Interpersonal Communication

and Salesman Effectiveness

FREDERICK E.WEBSTER, JR.

Behavioral science offerssome Important new insightsinto the determinants of asalesman's ef fect iveness.These insights can lead tothe development of moreproductive sales presenta-tions and sales training pro-grams to maximize the con-tribution of personal sellingin the marketing communi-cations program.

Journal of Marketing. Vol. 32 (July,1968), pp. 7-13.

makes a successful salesman?" has been one of themost frequently asked and incompletely answered questions

in marketing. The purpose of this paper is to trace briefly theevolution of answers to this question and to show how researchfindings from behavioral science suggest some new answers. Anevaluation of historical explanations of salesman effectiveness sug-gests some more complex but more productive ways of lookingat personal selling. A better understanding of the personal sell-ing process can lead to more effective sales strategies and salesforce 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 thepersonal characteristics and traits of the salesman himself. Someof 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 withthe efficacy of psychological tests, the search for the traits of suc-cessful salesmen has continued unabated, and more sophisticated andcomplex traits, such as "empathy" and "ego drive," have recentlybeen suggested.^

Another set of answers concentrated on the salesman's actionsrather than his traits. Perhaps the simplest answers were thosewhich 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 thespecific actions of the salesman.

Recognizing that the buyer played a part in determining theoutcome of the call, other answers suggested that the buyer'sactions were also important.

The so-called "stimulus-response theory" of selling saw thesalesman as being able to elicit the desired responses if he couldprovide the right stimuli, and treated the prospect in essentiallymechanistic terms. Like the "salesman's traits" approach, the"salesman's action" approach credited the salesman with virtuallycomplete responsibility for the outcome of the call.

David Mayer and Herbert M. Greenherg, "What Makes a GoocSalesman," 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?" Theseanswers showed that the successful salesman wasthe one who could identify the prospect's needs andturn them into buying motives. Guided by thistheory, the salesman learns to ask questions de-signed to uncover the prospect's needs, to listencarefully to the answers, and then to show how hisproduct meets those needs. Having built thegroundwork, the salesman moves in with the presen-tation and close. Need satisfaction theory wasreally a variant of stimulus-response theory. Needswere seen as a determinant of response; to get thedesired response the salesman must choose the rightstimuli (selling points) which show the prospecthow buying will satisfy his needs. Authors ofbooks that define selling as "helping pi'ospects buy"have used this explanation. While these "salesman-ship" theories recognized that the prospect has arole, he was still viewed in passive terms.-

These three kinds of "theory" identify three im-portant determinants of selling effectiveness: thesalesman's characteristics and traits, the salesman'sactions, and the prospect's needs. These elementsare 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 thesame actions, is not always effective with prospectswith the same kinds of needs? One logical andsimple explanation is that there are attributes ofprospects, other than their needs, which influencethe outcome of the sales call. Or, there are somecomplex ways in which salesman characteristics andactions combine with prospect characteristics andactions to determine outcomes.

Interaction Theory

Evans was among the first to challenge seriouslythe traditional "salesmanship" explanations of sell-ing effectiveness and to suggest that the prospectplayed an active role in determining the progressand outcome of the sales call. He observed that:

"Very little is known about what takes placewhen the salesman and his prospect meet. Thetwo parties meet in a highly structured situation,and the outcome of the meeting depends upon theresulting interaction. In this sense, the 'sale' isa social situation involving two persons. Theinteraction of the two persons, in turn, dependsupon the economic, social, physical, and personalitycharacteristics of each of them. To understandthe process, however, it is necessary to look at

both parties to the sale as a dyad, notindividually."''In his study of life insurance salesmen, Evans

found evidence that the probability of a sale wasinfluenced 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, andsmoking. Perceived similarity for religion and poli-tics was more important than actual similarity. Evansconcluded that the successful sale was situation-ally determined by the interaction between prospectand salesman, and not solely by the particular charac-teristics of one or the other party to the interaction.-*Other researchers have also reported evidence thatsuccessful salesmen tend to concentrate on particu-lar kinds of prospects.'' However, Evans' study didnot consider the behavioral djTiamics of the salesinteraction itself.

Applying interaction theory to the study of sell-ing recognized that selling is more than individualbehavior. Rather, it is social behavior, behavior thatis rewarded or punished, accepted or rejected, byanother person. The essential feature of social be-havior is that each of the persons in face-to-faceinteraction 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 heperceives him and what he expects him to do orthink, how he reacts to the actions of theother. . . ."'

2 These theories are summarized in Harold C. Cashand W. J. E. Crissy, "Ways of Looking at Selling"in William Lazer and Eugene J. Kelley (eds.). Mana-gerial Marketing: Perspectives and Viewpoints, 2nded. (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 TheAmos Tuck School of Business Adminis-fration, Dartmouth College. He is theauthor of several recent articles on buyerbehavior and sales force managementand. with K. R. Davis, of SALES FORCEMANAGEMENT (Ronald Press Co.,1968). Dr. Webster is active as a con-sultant and as a lecturer in severalmanagement development programs forsales and marketing executives.

Interpersonal Communication and Salesman Effectiveness

Recognition that selling is, indeed, social behav-ior forces us to look beyond the salesman for factorsdetermining his effectiveness. Specifically, we musttake into account not only the characteristics andtraits but also the actions, attitudes, perceptions,expectations, and reactions of hoth the prospect andthe salesman. Analysis of the sales interactionalong these lines suggests some important factorsto consider in developing effective selling strategies.In this expanded view of the sales interaction, itcan be seen that the salesman's effectiveness is de-termined by a complex set of factors surroundingboth the prospect and the salesman. The outcomeof the sales call depends upon how well the salesmanand the prospect have communicated with each other—how well they have achieved a common under-standing that will enable both to fill their needsand achieve their goals. Following is a considera-tion of the factors involved in interpersonal com-munication and their significance for the salesmanager.

PerceptionIt is a well-known fact that human beings re-

spond to their environment in terms of their per-ception of that environment, not necessarily theobjective facts of the environment. Perception isa subjective process. How a person views the en-vironment, including other persons, is a functionof his psychological structure—his goals, values,attitudes, feelings, needs, and so on. An individual'sperceptions of other people in the environment iscomplicated 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 termsof their actual behavior but in terms of the psy-chological attributes of their behavior. Most im-portant of all, these attributes are looked upon asbeing directed toward us and having particularmeaning for us. In other words, our reaction toothers depends upon how we think they view theirenvironment, including us.^ One inference fromthis fact for the salesman is that just as he "sizesup" the prospect, so does the prospect "size up" thesalesman. The prospect's perception of the sales-man is an important determinant of the salesman'seffectiveness.

Role ExpectationsHow each person perceives or "sizes up" the other

is determined by his predispositions: the set ofopinions, attitudes, and beliefs which determinesthe perceiver's cognitive structure. One of the mostimportant 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 goalsof that position, and the behavioral repertoire ap-propriate to that position and to the attainment ofthose goals. Social positions (like "father," "Prot-estant," "Republican," "salesman," and "purchas-ing agent") have associated with them a set ofexpectations as to how persons occupying thatrole should behave. These expectations are "bi-dimensional" in that they specify both how personsin that role should behave and how others shouldbehave toward them.» Role expectations, therefore,provide important components of structure in thesales interaction in that they define the kinds ofbehavior that each of the actors expects both ofhimself and of the other person. To the extent thatthe prospect and the salesman have consistent roleexpectations (for both themselves and for eachother) there will be more effective interaction andcommunication.

Sources of Role Expectations for the SalesmanThere are two particularly important sources of

prospects' role expectations for salesmen. The firstis the stereotype of the salesman. A "stereotype" canbe defined as a "consensus of role expectationsshared by a large segment of the population." It isa well-known fact that there is a stereotype of thesalesman that describes him as "talkative," "easygoing," "competitive," "optimistic," and "excitable."Kirchner and Dunnette found that salesmen de-scribe themselves in these terms."^ This stereotypeis one of the reasons why the salesman is not highlyregarded by a large segment of the population.^iPerception is subjective, and it is not importantwhether or not the stereotype is an objectively accu-rate one. The prospect who does not have previousexperience with a particular salesman will respondto that salesman in terms of the stereotype whichhe has of salesmen in general. "Inaccurate" percep-tion of the salesman by the prospect may lead toa lack of communication. On the other hand, bythe virtue of their occupation, all salesmen are re-garded as having manipulative intent—they wantthe prospect to behave in a particular way—andcommunications theory indicates that the percep-tion of manipulative intent in the communicator

Renato Tagiuri and Luigi PetruUo (eds.). PersonPerception 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. "HowSalesmen and Teehnieal Men Differ in DescribingThemselves," 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 reasonwhy some door-to-door salesmen deceptively pose assurvey 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 reputationof the selling company. This is a special case ofthe generalized concept of "source credibility" incommunications theory. Several research studieshave confirmed that the reputation of the sourceis an important determinant of response to per-suasive communication. - In a recently publishedstudy, Levitt found that industrial purchasingagents' and chemists' responses to sales presenta-tions were influenced strongly by the reputation ofthe company (source) which the salesman (com-municator) represented. In general, the salesmanfor 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 companythat the salesman represented. While this findingprobably reflects, in part, the low occupational pres-tige of the salesman, Levitt suggested that therewas more involved. He concluded that the prospect'sperception of the trustworthiness of the salesmanwas not as closely related to the salesman's prod-uct knowledge as it was to the overall quality ofthe sales presentation.'•* Furthermore, a poor pre-sentation resulted in a reduction in the perceivedtrustworthiness of the company. Finally, Levitt'sresearch suggested that for a company with anexcellent reputation, the prospect has very high ex-pectations for the kind of salesman that will repre-sent that company—so high, in fact, that salesmenmay not be able to meet these expectations. Thisfinding emphasizes the importance of sales training.

To summarize briefly, the sales interaction is in-terpersonal communication in which the prospect'sexpectations about how the salesman will and shouldbehave have an important influence on the outcomeof the sales call. Further, we have said that thestereotype of the salesman and the reputation of thesalesman's company are important determinants ofthe prospect's response. Next, consideration is

•2 Carl I. Hovland, Irving L. Janis, and Harold H.Kelley, Comniiinication and Persuasion: PsychologicalStudies of Opinion Change (New Haven: Yale Uni-versity Press, 1953), p. 295.

13 Carl I. Hovland and Walter Weiss, "The Influence ofSource Credibility on Communication Effectiveness,"Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 15 (Winter, 1951-52),pp. 635-650.

!•* Theodore Levitt, Industrial Purchasing Behavior: AStudy of Contmuncations Effects (Boston: Division ofResearch, 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 directionof the sales interaction.

Determinants of How the Prospect"Plays His Role"

Interaction theory explains that the needs of theactors are important determinants of their predis-positions and that these predispositions influencetheir perceptions of the situation. As Jones andThibaut have stated:

If we can successfully identify the goals for whichan actor is striving in the interaction situation,we can begin to say something about the cues towhich he will attend, and the meaning he is mostlikely to assign to them.^''

The old "need satisfaction" theory of salesmanshiprecognized this basic fact, but said little about thetrue complexity of the pi'ospect's needs.

Every prospective buyer has at least two kinds ofneeds: his personal needs which motivate his be-havior and his social needs which define the kindsof need fulfillment activity which will be acceptableto relevant other persons in the social situation.While this is only a ci'ude cut across the complexset of needs which determine behavior, it makes animportant distinction. For example, the industrialbuyer may be motivated by a personal need forrecognition and advancement and by the social needto satisfy the using department. His need for thesalesman's product will not exist unless he can seehow a buying decision will allow him to satisfyboth sets of needs. Those particular personal andsocial needs will determine: (1) whether the pros-pect grants an interview to the salesman, (2) whichparts 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 tobuy. In psychological terms, these are the pro-cesses of selective exposure, selective attention, andselective retention, and the final step of convictionor attitude change.

The prospect's social needs are defined by hissocial roles and relationships. Thus, the industrialbuyer must consider how management expects himto perform his job, and the family buyer must re-member his role of "father," for example, in buyingan automobile. Role expectations define particularbuying needs and appropriate buying behavior forthe individual.

An important dimension of how the prospect be-haves is his self-confidence in his ability to play therole. The prospect's self-confidence is a determinant

Edward E. Jones and John W. Thibaut, "InteractionGoals 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 theriskiness of the decision (that is, actual purchasevs. recommend for further consideration) and bythe self-confidence of the prospect. Cox found thatwomen responded to a sales presentation for nylonhosiery according to their self-confidence. Womenof medium self-confidence were most responsive.Those of low self-confidence tended to reject thesalesgirl's advice because they didn't trust theirability to make a decision and because of the needto defend their egos. Those of high self-confidencerejected the advice because they didn't feel theyneeded it and rather preferred to trust their ownjudgment.^"^

Thus, the prospect's behavior in the sales inter-view is a function of his personal needs, his socialneeds, and his self-confidence, as well as the amountof risk he perceives in the buying decision. Howthe 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 isother sources of information to which he has beenexposed concerning the salesman's product. Thesecan be grouped into two categories: impersonal,commercial sources of information such as mediaadvertising and direct mail; and personal, non-commercial sources such as colleagues, friends, andneighbors. (The salesman can be characterized asa personal, commercial source of information.) Gen-erally speaking, personal sources of informationare known to be more effective in producing atti-tude change than impersonal sources.^^ On the otherhand, commercial sources tend to be less effectivethan noncommercial sources. Therefore, salesmentend to be more effective than advertising, but lesseffective than peers fsuch as colleagues and friends)in developing favorable attitudes toward products.

However, the importance of alternative sourcesof information varies with the stage of the buyer'sdecision and the product life cycle. As the buyergoes through the mental stages of deciding to buya new product (or the "adoption process"—aware-ness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption), herelies on different sources of information. Further-more, the people who buy a new product early in

16 Donald E. Cox, "Information and Uncertainty: TheirEffects 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 HazelGaudet, 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 informationthan later adopters.'^

In reviewing the literature on the adoption ofPharmaceuticals by physicians, Bauer and Wortzelfound that doctors consistently ranked detailmen asthe most important source of information.'^ Earlierstudies found the detailman was more important asa source of first knowledge than as a source ofinfluence, while colleagues and medical journal arti-cles were more important as sources of influencethan as sources of first knowledge.-"'* Rogers andBeal found that dealers and salesmen served differ-ent functions (awareness, evaluation, etc.) for dif-ferent adopter categories (early adopters vs. lateradopters) in the acceptance of new farm products.-^Thus, the salesman's influence and effectiveness aredetermined, in part, by the relative "innovativeness"of the prospect and the stage of the prospect's buy-ing decision process. The prospect's innovativenessand his buying stages influence how he will useand respond to information provided by the salesmanrelative 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 thesalesman's effort is determined by his personalneeds, 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'Tlays His Role"

Many of the points developed above for the pros-pect apply to the salesman as well. The salesman'sbehavior is determined by his personal needs (forexample, his desire to earn a commission on thesale) 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 hismanager, his salesman-peers, and the prospect him-self. The salesman's confidence in his own abilityto "play the role" of salesman is important in de-termining his behavior and is determined by hisknowledge, training, personality, and previousexperience.

s Everett M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations (NewYork: 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 E h h u Katz, "The Social I t i n e r a r y of TechnicalChange : Two Studies on the Diffusion of Innova t ion ,"Human Organization, Vol. 20 (Summer , 1961) , pp .70-82.

21 Eve re t t M. Rogers and George M. Beal, " T h e Im-por tance of Personal Influence in the Adoption ofTechnical 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 roleexpectations of him is a vitally important factor.This ability has been defined as "empathy" or "em-pathic ability"—the ability to put oneself into theposition of another person, a feeling of onenesswith the other person. There is an unresolved con-troversy about "empathy": whether it is an inbornpersonality trait or can be taught and learned; andwhether 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 himto behave and how the prospect is reacting to whathe 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 therole of salesman. If these expectations have notbeen stated clearly by the manager, the salesman'sbehavior may not be consistent with management'sexpectations. Furthermore, management must besure that its expectations about salesmen's behaviorare consistent with buyer's expectations. Otherwise,the salesman is in the difficult position of havingto resolve conflicting role expectations, which willlead to some frustration and anxiety, as well as re-duction in his effectiveness.

The salesman's effectiveness also depends on hisability to determine the locus of responsibility forbuying decisions within the buying organization.This is true for family buying decisions as wellas industrial buying decisions. Where more than oneperson is involved in the buying decision (e.g., apurchasing agent and an engineer), the salesmanmay be faced with conflicting role expectations.Once again, the ability to sense and resolve conflictsin buyers' role expectations is an important de-terminant of his behavior.

To summarize, how the salesman plays his roleis determined by his ability to infer the expecta-tions of relevant others for how he should play hisrole. "Relevant others" include his manager andthe buying decision influencers within the buyingorganization.

The Sales Presentation

Of course, a major determinant of the salesman'seffectiveness is the quality of the sales presentationhe delivers to the prospect. Viewing personal sellingas 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 specificcharacteristics 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 firstarouse the interest and identify the needs of theprospect and then show how his product can fill thoseneeds. He should present the prospect with the posi-tive features and arguments first, saving negativefeatures such as price for the last stages of thepresentation. Wherever possible, he should attemptto get early commitment by taking the prospectthrough a series of minor decisions first and byencouraging the prospect to agree with a series ofstatements supporting the value of buying theproduct.

In a competitive situation, the salesman can "in-sulate" the prospect against competitors' claims byfacing up to any limitations of his product andshowing the prospect why his product has greatervalue. Communications theory suggests that a "two-sided" argument can be effective in anticipatingand negating the effects of counter-arguments. Thesalesman should explicitly point out the advantagesof using his product and the need satisfactions tobe derived. This conclusion-drawing can avoid theprospect's "missing the point," but must be usedcautiously where the buyer is more "expert" thanthe salesman (such as when book salesmen call oncollege 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 anxietyand emotional involvement may actually decrease theeffectiveness of the presentation by reducing atten-tion, comprehension, and acceptance. All of thesecomments on sales presentations are drawn directlyfrom the findings of communications research.--

Implications for Salesman Training

This analysis of the sales interaction suggeststhe value of viewing selling as a communicationprocess. We have seen that the source (company),the communicator (salesmen), the message (pre-sentation), and the receiver (prospect) all have animportant influence on the outcome of the salesinteraction. This expanded view of the determi-nants of salesman effectiveness has some clear im-plications for salesman training. Compared withthe historical explanations of salesman effectiveness,this expanded view suggests more emphasis ontraining and less emphasis on selection criteria forsales force development.

First, the effective salesman needs sharply devel-

22 Same reference as footnote 12. For a more thoroughdescription of these research findings and their im-plications for selling strategy, see Kenneth R. Davisand Frederick E. Webster. Jr., Sales Force Manage-ment: Text and Cases (New York: Ronald PressCompany, 1968), especially Chapter 3, "The Com-munications Process."

Interpersonal Communication and Salesman Effectiveness 13

oped listening skills. He must listen carefully tothe prospect's description of problems and to an-swers to his (the salesman's) questions designedto uncover the prospect's personal and social needs.He must understand how these motivate and legiti-mate buying behavior. He must be able to infersuch needs as they are implied by the prospect'sobjections. 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 notexist per se, but only in the context of these broaderand deeper personal and social needs. Thus, to aidhis listening, the effective salesman needs a basicunderstanding of buyer behavior and the ability toanalyze what he hears. Tape-recordings of actualsales calls can be a helpful aid to this kind oflearning.

Second, the salesman needs the ability to sense theprospect's predispositions and, especially, how theprospect expects him to behave. He must be able tosense the impact of his comments on the prospectand to modify his comments in response to the feed-back he receives on prospect reactions. These skillscan be developed through well-designed role playing,but it is crucial that the salesman be exposed tomany different kinds of "prospects" in the role play-ing session. To develop interaction skills throughrole playing limited to either a manager or a traineras the "prospect" is a very narrow and unsatisfac-tory approach. The use of video-tape-recorders canhelp the salesman develop his ability to assess hisimpact on others.

Third, salesmen need some basic understandingof the nature of interpersonal interaction and thecommunication process. They need to know howthe characteristics of receivers, messages, and com-municators interact to determine selling effective-ness. They can also benefit from an awareness ofhow sales presentations can be tailored (in terms oforder 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 forthis type of training.-^

See, for example, Joseph W. Thompson: Selling: ABehavioral Science Approach (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1966).

Other Guides to Effective Selling Strategy

This analysis has also suggested several otherguidelines for the development of effective sellingstrategies. 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 obtainbetter response to their efforts. But company repu-tation also creates expectations for that company'ssalesmen, and a high level of sales training must bemaintained to assure that salesmen can fulfill theseexpectations.

A recognition that customers who buy early aredifferent in many respects from those who buy laterindicates the need to tailor selling strategy to fit theproduct life cycle. Early buyers tend to rely upondifferent sources of information and to use thesesources for different functions, than later buyers.The sales manager needs to explore and analyzesystematically the particular nature of these differ-ences in the markets served by his company. Studiesof the adoption process suggest that the salesmanis particularly important at the trial stage, to pro-vide assistance and knowledge in product testing andthe interpretation of trial results. Whether theproduct is an industrial chemical or a vacuumcleaner, successful demonstration and trial is a criti-cal step in the prospect's buying decision. Onceagain, there are clear implications for salesmantraining.

Summary

The determinants of the salesman's effectivenessgo considerably beyond the salesman hiniself. Think-ing of selling as a form of communication leads tosome new insights into the selling process and tosome clear indications for salesman training andthe development of selling strategies. The impor-tance of personal selling in the marketing communi-cations mix should be modified over the product lifecycle to reflect differences in buyer characteristics.The company's reputation and the sales manager'sexpectations are also important determinants ofsalesman effectiveness. The sales manager who de-velops his understanding of buyer' behavior andcommunications theory will be rewarded with sig-nificant clues for the development of more effectivesales strategies.