| This study examined attachment variables and locus of control in a group of salespeople in Columbus, Ohio. Personal selling is often referred to as "relationship selling." Sales training teaches the salesperson to initiate, develop, and maintain personal relationships with clients. These commercial relationships, formed for the purpose of doing business, appear to be a shallow and superficial application of the concept of relationship. This study examines the nature of relationships across the personal lives of salespeople who excel at relationship selling and investigates whether all their relationships indeed occur at a shallow and superficial level. Using concepts rooted in attachment theory developed by Bowlby, Ainsworth, and others, the researchers administered an attachment measure to 42 volunteer salespeople in the commercial real estate field. These participants also completed a locus of control questionnaire that probed for a possible correlation between psychological autonomy and the need for others. |
