Modality and offering effects in sales presentations for a good versus a service

More businesses than ever are using telemarketing as a complement to or substitute for face-to-face selling. More businesses than ever are also selling services in lieu of selling goods. Yet, despite these trends, no empirical research has documented the relative effectiveness of telesales versus face-to-face presentations for selling goods versus services. The author begins to fill this void in the literature by presenting an initial investigation into the effects of modality (telesales vs. face-to-face presentation) and offering (a service vs. a good) on consumer recall, attitudes, and behavioral intentions. The findings reveal that recall is higher in a face-to-face presentation, attitudes and behavioral intentions are more positive following a telesales presentation for a service, and attitudes and behavioral intentions for a good are unaffected by the nature of the sales presentation. Implications of the findings for research, business practice, and future study are discussed. David M. Szymanski is the Al and Marion Withers Faculty Research Fellow and Director, Center for Retailing Studies, in the Lowry Mays College & Graduate School of Business, Texas A&M University. His research interests include applied meta-analysis, marketing strategy, personal selling, product innovation, and retailing strategy. Representative research has appeared in theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, andJournal of Retailing.     

Student perceptions of questionable personal selling practices

This paper reports the findings of a study which identify student ethical evaluation of questionable yet common personal selling practices. The results suggest generally that students' perceptions may not be as negative toward personal selling as reported in earlier studies dealing with perceptions of business generally. There are, however, differences in student perceptions between business and nonbusiness students suggesting that course of study, curriculum and exposure to professors may have an effect on ethical perceptions. Differences between male and female students are also reported.     

Perceptions of the sales job: How students compare with industrial salespeople

Past research on student's attitudes toward personal selling have generally concluded that students have misconceptions about sales. An interesting issue, but one that has not yet been explored, is whether students' perceptions of selling are different from salespeople's perceptions. This paper reports the results of a study that examined the differences between salespeople's and students' perceptions of a sales job. In addition, several managerial implications for developing sales recruiting messages are discussed. The author wishes to gratefully acknowledge an anonymous reviewer for his/her helpful suggestions on an earlier draft of this article and the Sales and Marketing Executives Club of Dallas for its personal support of this project.     

医药营销渠道的构筑与管理

医改之后,对医药营销来说,一个最大的改变就是营销渠道的改变,即医院在医药企业促销活动中的重要程度将减弱,药店取代医院成为药品的重要销售终端。医药营销实际上是和消费者面对面的营销。新形势下,医药企业营销渠道将发生以下变化：首先,营销渠道由纵深型向扁平型转变,即医药企业在选择分销渠道时由选择进货批量大、频率低的大型分销商,向分布零散、进货频繁但数量小的中小型分销商,甚至是零售终端过渡,也就是渠道的重心由高向低转移。其次,医药企业对产品分销流通的渠道定位更准确,市场成熟的大众性普药继续走批发分销渠道。渠道建设成功后还要从不同的方面来进行渠道管理。     

Linking cause-related marketing to sales force responses and performance in a direct selling context

The influence of a firm’s cause-related marketing efforts on sales representative attitudes and behavioral performance is investigated. Results from a field study indicate that the influence of a representative’s construed customer attitude toward the cause campaign on selling behavioral performance is mediated through cognitive identification and selling confidence. Further, the influence of construed customer attitude toward the campaign on selling confidence is moderated by cognitive identification such that the effects are stronger for salespeople with lower levels of identification with the company. The authors discuss the implications of the research and offer directions for further research.

An investigation of the relationship between student attitudes and student achievement

This study consisted of an experimental investigation of the relationship between student attitudes toward both course and professor and the subsequent student achievement in the course. Different teaching styles resulting in significantly different attitudes were utilized and the effect on achievement analyzed. The major finding of the study was no significant difference in achievement given significant differences in attitude. Implications and limitations of the study are presented.     

Antecedents and consequences of adaptive selling confidence and behavior: a dyadic analysis of salespeople and their customers

Personal selling is thought to be a very effective marketing vehicle. The notion of adaptive selling suggests that it should work better than any other means of communication because salespeople are able to develop a unique message for each customer. This research proposes a model of key antecedents and consequences of adaptive selling. In particular, we distinguish, measure, and model the attitudinal and behavioral aspects of adaptive selling, something that is encouraged but not thoroughly examined in the literature. Hypotheses are tested using data from 210 salesperson-customer dyads. The results indicate that a salesperson’s perception of the firm’s customer orientation has an effect on adaptive selling behavior through the salesperson’s adaptive selling confidence, role ambiguity, intrinsic motivation and customer-qualification skills. Adaptive selling behavior increases salesperson’s outcome performance, customers’ evaluations of satisfaction with the product and with the salesperson, which enhance customers’ anticipation of future interactions with the salesperson. The implications for management and theory are discussed.     

卖空约束对股票市场的影响——兼论中国能否引入卖空机制

卖空作为一种重要的金融创新,经常被人们提及,但很多人却对卖空心存疑虑。在很多资本市场发达的国家,卖空也仍然受到限制,因此,很多人就反对目前在我国引入卖空机制。然而,卖空并没有很多人想象中的那么可怕。本文从实证和理论两个角度论证了卖空对市场效率的重要作用,考察了卖空与市场崩溃间的关系,发现二者并没有必然的联系。     

Personal selling and sales management: A relationship marketing perspective

The authors examine how the practice of personal selling and sales management is changing as a result of the increased attention on long-term, buyer-seller relationships and identify some implications of these changes. Changes in the traditional personal selling and sales management activities are needed to support the emergence of the part-nering role for salespeople. For salespeople in the part-nering role, the personal selling shifts from a focus on influencing buyer behavior to managing the conflict inherent in buyer-seller relationships. The emphasis on building relationships rather than making short-term sales and the use of sales teams dictates changes in the way firms select, train, evaluate, and compensate salespeople and members of sales teams. In this article, the authors have suggested some issues concerning the emerging partnering role for salespeople that deserve the attention of scholars interested in personal selling and sales management research. Barton A. Weitz is the J. C. Penney Eminent Scholar Chair in Retail Management at the Warrington College of Business Administration at the University of Florida. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University and his research interests are in the areas of personal selling effectiveness, salesperson motivation, and channel relationships. His research has been published in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, andAdministrative Science Quarterly. He has coauthored two textbooks,Selling: Building Relationships andRetail Management. Kevin D. Bradford is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Notre Dame. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Florida. His research interests include issues in buyerseller relationships and increasing salesperson effectiveness.     

推销人员提高业务素质的途径及其自我管理

本文从市场经济理论出发,阐述市场经济条件下需要专职的推销人员从事商品的推销工作, 而社会和企业的发展急需高层次的推销人员。为此, 必须从现在开始注重对各级各类推销人员的业务技术培训。同时, 探讨了推销人员提高业务素质的途径, 并指出推销人员加强自我管理的必要性和树立自我管理观念、提高推销效率、取得推销业绩的方法     

零售业务：商业银行业务拓展的重要路径

我国商业银行零售业务发展的策略选择应是：从银行长远发展的战略高度，重视零售业务的发展；准确选择战略定位，分步实施；完善商业银行零售业务经营管理架构；树立市场营销理念；加强零售业务品牌建设等。     

国际金融教学中有关汇率的几个难点评析

本文分析了在国际金融教学中汇率及报价换算的四个学习难点。即：买入价与卖出价的理解；外币／本币买入价一卖出价换算为本币／外币买入价．卖出价的掌握；三种货币的汇率间的折算方法；不同货币间商品价格的换算方法。提出了理解与把握上述难点的方法和原则，即：外币／本币买入价一卖出价换算为本币／外币买入价一卖出价适用互为倒数的关系：三种货币汇率间的折算原则：折算出的双向报价能满足前小后大的要求；以及出口报价遵循收益最大化原则。     

对商品房预售合同的认识

商品房预售合同是近几年来我国房地产市场中出现的新事物,实践中人们对其还存在着许多模糊的认识。本文认为,商品房预售合同不是预约买卖合同、期货买卖合同、附期限买卖合同、分期付款买卖合同,而是远期交货合同。本文从商品房预售合同的主体及形式方面分折了商品房预售合同的有效条件,并提出了商品房预售合同纠纷的处理原则。     

论不良资产的多样化出售

不良资产多样化出售的目的是最大限度地以最高价格出售不良资产。信用增级、公开操作原则、间接出售方式和完善的市场环境支持,是美国FDIC和RTC多样化出售不良资产的成功经验。不良资产的出售困难是与不良资产价值难以确定联系在一起的,调整现值法和经营期权思想拓宽了企业估价的思路,代表着国际评估方法的发展方向。资产证券化作为一项新兴业务,是出售不良资产的主要手段和渠道,引进资产证券化对于我国国有商业银行的改革,化解不良资产具有重要的理论意义和实践价值。     

The relationship of job image,performance, and job satisfaction to inactivity-proneness of direct salespeople

This article examines whether the public image of the selling job as perceived by direct salespeople has an impact on their tendency to remain active or become inactive in that selling job. Relationships among job image, job satisfaction, and job performance are also investigated. Salespeople with more negative perceptions of the public image of their job were found to have lower job satisfaction and to be more prone to inactivity, though the strength of these relationships varies somewhat between high and low performers. Implications are provided for researchers and sales managers.     

对入世后我国旅行社营销策略的探讨

入世后我国旅行社在市场竞争主体、旅游人才、客源市场以及销售渠道等营销环境上出现变化，我国旅行社应注重实行体制改革、品牌营销、产品组合、横向联合体模式、一对一营销、销售渠道扩展、服务营销、旅行社人才策略等主要营销策略。     

我国财务信息化发展进程研究

我国财务信息化发展经历了两方面的重大变化。一是财务信息化领域从出售软件产品到推出解决方案,二是财务软件的模型改造与发展经历了传统DCA到CAIS再到ISCA的进程。     

Marketers as noodlers

The article examines difficulties marketing instructors encounter in introductory marketing courses. Presentation of the factors responsible for the growing volume and importance of marketing and examination of the roles marketing performs for business and society can lead students to form negative attitudes. Students in their initial exposure to marketing study may come to view marketing as manipulative and of service only to production and profits. Suggestions are presented for logical development of these topics via positive and persuasive examples. A review of literature is presented indicating a wide divergency of views regarding the scope of marketing, a definition of the field, and societal contributions. Research findings are presented on the accumulation of marketing knowledge and the attitudes which are formed during study in the Marketing Principles course.     

浅议我国直销法律规制的完善

我国目前直销法律规制还存在一些不足之处,需要从完善直销含义,降低直销企业准入门槛,取消直销员薪酬比例限制,明确直销企业、直销员与消费者之间的关系等方面进行完善。     

Selling strategies: The effects of suggesting a decision structure to novice and expert buyers

This research investigates the impact of selling strategies on selling effectiveness. The authors compare two selling strategies: (1) an agenda strategy, in which a salesperson attempts to influence the structure of the buyer’s decision by suggesting constraints that eliminate competitive products from consideration, and (2) a more typical selling strategy that summarizes the target product’s benefits. The results show that when sellers use an agenda selling strategy, target products receive higher evaluations and have higher probabilities of being considered and chosen. Buyer expertise moderates this effect, with the agenda strategy in most cases having more impact on novice buyers than on expert buyers. These findings demonstrate the importance of selling strategy to selling effectiveness, suggest the potential benefit for sellers of using selling strategies that attempt to influence the structure of the buyer’s decision, and provide support for the contingent nature of selling effectiveness. Judy A. Wagner (Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) is currently an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Texas at Arlington. Her primary research interests are personal selling strategies, sales management, and buyer decision making. Her research has been published inAdvances in Consumer Research and the proceedings of the American Marketing Association and is forthcoming in theJournal of Business Research. Noreen M. Klein (Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University) is currently an associate professor of marketing at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Her research interests include consumer decision making and the behavioral aspects of pricing, and her research has been published in theJournal of Consumer Research andOrganizational Behavior and Human Decision Making. Janet E. Keith (Ph.D., Arizona State University) is currently an associate professor of marketing at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Her research interests lie in behavioral issues in channels of distribution and in sales and sales management. Her studies have been published in journals such as theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, andJournal of Marketing Channels.