The effects of relationship selling behaviors and their influence on sales performance

THE PROBLEM. Relationship selling behaviors have been identified for being important in establishing long-term relations between buyers and sellers. For organizations that do business with repeat customers, good relations are essential to keep customers happy and continuing to place orders. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the relationship selling behaviors of individual salespeople tend to correlate, and how these variables affect salespeople's overall sales performance. Specific behaviors studied included Listening Behavior, Cognitive Moral Development, Adaptive Selling Behavior, and Customer-Oriented Selling Behavior.;METHOD. The study was based on a comprehensive literature review regarding the identified problem, followed by the development of a self-report survey. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data and test the study's hypotheses.;The questionnaire consisted of a combination of five previously designed surveys to measure the study's five latent factors (measurement model). It was then determined how the latent factors relate to each other (structural model). The survey was completed by 195 individual salespeople. The data sample originated from two distinct populations (52 cases from one and 143 from the other).;RESULTS. This research produced a number of key findings: A salesperson who adapts his or her selling style based on feedback from the individual customer has relatively higher sales performance than one who does not. An adaptive salesperson has even better performance than salespeople who are primarily focused on customer satisfaction. However, salespeople who are adaptive are also more likely to be oriented toward customer satisfaction.;Salespeople who score high on listening skills are generally more attuned to customer needs and more likely to adapt their selling style to each individual customer. These behaviors lead to better sales performance.