If looks could sell: Moderation and mediation of the attractiveness effect on salesperson performance |
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| Authors: | Michael Ahearne Thomas W. Gruen Cheryl Burke Jarvis |
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| Affiliation: | a Smeal College of Business at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA;b Goizueta Business School, Emory University, 1300 Clifton Rd., Atlanta, GA 30322-2710, USA;c Kelly School of Business, Marketing Department, Indiana University, 1309 East Tenth Street, Bloomington, IN 47405-1701, USA |
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| Abstract: | This study empirically investigates the effect of perceived salesperson attractiveness on actual salesperson performance, focusing first on the moderating effect of length of the buyer–salesperson relationship and then on the mediating effects of perceived communication ability, likeability, expertise, and trustworthiness on the attractiveness effect. A sample of 339 physicians was surveyed to obtain their evaluations of pharmaceutical company sales representatives' attractiveness as well as their perceptions of the mediators. Actual brand-by-brand market share data of the subject physicians' prescriptions was collected as the dependent variable. The results showed that perceived salesperson attractiveness had a significant positive effect on salesperson performance, but the effect was found to diminish as the length of the salesperson–customer relationship increased. Three of the four proposed mediators were found to partially mediate the effect of attractiveness on sales performance. |
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| Keywords: | Salesperson Relationship length Attractiveness Performance Source effects |
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