Consumers' Thinking Too Much Spells Loss For Salespeople

11-4-97
University Park, Pa. -- The average consumer's habit of thinking too much about the product during a sales pitch results in lost sales for salespeople, according to marketing researchers from Penn State and the University of Arkansas.

"Many consumers, while interacting with salespeople, are like actors who become too focused on their own lines in a play," says Subramanian Sivaramakrishnan, who earned his Ph.D. from Penn State's Smeal College of Business Administration and now teaches at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

"Consumers often hold negative stereotypes of salespeople, and therefore expect them to be pushy and dishonest. Thus, when targeted by a sales pitch, they aren't listening to the other actor -- the salesperson -- they're thinking of diagnostic questions to ask, or something intelligent to say."

This lack of attention to the salesperson's behavior commonly results in the consumer transferring even a minor dislike of him or her to an otherwise fine product.

Sivaramakrishnan simulated consumer/salesperson interactions for several studies as a graduate student in marketing with Harish Sujan, associate professor of marketing. Sujan has researched salesperson motivation and consumer reactions to salespeople's behavior for nearly 15 years.

Poor consumer decisions and unnecessary search time resulting from bad first impressions of salespeople are more important than might be immediately obvious, the researchers say. The potential magnitude of the problem is clearer in light of the fact that in the United States, more money is spent on personal selling than on either advertising or sales promotions.

In one of Sivaramakrishnan's and Sujan's studies, test subjects watched a slide show with accompanying audio of an average-looking car salesperson quite helpfully showing a used car to a customer-the viewers, in this case.

Some of the subjects were asked to form an impression of the salesperson and indicate their intention to purchase the car. The other subjects were also asked to think of some questions to ask the salesperson.

On a seven-point scale, the latter group listeners, who were relatively passive, rated the salesperson an average of 6.1 compared to 5.0 from the relatively mentally active listeners. The passive listeners rated their likelihood of purchase at 5.2, which was significantly higher than the 3.3 rating from the active listeners.

This shows that consumers who listen actively, with a questioning mind-set, are unable to correct their first impressions of salespeople. Thus, active listening causes first impressions to last. Listening with the goal of forming an impression of salespeople is not harmful.

"The other side of the equation is that salespeople's failure to communicate their sincerity and concern for the customer can frustrate them, causing turnover from the profession or anti-social behavior that fulfills their customers' prophecy," Sujan notes.

But consumers' errors of judgment about salespeople, and the products they tout, can be avoided by undertaking one element of the task at a time, according to Sivaramakrishnan.

"Consumers should give themselves ample time to form impressions and then, if they feel the need to, focus on the task of validating these impressions," he advises.

Adds Sujan, "Even if the reduction in poor judgments is small, it could make a sizable difference in both the performance and personal happiness of salespeople."

The researchers are planning further studies of the issue.

**gwc**

EDITORS: Dr. Sivaramakrishnan is at (870) 543-8334. Dr. Sujan is at (814) 863-3795 or hs8@psu.edu by e-mail.

Contacts: Charles C. DuBois (814) 863-3798 ccd@psu.edu