Building and assessing cultural diversity awareness in salespeople: A framework for adaptive selling

Sales and marketing executives are increasingly challenged with the issue of cultural diversity within the salesforce itself and its clientele. Yet, many organizations have not acknowledged the issue of diversity and the accompanying communication skills required for adaptive selling in intercultural situations. This study attempted to incorporate intercultural communication aspects and skills into the adaptive selling framework.; The purpose of this study was three-fold. The first objective was to demonstrate to and convince salespeople of the importance of learning intercultural communication skills in personal selling. The second objective of the study was to determine what intercultural communication skills are required to be an adaptive seller in intercultural contexts. The third and final objective of the study was to assess salespeople on their intercultural capabilities in order to determine training needs.; Local sales and marketing executives were recruited for this study to participate in a cross-cultural simulation. Participants responded to a questionnaire before and after the simulation. Results show that most respondents were convinced of the importance of diversity awareness and the intercultural communication skills required for adaptive selling in intercultural contexts. Upon completing the simulation respondents rated themselves more accurately on their intercultural skills. Further, respondents were motivated to learn more about cultural issues and found the simulation useful as a starting point for training.