Contextual Influences and the Adoption and Practice of Relationship Selling in a Business-to-business Setting: An Exploratory Study |
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| Authors: | Michael Beverland |
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| Affiliation: | Michael Beverland is a Senior lecturer in the Department of Marketing at Monash University in Australia. He has previously taught at Edith Cowan University, Unitec: Institute of Technology and the University of Auckland (where he received a Masters degree in Management Studies). Michael is currently completing his Ph.D. at the University of South Australia, where he is researching in the field of organizational strategy. He has published in the Journal of Small Business Management, Qualitative Market Research: Ail International Journal, the Australasian Marketing Journal and presented papers at a number of conferences including those run by the Academy of Marketing Science. He has consulted widely to a range of companies particularly in the area of agriculture, and his research interests include international marketing, personal selling and luxury product marketing. |
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| Abstract: | Recently, a number of authors have argued in favour of a relationship approach to selling and sales management. Despite this call, there has been little in the way of research to identify the impact of adopting relationship selling at an organizational and tactical level. Based upon multiple in-depth interviews with experienced salespeople, we propose the conditions under which relationship selling is appropriate, and argue that relationships with customers evolve through a two-stage process that involves balancing short-term performance based behaviors with long-term relationship building behaviors. Findings cause us to argue that organizations adopting a relationship approach to selling require flatter organizational structures and need to foster more flexible organizational cultures. |
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