Timothy D. Landry

How First Impressions of a Customer Impact Effectiveness in an Initial Sales Encounter

First impressions of others affect both the content and outcomes of a variety of interpersonal encounters. In sales encounters, a salesperson’s first impressions of a customer provide a starting point for probing customer needs and for adapting to those needs. This implies that salesperson effectiveness in an initial sales encounter is associated— at least in part—with a salesperson’s first impression of the customer. The reported quasi-experiment is the first study to explore empirically the connection between salespeople’s first impressions, their cognitive structures, and sales effectiveness in a single, initial sales encounter. The results provide an intriguing glimpse into the dilemma salespeople face in trying to establish the basis of a relationship while achieving short-term sales outcomes (e.g., closing a sale, satisfaction).

Control systems’ effect on attributional processes and sales outcomes: A cybernetic information-processing perspective

Built upon a cybernetic information-processing framework, this article advances and empirically tests a conceptual model proposing the relationships between sales controls (outcome, activity, capability), salespeople’s attributional ascriptions (effort, strategy, ability), attributional dimensions (internal/external, stable/unstable), and psychological consequences (job satisfaction, performance expectation). The study challenges the assumption in the sales literature that attributional dimensions cleanly map onto attributional ascriptions. Findings support that sales control systems affect salespeople’s attribution processes in ways suggesting that the processes are more malleable than heretofore theorized in the marketing literature. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that control systems differentially affect attribution processes across two cultures: the United States and China. The article concludes with a discussion of research and managerial implications.

Beyond Just Being There: An Examination of the Impact of Attitudes, Materialism, and Self-Esteem on the Quality of Helping Behavior in Youth Volunteers

ABSTRACT Young people represent a strong and growing source of volunteers for not-for-profit organizations (NPO) and are an important focus for NPO marketing efforts. Using helping behavior theory, this paper reports a study conducted with a sample of teenagers to examine influences on their decision to volunteer and their goal setting for fund-raising. The relationship between three individual variables (attitude toward the organization, self-esteem, and materialism) and the quality of helping behavior provided was found to be mediated in large part by attitude towards the actual volunteering task. Implications for NPO marketing and future research are discussed.

The Role of Equity and Work Environment in the Formation of Salesperson Distributive Fairness Judgments

This research addresses significant gaps in the application of distributive fairness to sales management. A study of sales professionals from across several industries details how the equitable distribution of rewards affects important job outcomes such as satisfaction, voice (constructive suggestions for improvement of the firm), and exit (quitting the firm). The study also demonstrates that equity judgments are derived, and differently affected, by referent comparisons including other salespeople within the firm, other employees within the firm, and salespeople from outside the firm. Several conditions that describe the sales environment are shown to moderate these effects and, consequently, what is perceived as “fair” and “unfair.” Together, these insights reveal the underlying mechanics in judgments of fairness (yielding a richer theory) and contribute to better managerial practice.

Boundary Spanners' Satisfaction with Organizational Support Services

SUMMARY Internal services (i.e., support services) are an important form of organizational support for external boundary spanners (e.g., salespeople, customer service representatives). Internal services such as information systems, market research, training, accounting, and facilities support are intended to allow boundary spanners to better serve the firms customer. Little research, however, has addressed factors that influence a boundary spanners satisfaction with such services. The research presented here offers insight into how internal communication by both managers and service providers impacts a boundary spanners satisfaction with support services. Results indicate that service provider and manager communications are largely complementary and that satisfaction with service outcomes, rather than service quality, appears to have an enduring impact upon a boundary spanners overall job satisfaction. Implications for future research are addressed.

Disclosure and Its Reciprocity as Predictors of Key Outcomes of an Initial Sales Encounter

This study reports findings from an experiment designed to investigate how verbal exchange between a salesperson and a prospect influences sales outcomes of an initial sales encounter. One hundred ninety-six salesperson-customer dyads were videotaped controlling for sales situation variables. Findings provide support for the idea that elements of task and social disclosure differentially influence customer perceptions of interaction quality and business relationship potential. In addition, the study illustrates a methodology that can be used to investigate dyadic interchange.

The development of core retailer community functions

The community-building functions of socialization, mutual support, social control, and social participation are derived and tested in relation to the development of consumer loyalty and a consumers willingness to pay more for the retailers product. Empirical results indicate that the development of community is not, ceteris paribus, always a positive thing. Of the four core functions, retailer socialization and mutual support relate positively to consumer willingness to pay more. In addition, while retailer socialization and social participation relate positively to consumer loyalty, retailer social control relates negatively to consumer loyalty. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Services' influence on minority portrayals in magazine advertising

Purpose – The primary goal of this study is to examine how services advertising strategy relates to the prevalence of minority portrayals in magazine advertisements.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a content analysis method. Over 1,000 advertisements were collected, and 455 were employed in the study. Chi‐square difference tests were used to test hypotheses. A second sample was collected to verify some initial findings.Findings – It was found that minority models were more likely to appear in advertisements for services than in advertisements for goods. Differences were also found across types of services. Asian models were overrepresented in advertisements for technologies, a product category with a strong services influence.Research limitations/implications – Emphasis was placed on portrayals of African‐Americans and Asians, so findings are most directly applicable to these groups. The generalizability of the results may be limited to the types of publications from which the sample was drawn...

Strategic consensus of market orientation: a transitional economy perspective

In transition economies, firms are faced with the challenge of adapting to new competitive pressures domestically and realizing market opportunities abroad. A market orientation is central to such adaptation. Using a multiple-source, multiple-informant design, nearly 4000 employees from 180 Chinese manufacturing firms were surveyed to explore how market orientation evolves. Results show that consensus, about being market oriented, between top managers and non-supervisory employees positively affects firm performance. This consensus is more likely in firms with participative cultures. Interestingly, firm performance was unrelated to middle and top manager consensus and unrelated to middle manager and employee consensus. Also contrary to expectations, the formalization of organizational procedures is not predictive of strategic consensus.

The Asymmetric Influence of Attribute Displacement Performance on Customer Evaluation of Service Experiences: An Abstract

This chapter examines how the displacement performance (i.e., a positive or negative change from the prior time period) of service quality attributes influences customers’ service experiences. Random-effect GLS regression is applied to analyze this effect in a sample of over 50,000 observations from the post-transaction surveys of a Fortune 500 rental car company. Results confirm that displacement performance has a significant effect on customer experience evaluation, even after controlling for the influence of attribute positional performance (i.e., the static performance levels) and the customers’ prior overall service experience evaluation. Further analyses indicate that the displacement performance effect is stronger for some service quality attributes when there is a short time interval between service deliveries. Finally, the study shows that negative displacement performance has a greater influence on experience evaluation than positive displacement performance. The results imply that managers should manage displacement perceptions in order to enhance customer experiences.