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Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

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Contextual Influences and the Adoption and Practice of

Relationship Selling in a Business-to-business Setting: An
Exploratory Study
a
Michael Beverland
a
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.
Published online: 24 Oct 2013.

To cite this article: Michael Beverland (2001) Contextual Influences and the Adoption and Practice of Relationship Selling in a
Business-to-business Setting: An Exploratory Study, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 21:3, 207-215

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08853134.2001.10754272

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 Contextual Influences and the Adoption and Practice of
Relationship Selling in a Business-to-business Setting:
An Exploratory Study
Michael Beverland
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.
Introduction
Owing to their boundary-spanning role, the field sales-force
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of a company has traditionally been a vital link between the
firm and its customers (Morris, Avila and Teeple 1990). Sales-
people provide a key link in adding value for customers (Luthy
2000), in helping to identify new opportunities (Gordon et al.
1997), in influencing future purchase intentions (Boles et al.
2000; Macintosh and Lockshin 1997) and in gaining referrals
(Boles, Barksdale and Johnson 1997). Ball and Monaghan (1994)
argued that the sales-force serves as the major determinant of
whether or not consumers receive a brand-marketing message.
The sales literature indicates that a positive customer-sales-
person relationship contributes to trust, increased customer
loyalty and intention to continue that relationship with the
salesperson (Crosby, Evans and Cowles 1990; Macintosh and
Lockshin 1997). As well, Doney and Cannon (1997) found
that trust in the salesperson was related to intention to use a
vendor in the future. Even more interpersonal findings have
been reported. Macintosh and Lockshin (1997) argued that
positive interpersonal relationships between consumers and
salespeople function as a bonus in terms of purchase behavior
since the relationship results in a positive attitude towards
the store and repurchase behavior.
Hence it appears that the success of a firm's relationship
marketing strategy depends to a good extent on the behavior of
its sales representatives (Thomas, Ryan and Soutar, forthcom-
ing; Weitz and Bradford 1999). As a result Weitz and Bradford
(1999) argued for a relationship marketing approach to the
practice of selling, whereby "selling activities are directed to-
ward building partnerships with key business-to-business cus-
tomers" (1999, p. 241). This strategy may involve major changes
in the way salespeople do their jobs and in the way organiza-
Michael Beverland is a Senior lecturer in the Department of Market-
ing 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 Manage-
ment Studies). Michael is currently completing his Ph.D. at the Univer-
sity of South Australia, where he is researching in the field of organiza-
tional strategy. He has published in the Journal of Small Business
Management, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal,
the Australasian Marketing Journal and presented papers at a number
of conferences including those run by theAcademy ofMarketing Science.
He has consulted widely to a range of companies particularly in the area
of agriculture, and his research interests include international market-
ing, personal selling and luxury product marketing.
tions manage and reward their salespeople (Evans et al. 2000;
Weitz and Bradford 1999). For example, Weitz and Bradford
(1999) argued that a firm's salesforce needed to adopt a rela-
tionship or "partnering'' strategy whereby they assist custom-
ers to create value rather than engaging in hard-sell selling
practices or focusing on closing a transaction. Weitz and Bradford
(1999) argue that these changes represented a revolution or
paradigmatic change in the way selling is practiced. Yet, it can
be argued that relationship selling represents just one of sev-
eral possible approaches to personal selling. Not all transac-
tions contain relational elements (Dwyer, Schurr and Oh 1987),
and therefore long term relationships may be neither feasible
nor strategically warranted (Evans et al. 2000).
Rackham and DeVincentis (1998) argue that the sales strat-
egy adopted by each firm depends largely on what customers
seek from each transaction. They hypothesize that there exist
three types of customers: intrinsic value customers, extrinsic
value customers and strategic value customers. Customers
who gain all their value from the good or service itself are
labelled "intrinsic value customers." For these customers,
product quality, price, and availability are the most impor-
tant determinants of vendor choice. In this case, salespeople
should try to make it as easy as possible for the customer to
purchase the product (perhaps by using the Internet). In this
context, a strategy that aims to build a closer relationship
with these customers could be harmful as well as costly.
Rackham and DeVincentis (1998) label customers who gained
the majority of their value from augmented features of the
product or service as "extrinsic value customers." For these
customers a relationship strategy may provide some benefits
as long as it entails services and information that enhance
their use of the product or service. Extrinsic value customers
would not seek a partnership with the firm as such, but would
be prepared to pay a little extra for greater levels of service
and information. Finally, customers who want a true part-
nership are labelled "strategic value customers." These cus-
tomers actively seek a partnership with other firms in order
to create new sources of value and solve unique problems.
These customers would more likely expect salespeople to adopt
the partnership role identified by Weitz and Bradford (1999).
In summary, research conducted by Rackham and DeVincentis
(1998) suggests that the adoption and practice of relationship
Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management,
Volume XXI, Number 3 (Summer 2001, Pages 207-215).
 208
Table 1
Sample Characteristics
Number of Sales
Industry Salespeople Me:,nagers
Agriculture 8 2
Fast Moving Consumer Goods 8 1
Hospitality 10 2 Auckland
Insurance 10 2 Auckland
Telecommunications 10 2 Auckland
selling is influenced by the customers' context and may, there-
fore, represent one of many approaches to selling.
Despite the calls for the adoption of a relationship selling
strategy, little research has been done on the tactical aspects
of how salespeople actually build relationships and how orga-
nizations can encourage their salesforce to adopt a relation-
ship selling approach. For the purposes of this paper a rela-
tionship approach to selling is defined as an "[exchange rela-
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tionship] between parties involving long-term, highly com-
mitted relationships in the context of exchanges and out-
comes that have occurred in the past and the expectations
that exchanges between the parties will occur in the future"
(Weitz and Bradford 1999, p. 252). The present study ad-
dresses the need for further exploration of relationship selling by
seeking to identifY factors that salespeople associate with enhanced
relationships with customers as well as the conditions under which
relationship selling is appropriate. To do so, we adopt an explor-
atory research design using multiple in-depth interviews with
experienced salespeople and sales managers.
Research Method
Data for this paper were obtained through a case study
method (Yin 1994; Eisenhardt 1989). Case studies facilitate a
deeper understanding of soft variables and key relationships,
and accelerate rigorous, valid, and useful theory development
(Parkhe 1993). Bonoma (1985), Hirschman (1986), and
Deshpande (1983) have all called for greater use of rigorous
qualitative research designs in marketing research. Johnston,
Leach and Liu (1999) stated that case study research was
particularly relevant in a business-to-business setting where
the number of contextual variables influencing organizational
behavior may inhibit execution of survey type designs.
To increase the rigour of the research design, we conducted
interviews with experienced salespeople across a range of
industries. Following a purposeful sampling method we se-
lected salespeople from industries where we believed rela-
tionship selling would be practiced, e.g., insurance, agricul-
ture and telecommunications (Strauss and Corbin 1992). This
adjustment would also enable the data to converge around
some key themes (Yin 1994). The cases were selected on the
basis of discussions held with 30 salespeople enrolled in a
graduate level market research course. Details of the selected
cases are presented in Table 1. The industries are representa-
tive of New Zealand industry, with coverage of agriculture,
services, and the consumer goods industries. Seven compa-
nies in total were contacted. Five companies agreed to partici-
pate in the study. Cases also had to consist of organizations of
a reasonable size with an established history of trading. New
Zealand is dominated by micro businesses (under five em-
ployees) that are unlikely to employ salespeople or have a
Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management
Number of Site Number of
Companies Location Employees
Auckland Head Office 632
Auckland Main Sales Office 1,106
Business Office 5,060
Head Office 1,300
Head Office 8,000
long history of trading. As such, organizations had to employ
at least 500 employees and have been established for at least
ten years (see Table 1).
To participate in the study respondents had to have at least
five years selling experience in the same industry. The five-
year period was selected after the postgraduates, all of whom
were experienced salespeople in their own right, advised that
five years would be long enough to identify changes in sales
practice. (None of the graduate students were used in the
sample.) To improve construct validity data was triangulated
using multiple sources and participants (Johnston, Leach and
Liu 1999; Deshpande 1983; Eisenhardt 1989; Yin 1994). In
each participant organization the sales manager was inter-
viewed for approximately an hour. Sales managers were
thought to have greater insight into organizational policies and
overall industry trends in selling practice. Multiple salespeople
within each organization were also interviewed. Secondary in-
formation was also sought to help identify organizational strat-
egy and procedures. In all, 46 salespeople and nine sales man-
agers were interviewed for the study. On average, participants
had nine years experience in a sales role in their industry.
In deciding what questions to ask, we were conscious of the
need to avoid cueing the subjects into a desired response. A
usual way around this in case study research is to ask very
broad general questions in the hope that themes will emerge
from that data (Strauss and Corbin 1992). With this method
of questioning, the respondents themselves suggest areas that
are important, and the interviewer must follow these through
with further questions (Yin 1994). However, we were also
conscious of the need to have some standardization in the
questions used, and also to make best use of the time we had
with the salespeople (Johnston, Leach and Liu 1999). Consis-
tent with standard practice in qualitative research, we devel-
oped a mixture of broad indirect questions and direct ques-
tions as presented in Table 2 (Eisenhardt 1989; Strauss and
Corbin 1992; Yin 1994).
The questions aimed to get a general impression of changes
in selling practice and then to focus on the process of relation-
ship selling (if it occurred). We also focused on aspects of
organizational support for salespeople based upon Weitz and
Bradford's (1999) claim that the adoption of relationship sell-
ing required major changes to the way organizations support
and manage salespeople. The question on sales teams is nec-
essarily direct, as is the one on organizational support. How-
ever, we also believed that less direct questions would enable
the respondents more freedom in phrasing their answers and
as well allow a number of process and organizational issues to
emerge. Broader questions were employed on issues of cus-
tomer intimacy, skills needed to build and maintain a rela-
tionship, and actions to strengthen a relationship. Finally, we
focused on the prevention of key account loss because we
 Summer2001
Table 2
Interview Questions and Propositions
Question
01: Has the relationship between customers and suppliers changed? And, if so, in what way has the relationship changed?
02: Do customers want an intimate relationship with the supplier? If so, what does this consist of?
What is the role of salespeople?
03: What skills do salespeople need to develop and maintain a relationship?
04: What actions can be taken to prevent the loss of a key account?
05: What actions can be taken to strengthen an existing relationship with a customer?
06: How can an organization support salespeople?
07: Do you use sales teams? If so, why? If not, why not?
believed that such would re-emphasize many of the positive
relationship building behaviors of successful selling and would
also raise key organizational issues.
The questions were pre-tested with 30 salespeople who were
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part of a post-graduate course in marketing research. The ques-
tions were adjusted in line with their comments and were then
presented at a departmental seminar series in which a number
of experienced sales and marketing academics were present.
Each interview was conducted between the author and the
interviewee in a private setting at the workplace. The author
contacted respondents by phone, and the interview questions
were sent to them via fax or e-mail. Respondents were told
that the purpose of the work was to examine changes in the
practice of personal selling. The length of each interview var-
ied from between one to two and a half-hours. On average
each interview took one and a half-hours to complete. To
analyze the data we transcribed the interviews from cassette
tape. We then edited the data and integrated all the informa-
tion on the case into a case summary. We then developed a
series of codes and themes for each case. Once this was done,
the codes were presented and discussed with two colleagues
who had experience in qualitative research. This process was
intended to enhance internal validity (Yin 1994). To improve
the credibility of the study, each participant received the final
transcript for comment (Johnston, Leach and Liu 1999). Once
this was done, we used the comments to adjust the results.
Findings
Findings are arranged in line with research questions. It is
critical when using case research to present some of the find-
ings in the words of the participants in order to improve the
validity of the findings for the reader (Yin 1994; Eisenhardt
1989). To this end a number of quotes are presented to high-
light key issues that arose in the interviews. Tables 3 and 4
show the strength of support for each category, based upon
frequency counts of key themes.
Has the relationship between customers and
suppliers changed? And, ifso, in what way has
the relationship changed?
There was general agreement that the relationship between
salespeople, organizations and customers had changed (see
Table 3). Those few that said it hadn't qualified their answer
by saying, "the relationship had always been close." Custom-
ers were seen as more demanding, expecting just-in-time stock
209
delivery, faster order processing and delivery times, guaran-
teed supply, high order accuracy, promotional activity, mer-
chandising material, and cost competitiveness. This demand
for greater service was believed to be due to deregulated mar-
kets and a proliferation of competing brands. Customers were
also seen as less loyal than they used to be. This decline in loyalty
was also driven mostly by increased brand proliferation. The
interviewees also noted that key accounts needed to be managed
much more actively than they had been and customers expected
the salesperson to spend more time with them and their account.
It was also argued that salespeople had to often act as a
partner in the customer's business. One interviewee noted, "the
customer needs help on how to sell your product, how to put it
on the market, and how to generate sales." The view here was
that loyalty could be increased if you were perceived to be an
asset by the customer. Attaining asset status required that
salespeople help sell the customer's product by providing prod-
uct support. For example, a sales representative might have to
go into the customer's store and set up marketing displays and
place products on the shelf. The interviewees argued that:
"If you don't put up displays, then the store doesn't
promote your product. All that happens is that some-
one else comes in and puts up a nice point of sale
display and your product just sits on the shelf."
Those three sales managers who stated "customers didn't
want salespeople to act as a partner in their business" again
qualified their response by noting that the relationship had
always been close, or that the nature of the products offered
meant that their was no strategic value to the customer in
having a partnership. Nevertheless, salespeople across all
organizations noted that the relationship was more demand-
ing, and closer, albeit on an unequal basis. Finally, small
customers had often formed themselves into larger purchas-
ing groups in order to gain price discounts from sellers. In
these cases, firms had to deal with customers at two levels: the
organization had to deal with head office while salespeople still
dealt with stores on a one-to-one basis. A few salespeople noted
that they felt the move to buying groups made the relationship
less personal that it had been in the past.
Do customers want an intimate relationship
with the supplier? If so, what does this
consist of?
Some interviewees saw that customers paid lip service to
intimacy, and when it came down to it, price was still the real
 210 Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management

Table 3
Frequencies for Key Themes

Salesperson Sales Manager

Question Frequency Frequency

Has the relationship between customers and suppliers changed?

Yes 43 8
And, if so, in what way has the relationship changed?
Less tolerant of error 46 8
Provide product support (including after sales service) 43 8
Expected greater service 40 8
Act as partner 35 6
Small firms had more power 27 8
No general change 6 1
Do customers want an intimate relationship with the supplier?
Yes 6 4
No 8 2
Depends on customer 32 3
If so, what does this consist of?
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Constant contact 46 9
Information provision 39 9
Understanding business needs 36 9
Trust in ability to perform 35 9
Friendship 20 6
The role of salespeople?
Face and eyes of organization 44 9
Educational 40 7
Introduce new products 40 6
Partnering 35 6
Identify new opportunities 32 5
Skills salespeople need to develop and maintain a relationship?
Constant contact 46 9
Product knowledge 46 9
Find out about client needs 42 9
Understanding how to approach customer 40 9
Sales experience 40 9
Listening skills and an "open mind" 38 9
Actions to prevent the loss of a key account?
Constant communication 46 9
Acknowledging the problem 40 9
Use senior person to deal with customer 38 7
Actions to strengthen an existing relationship with a customer?
Constant contact 46 9
Promotional support 42 9
Act as business "partner" 35 7
Integrate customer into organization 29 6

issue. Where price and service was standard across an indus-
try, intimacy may provide an advantage. The majority of
respondents thought it depended on the customer. These
interviewees argued that the customer's personality and per-
sonal variables were the keys to whether they wanted a closer
relationship: ''Your biggest customer may require little by
way of communication, while your smallest customer is often
the one who rings once a week."
Others (particularly sales managers) hoped that customers
wanted more intimacy, as this was reflective of the firm's
strategy. However, this strategy was often based upon intu-
ition rather than on direct customer research. Salespeople
generally argued that constant contact with customers was
critical to building a more intimate relationship. Constant
implies regular contact (generally at least one a month). Such
contact can be through personal (face-to-face) and impersonal
(electronic, mail) mediums. This level of intimacy may also be
influenced by vendor performance. Salespeople and sales man-
agers generally argued that a customer had to trust in the
salesperson's and the firm's ability to meet performance re-
quirements before they were prepared to invest in an inti-
mate relationship. A common expression of this belief was
"Intimacy is fine, but you have to perform first in order to
become friends or build a relationship." Hence performance
of a vendor may moderate any intimacy between the salesper-
son and buyer.
 Summer2001
In terms of what greater intimacy consists of, the
interviewees argued that it came down to making sure that
''What the customer gets is what they want." Salespeople
needed to understand the business needs of the customer
and, therefore, understand the customer's business environ-
ment. Those who differed from this view argued that service
and price competitiveness were the key advantages they of-
fered. Salespeople needed to provide the customer with after
the sale service and information. It was up to the firm to
provide that information to the customer, as customers typi-
cally did not have time to contact organizations themselves.
Interviewees also argued that "The salesperson also needs to
drop a lot of the traditional sales pitch and just make people
feel welcome." Personal friendship was not generally seen as
necessary for an intimate relationship, unless the relation-
ship was based primarily on trust and performance.
Intimacy was also thought to have significant advantages.
For example, one interviewee summed it up as follows:
"It [intimacy] is a security thing. You build a strong
relationship with somebody and that builds trust
and certainty. The customer knows that you're not
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going to put one over him. He knows he can rely on
you to supply the product to him at a good price. You
actually have [in one sense] to become his friend." 1
What is the role of salespeople?
All the interviewees supported the idea that salespeople
were crucial to the success of the company and that they
played an important boundary-spanning role between the
organization and its customers. The sales-force was viewed
as the face of the company. One sales manager commented:
"They [salespeople] are the front-line of the company
and are our eyes and ears. When the customer deals
with the salesperson, they form a view of our com-
pany. That salesperson needs to demonstrate the
values of our organization. This needs to be done
with the utmost integrity."
The interviewees also argued that salespeople played an
important educational role as they imparted product knowl-
edge to customers about the product offering, new releases and
new trends in the industry. There was general agreement that
salespeople also played an important partnering role, and to a
lesser degree salespeople and sales managers had an entrepre-
neurial role that consisted of spotting new market opportunities.
What skills do salespeople need to develop and
maintain a relationship? And, What actions can
be taken to strengthen an existing relationship
with a customer?
The interviewees had a great deal to say about how sales-
people formed relationships with customers. One area that
received unanimous support was the idea that you have to
regularly visit your customers. It was important here to find
out how to visit your customers, i.e., "Can you just turn up or
do you need to make an appointment?" While the interviewees
argued that it was necessary to visit key accounts at least
once a month, they also noted that it was crucial to make
regular visits, whether they were once a week, once a month
or once every three months. So, visits have to be a regular
part of the customer's calendar or business cycle.
211
Building and maintaining successful relationships also required
that the salesperson fmd out what the client wants and how much
intimacy the customer requires. There was no "one size fits all"
approach. The interviewees also noted that one needed to form
multiple relationships with people in the vendor's organization.
''You need to build the relationship with the com-
pany and not the person. Your initiation is with a
person, but that person has to sell to the company
and continue the long-term relationship, which in-
volves all aspects of the company, not just him. If I
brought a customer in to entertain, I would intro-
duce him to everybody, as it's all the people in the
company that will keep his business, not just me.
People will always move on, so you need to build the
commitment between the companies."
Apart from constant contact and understanding the customer's
needs, providing high levels of service, maintaining high con-
sistency, displaying integrity, practicing good selling techniques,
sharing product knowledge and helping the customer to sell the
product more successfully were seen as behaviors that main-
tained relationships. As one interviewee noted, "If you help the
customer sell your product and increase their profit, they will
see you and the relationship as an asset."
Salespeople also required a number of key traits or skills in
order to be successful. Those mentioned were honesty, people
skills, a good sense of humour, planning skills, experience in
selling, ability to make decisions, compassion and humility.
The sales managers also stated that they were too small to
train up sales staff in selling techniques, salespeople they
employed needed selling experience first and foremost. Knowl-
edge about the product could be provided by the company.
What actions can be taken to prevent the
loss of a key account?
The interviewees were keen to stress that they had never
lost a customer, although there had been a few close calls. 2 If
there was a problem, the response was to send in someone
senior in the company to deal with the customer's complaints.
Depending on the customer this other person may be the
sales manager, company manager or chairman. This tech-
nique was seen as very effective. It was argued that sending
in the CEO "sends the message that we're committed to them
and take the relationship seriously."
Understanding the customer's situation may also help avert
a lost account. One of the interviewees provided the following
example:
'We had a problem with a new customer and one of
our young sales reps. We sent the CEO in to meet the
customer. The customer was a new wine buyer for a
large supermarket chain. This was when supermar-
kets just started selling wine. The customer always
seemed very defensive, and it turned out that he didn't
know much about the wine trade. We invited him out
for lunch at our premises and just talked to him. We
found out that he liked Rugby League, so we talked to
him about that. Mter that there was no problem, he
relaxed and we understood that he was nervous about
a new position. This enabled us to move from a $20,000
per year account to a $150,000 account."
It was also noted that acknowledging the existence of a
problem is the first step to retaining a customer. Finally,
 212
Table 4
Frequency Information on Organizational Support for Salespeople
Question
How can an organization support salespeople?
Providing timely and accurate information
Providing promotional material
Educating customers
Greater say in strategy
Use selling teams
respondents indicated that a record of continual contact with
customers generally helps when dealing with a customer com-
plaint. As constant contact was viewed as the means by which
salespeople maintained relationships, those salespeople that
took the time to remain in contact with customers often found
that disgruntled customers would contact them personally
with their problem, rather than going elsewhere or discon-
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tinuing the relationship.
How can an organization support
salespeople? Do you use sales teams? If so,
why? If not, why not?
The summary information pertaining to organizational sup-
port received by salespeople is presented in Table 4. Provid-
ing salespeople with information on new product releases,
market research, a strong marketing campaign and brand,
training and support activities were seen as crucial support
activities for salespeople. These support activities may in-
volve inviting customers to functions where new products are
released, releasing a trade newsletter containing information
on current stock, new investments, and new releases. Run-
ning seminars to educate customers about new and existing
products was also seen as a key technique to support sales-
people in the field. Providing promotional material was an-
other way of increasing brand recognition and making it easier
for salespeople to sell products. It was also an effective means
of building a relationship with a customer.
A number of salespeople and all of the sales managers
argued that salespeople having a greater say in the strategy
of the firm would be of great assistance. In all the companies
surveyed, sales was formally part of the marketing depart-
ment. However, while the sales managers had input into
marketing strategy and salespeople were briefed on that strat-
egy, sales had no voice with executives at higher levels. There
was little evidence of formalized sales teams or rewards being
based upon a team effort, nor did salespeople or sales manag-
ers see teams as important. Salespeople were still rewarded
for individual performance although 70 percent of the sales-
people were compensated through salary plus performance
bonuses. This finding suggests that organizations were re-
warding salespeople for relationship building behaviors. Most
salespeople worked assigned customers and territories. Study
context may well have influenced the practices with regard to
teams. Although the companies were large by New Zealand
standards, the organizations still thought of themselves as
small and argued that they couldn't afford sales teams. The
approach they used was to have a more organic structure
whereby salespeople could call on a number of organizational
members to help them satisfy the demands of an account.
Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management
Salesperson Sales Manager
Frequency Frequency
46 9
42 9
30 9
29 9
18 3
This organic organization also tended to be reflected in the
organization's approach to salespeople.
Finally, the organizations all tried various ways such as social
functions, training sessions and educational programs to integrate
salespeople into the culture of the organization. All the cultures
were characterized by support for each other, therefore enabling a
more informal team structure to occur that would provide support
for salespeople in the field when they needed it.
Discussion
The results highlight some interesting changes that are
occurring in sales practice within New Zealand and provide
the basis for a number of research propositions to be the
subject of future research. First, respondents stated that cus-
tomers had high expectations of salespeople and organiza-
tions and that the relationships were more competitive and
demanding. Most respondents argued that customers required
salespeople to act as a partner in their business, although the
needs of the customer, the length of the relationship, and the
nature of the product or service on offer mediated this. The
respondents also noted a number of ways in which organiza-
tions can support their salespeople, although the idea of for-
mal sales teams found mixed support.
Two stages to Building a Relationship
The respondents recognized that in general they had to
become more concerned with ensuring that their customers
were successful, and that customers saw them as an asset, if
they were to maintain a successful relationship. However, the
view that the essence of selling practice involved only rela-
tionship building behaviors (Weitz and Bradford 1999) needs
modification. We believe that the findings show support for a
context dependent approach whereby successful relationship
selling requires salespeople to balance relationship-building
behaviors with performance-oriented behaviors. As such, we
believe relationship selling is an emergent strategy (Mintz berg
1994). In terms of relationship building behaviors, the re-
spondents argued in favour of a context dependent approach,
whereby it was important to understand what your customer
was after, as opposed to adopting a relational approach for all
customers. Salespeople then used a mixture of strategies to
build relationships with customers. These included constant
contact via face-to-face and electronic means, the provision of
product and new product information, after sales support,
and promotional support. A number of respondents noted
that the need for this support had not changed, suggesting
perhaps that the amount of support had increased, rather
than being part of a new approach to selling.
 Summer2001
However, the majority of respondents were also adamant
that firms and salespeople needed to perform first before a
relationship could be formed. A number of companies may be
reluctant to place responsibility for their success in the hands
of others (especially given the traditional "us and them" focus
in sales-customer relationships), and are therefore looking
for a number of short-term successes before they are willing
to invest in a relationship. This would suggest that the forma-
tion of relationships evolves in two stages. The first stage
involves the salesperson focusing primarily on short-term
performance based behaviors, such as meeting deadlines, per-
forming to requirements, and closing the deal. As the cus-
tomer becomes satisfied that they can trust the salesperson
and the organization, they may be prepared to invest further
in a relationship. This would see the relationship move to a
second stage whereby relationship behaviors come to the fore,
and salespeople are integrated more closely into the organi-
zation by becoming involved in directly assisting the cus-
tomer to become successful. At this time, the customer may
start developing exclusive relationships with a few firms.
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However, the type of customer the salesperson is dealing with
may influence this. For example, an intrinsic customer
(Rackham and DeVincentis 1998) may never desire a rela-
tionship with a firm, no matter how proficient they are in
performing to requirements.
This two stage approach is not meant to suggest that rela-
tionship building behaviors are not important in stage one, or
that performance issues are not important in stage two; it is
merely to suggest that the balance between the two behaviors
at either stage is different. For example, the respondents
suggested that knowledge of the customers business was al-
ways important; however, it may be that salespeople need to
conduct more up front research about the customer in stage
one (Evans et al. 2000) and then focus on tactical issues such
as how to approach the customer, whether to make an ap-
pointment, how many times the customer wants to be con-
tacted and so on. In the second stage, the provision of indus-
try and customer information may be a two directional pro-
cess, with salespeople providing customers information about
new trends and developments and customers being more will-
ing to let salespeople in on their future strategy. This ap-
proach supports the notion that successful selling involves
balancing performance and relationship based behaviors, but
suggests that the balance can change as the relationship
evolves over time, and that salespeople need to change their
approach to selling as the relationship evolves. This leads to
the following propositions.
P1: The successful practice of relationship selling
will require salespeople to balance long-term re-
lationship building behaviours (e.g., listening to
customers) with short-term performance based
behaviors (e.g., closing the deal).
P1a: The extent of this balance will be subject to the
context within which the salesperson acts (in-
dustry structure, task complexity, competitive
rivalry, and customers' context).
P2: The balance between performance based and re-
lational based behaviors will change as the du-
ration of the relationship between a salesperson
and customer increases.
P2a The nature of this balance will be subject to the
context within which the salesperson acts (in-
dustry structure, task complexity, competitive
rivalry, and customers' context).
213
Need for Selling Teams May Be Context
Dependent
A number of researchers state that the adoption of a rela-
tionship approach to selling would require changes in the
organization's support, structure, and in how the organiza-
tion rewards and manages their salesforce (Weitz and Bradford
1999; Rackham and DeVincentis 1998). This research sug-
gests that firms will need to change their approach to salesforce
management at a cultural and structural level (Evans et al
2000; Weilbaker and Weeks 1997; Cravens 1995), and may
result in the blurring of traditional functional lines between
sales and marketing (Anderson 1996; Brooksbank 1995).
Rather, sales needed to be seen as an integral part of the
organization and involved at the strategic level of decision
making as well as being integrated into the firm's culture
(Johlke et al. 2000; Jackson and Tax 1995; Rackham and
DeVincentis 1998). A number of authors have highlighted the
importance of organizational support for salespeople when utiliz-
ing a relationship marketing strategy, including organizing their
salesforce by customers, and the use of sales teams (Luthy 2000;
Weitz and Bradford 1999; Piercy, Cravens and Morgan 1998).
While the data suggest support for these claims, once again
it would appear to be context dependent. Firstly, although
the companies are large by New Zealand standards, they are
also geographically and functionally diverse, with salespeople
being spread across the country and different units. This
means that there may not be enough salespeople in any one
area to form a formal sales team. Secondly, task complexity
and industry factors also played a role. In the one industry
where selling teams were used-pharmaceuticals-the sheer
complexity of customer demands meant that formal selling
teams were a necessity. In other firms, although the nature of
the customer's demands may have required formal teams, the
nature of the selling organization meant that teams needed
to be provided on a more flexible or virtual basis. Typically,
with key relationships, salespeople would be involved on a
day-to-day basis with the customer; however, a senior mem-
ber of the company would be involved in the formation of a
relationship and if something went wrong. Companies also
attempted to form multiple relationships with customers, as
they believed that the customer needed to know each person
in the firm who was working on their account. This also had
the added benefit of tying the customer closer to the firm, as
opposed to the salesperson alone (and suggests that loyalty to
the firm may be easier to attain in a business-to-business
setting than in retail [Macintosh and Lockshin 1997]).
However, the respondents also generally worked within
functional units, as well as working across functional lines.
This could be due to the culture of each organization (al-
though this was not studied directly), or it could be a deliber-
ate strategy on behalf of each company. The fact that most
sales managers desired more say in the firm's overall strat-
egy would suggest that sales was not fully integrated with
other units, although there was generally a close relationship
between sales and marketing. We would argue that if the
organization views sales as their "face and eyes" in the mar-
ketplace, then greater integration of sales within the com-
pany may help in information transfer between knowledge
rich salespeople and the rest of the firm. The ability of sales-
people to call on a range of people vertically and horizontally
within the firm to help them build and maintain a relation-
ship suggests that the response to increased customer de-
mands and complexity is to blend flatter structures with an
 214
open culture. This may also help the firm increase its ability
to respond to changes in the marketplace and act in a more
entrepreneurial manner (Morris, Avila and Teeple 1990).
However, changes to a flat team based structure may lead
to problems of coordination and control. In a recent qualita-
tive study of customer-focused organizations, Homburg, Work-
man and Jensen (2000) found that while many marketing
activities were carried out in cross-functional process teams,
functional units for marketing and sales activities were not
abandoned altogether. They noted that salespeople needed to
work with a number of functions across an organization if
they were to develop successful long-term relationships with
clients, but also needed to be located in functional units if
they were to meet customers delivery and performance re-
quirements. This may help explain the continued use of func-
tional sales departments in the organizations studied.
Conclusion
The adoption of relationship selling involves consideration
of a number of tactical and organizational issues. Salespeople
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will need to consider the context within which they sell, rec-
ognizing that a uniform approach to relationship selling may
be unwanted and ineffective. They will also need to recognize
that their approach to selling may change as a relationship
with a customer evolves over time, with the emphasis shifting
from short term performance oriented behaviors to long term
relationship building behaviors. This may require different
methods of motivation and reward and different skills and
will therefore have an effect on the management of sales-
people. The ability to build and maintain relationships also
involves changes to the structure and culture of an organiza-
tion and specifically involves integrating the sales function
further into the organization, including at the strategic level.
In small and medium size organizations, where teams may be
inappropriate, salespeople need to feel that they can call on
all members of the organization to help improve their rela-
tionship with the customer. In larger organizations, sales
teams may be more appropriate, but this may be driven by
the nature of the task and the industry.
The findings suggest several areas for further research.
The need to balance relationship enhancing and performance
enhancing behaviors, flatter structures and functional units,
individualistic and team based cultures suggests that the
operation of a relationship selling strategy is a complex one.
Further investigation into whether relationships move through
the proposed two-stage cycle is required with a focus on
whether the emphasis of and skills needed by salespeople in
each stage changes. Whether or not relationships move
through a two-stage process, as proposed here, the issue of
the evolution of salespeople-customer relationships needs fur-
ther attention (as do the dimensions of those evolving rela-
tionships). The organizational and cultural dimensions of re-
lationship selling also require further investigation, as do the
issues relating to the tactical operation of the relational ap-
proach. Finally, relationship selling should be seen as one
possible mode of selling as opposed to a new selling paradigm.
The respondents here utilized a number of successful selling
practices from past years, as well as adopting newer relation-
ship oriented behaviors, both of which were noted to be neces-
sary for developing a successful long term selling strategy.
Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management
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Endnotes
1
In this context friendship is akin to personal or professional respect
rather than a personal friendship.
2 It is possible that these companies had lost customers, although
most of the participant firms were in growth industries and often
had to turn customers away. However, future research should
examine the vendor's customers. We sought customer lists from the
participant firms for this purpose but were denied due to privacy
concerns.