The impact of salesperson credibility-building statements on later stages of the sales encounter

Salespeople frequently attempt to build credibility on their first encounter with a customer. Because customers actively evaluate persuasive messages, it is important to understand their reactions to credibility-building tactics and how these reactions shape the sales interaction. Accordingly, this study investigates customers' reactions to two types of credibility-building statements – benevolence and expertise – using a multistep qualitative analysis of sales transactions in the life insurance industry, along with surveys before and after the sales encounter. Empirical results show that customers are more likely to react positively to credibility-building statements that match their buying style expectations. Furthermore, when customers react positively to a credibility-building tactic, salespeople are more likely to continue using that tactic when addressing customer objections. However, whereas benevolence tactics for addressing customer objections lead to stronger relational outcomes, the findings indicate that expertise tactics do not. Thus, matching sales tactics with customers' buying style expectations is beneficial in the early stages of the sales encounter, but customer objections are best addressed with benevolence tactics, regardless of customers' buying style.     

Sentiment toward marketing: Should we care about consumer alienation and readiness to use technology?

Consumer sentiment toward marketing has been extensively addressed in the marketing literature. However, while most existing studies provide contributions regarding the levels of consumer perceptions of the marketing function, most fall short of providing significant insights into the antecedents of these sentiment levels. That is to say, little is offered to help marketers understand why consumers perceive the marketing function the way they do. In this study, a conceptual framework is developed in an attempt to explore consumer sentiment toward marketing in light of the increasing technological tendencies of today's marketplace. Alienation from the marketplace is assumed to be an exogenous variable that affects the degree to which individuals are ready to embrace new technologies in everyday life. The model is empirically tested using structural equation modeling. Alienation from the marketplace is found to be negatively associated with sentiment toward marketing and the drivers of technology readiness, but positively associated with the inhibitors of technology readiness. More significantly, readiness to embrace technology is found to exhibit a strong and consistent relationship with sentiment toward marketing. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Role of Recruit Division Commanders in Graduation From U.S. Navy Recruit Training

We investigated the importance of the role of drill instructors (RDCs) on training and retention of new sailors (N = 34,000). Based on social support and group cohesion literatures, we hypothesized that social support from RDCs would influence completion rates of entry-level Navy training and retention intention of new sailors. We found that perceptions of social support from RDCs had a significant positive relationship with eventual graduation from basic training; encouragement to remain in the Navy was particularly strongly related to graduation when the source of the encouragement was RDCs. Further, those who attrited from training were especially likely to perceive RDCs as encouraging them to leave the Navy. We discuss the implications of our findings in terms of theory, research and practice.     

Being Approximate: The Ganser Syndrome and Beyond

The Ganser syndrome, or “talking past the point,” (originally identifying symptoms of inmates on remand when questioned by prison doctors), is explored as a form of insubordination against the stigmatizing effects of overdetermined diagnostic categories. The strategies of approximation that characterize the syndrome are likened to comedy routines/vaudeville styles and to their employment of punning, clownery, and ambiguity to challenge the more privileged cultural values of clarity, literalness, and precision. The seeming craftiness of Ganserians is related to the aesthetic tactics of the trickster figure and to the physical buffoonery of hysterics. Stylistically, this paper synthesizes the languages of critical theory, Gracie Allen routines, personal narrative, jokes, and poetic reflections on the notion of being approximate.