especially (where

appropriate) warranties;- availability and delivery

arrangements;- provisions for after-sales ser­

vice, where applicable.Discussion of the manner in

which products will satisfy cus­tomers' needs is expected, andsome buyers stated that they wishto be told of forthcoming newproducts which are relevant totheir needs.

Once again, many buyersexpressed a preference for sales­people to not try to sell what theydo not need, that is, to avoid beingpushy.

Several buyers also volunteeredthe opinion that they do not wishsales representatives to comment

56 • Asia - Australia Marketing Journal Vol. 3, No.1

adversely on competitive products,that is, 'hard sell' them.

New business and technicalbuyers' preferences withrespect to the competences ofsalespeopleLike the other categories of

buyers interviewed in thisresearch, new business and techni­cal buyers prefer sales representa­tives with whom they deal to beeffective communicators, reliableand trustworthy. With respect tocommunication skills, some buyersmentioned specifically written aswell as oral communication and

TABLE 4

some noted the need to avoid tech­nical jargon.

They expect salespeople to beable to get answers to questionswhich buyers put to them and to besensitive to the buyers' needs. Insome instances, buyers prefer todeal with salespeople with a highdegree of relevant technical com­petence.

Salespersons' beliefs aboutnew business and technicalbuyers' preferencesThe beliefs of salespeople

engaged in new business and tech­nical selling about buyers' prefer-

ences are in accord with the prefer­ences expressed by the buyersthemselves. When asked todescribe buyer preferences withrespect to salespersons' knowl­edge, behaviour and competences,the salespeople who were inter­viewed mentioned the same mat­ters as buyers.

Table 4 summarises the mostimportant similarities between newbusiness and technical buyers'preferences and salespeople'sbeliefs about those preferences.

New Business and Technical Situations: Buyers'Preferences and Salespeople's Concordance

Salespeople should:

Know their products.

Know buyer's needs and industry

Inform buyer of how to use products

Discuss prices, terms of sale and availability

Avoid the 'hard sell'

Be reliable and trustworthy

Get answers to buyer's questions

Buyers' Preference

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Salespeople's Concordance

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

LimitationsThis research is mainly

exploratory. Although 53 buyersand 42 sales representatives wereinterviewed, the small samples ofbuyers and sellers in each categorydo not enable firm conclusions tobe drawn about what category buy­ers prefer and what category sell­ers believe they prefer. In addition,the true test of the accuracy of

salespersons' beliefs about buyers'preferences would require a dyadicinvestigation; the salesperson andhis/her specific customer wouldhave to be the subject of investiga­tion. This research did not attemptto match specific sellers and buy­ers to determine whether a sales­person's judgements about thepreferences of particular buyerswere correct.

ConclusionSuccessful selling to industrial

markets requires, among otherthings, that salespeople adjust theirbehaviour according to buyers'preferences. This paper providesevidence which suggests that (a)some, but not all, buyers' prefer­ences vary by category of sellingsituation, and (b) salespeople mayhave some inaccurate beliefs about

Asia - Australia Marketing Journal Vol. 3, No.1· 57

buyers' preferences.

Some preferences are common

to all three categories of industrial

buyers. In general, industrial buy­

ers expect that salespeople who

call on them will know their prod­

ucts and their customers. Buyers

TABLE 5

expect salespeople to be well­

informed about competitive prod­

ucts, also. Buyers prefer to deal

with reliable and trustworthy sales

representatives. They have a strong

aversion to 'pushy' salespersons

who try to sell them products

which they do not need. Not all

categories of industrial salespeople

have accurate beliefs about these

preferences which are common to

all categories of buyers, as shown

in Table 5.

Industrial Buyers' Preferences for Salesperson's Selling Activities

Salespeople should:

Know their products

Know the buyer's needs

Know competitors' products

Avoid 'pushy- behaviour

Be reliable and trustworthy

Salespeople's Concordance

Yes

Yes

Yes, except for trade (non-supermarket) sellers

Not in supermarket and trade situations.

Yes

A comparison between the cate­gories suggests that:1. Sales representatives who sell

to in-store supermarket buyersmay underestimate buyers'preferences with respect to:

- etiquette for entry into the storeand dealing with store person­nel;

- getting answers to buyers' ques­tions;

- not being pushy in their salespresentations;

- the practice of adjusting dis­plays of competitors' products.

2. Sales representatives who sellto the trade other than super­markets:

- over-estimate the extent to

which the buyers prefer them todiscuss new products;

- under-estimate the extent towhich buyers prefer them tomake appointments, get to thepoint quickly, not be pushy, andhave knowledge of competitors'products.

3. Technical and new businesssalespeople in general have fair­ly accurate beliefs about whatbuyers prefer them to know,how they prefer them to behavein the selling situation, and thecompetences they prefer themto have.Further research is needed toelaborate and confirm theseconclusions, especially within

individual buying and sellingcategories. However, there areclear implications for salesmanagers and salespersonsalike, particularly with respectto sales training and the need todevelop sales representatives'ability to practice the old adageof 'know your product andknow your customer' and toadapt their behaviour accord­ingly. There may also be impli­cations for motivating andrewarding sales representatives;that is, some methods may befostering inappropriate behav­Iour.

58 • Asia - Australia Marketing Journal Vol. 3, No.1

Appendix a : Detailsof the SampleSupermarket SellingEighteen supermarket buyers

were interviewed at supermarketsin urban and rural centres in NewSouth Wales. Stores representedincluded well-known chains suchas Coles, Woolworths, Payless andBi-Lo and some independents. Allof these interviews were conductedat store level; central office buyersin supermarket chains were notincluded.

Twelve people who sell at storelevel to supermarket buyers wereinterviewed. Most are employed bylarge, national marketers; others bysmall distributing firms specialis­ing in sales to the grocery industry.

Trade (ExcludingSupermarket) SellingInterviews were conducted with

nineteen non-supermarket buyerswho engage in the purchasing ofproducts for resale to consumersand other end users such as prima­ry producers. A diverse range ofproducts is involved, includingbeverages, appliances, clothing,farm equipment and herbicides.

Fourteen representatives whosell to the trade were interviewedin depth. Products sold includeconsumer non-durables (such asbeverages and foodstuffs), con­sumer durables (including audioequipment) and office products.

New Business and TechnicalSellingSixteen buyers whose purchas­

ing responsibilities fall into thenew business and/or technical cate­gories were interviewed. Productspurchased include raw materials,parts and equipment. Some buyerswere employed in large organisa­tions whilst others were self­employed in small businesses.

Sixteen salespeople were inter­viewed in this category. The rangeof products sold includes materi­als, parts and equipment, andindustrial services.

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Selling, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 13(1), pp. 35-49.2. Churchill, Gilbert A., Jr., Neil M. Ford, Steven W. Hartley and Orville C. Walker, Jr. (1985) The

Determinants of a Salespersons Performance: A Meta-Analysis, Journal of Marketing Research, 22(2), pp.103-118.

3. Gellerman, Saul W. (1990) The Tests of a Good Salesperson, Harvard Business Review, 68(3), pp. 64-69.4. Grewal, Dhruv and Arun Sharma (1991) The Effect of Salesforce Behaviour on Customer Satisfaction: An

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Marketing Management, 18(2), pp. 73-806. Ingram, Thomas, N., Charles H. Schwepker, Jr. and Don Hutson (1992) Why Salespeople Fail, Industrial

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