رفتارهای اجتماعی در فروش بنگاه به بنگاه: مطالعه اکتشافی از جمهوری ایرلند

For many salespeople in business-to-business industries, client entertainment is an integral part of their daily duties. Despite this anecdotal knowledge, few studies have so far attempted to examine the potential benefits and drawbacks of socializing with clients in a systematic manner. Presenting the results of a qualitative investigation, this paper shows that when approached strategically, socializing with clients can have positive effects on both the exchange as well as the relational aspects of the buyer–seller interaction. In particular, results indicate that some elements of a close buyer–seller relationship are formed as a result of the holistic experience with the other person and may only be established through interaction outside the office environment. The paper thus proposes that socializing strategies represent a unique tool in a salesperson's relationship selling toolkit—a tool that warrants increased attention in both sales practice and research.

In the last two decades, much effort has been devoted to the issue of relationship selling (Dubinsky, Chonko, Jones, & Roberts, 2003). One of the main findings in this stream of research is that in long-term buyer–seller relationships, economic exchange is complemented and often enhanced by social exchange (Dwyer, Schurr, & Oh, 1987). Surprisingly, despite the contention that social bonds are vital for a continuing and mutually beneficial buyer–seller relationship, few studies have shown how salespeople establish such bonds with their buyers (Claycomb & Martin, 2002). If part of a salesperson's skill set is to know how to initiate and nurture a strong relationship with a client (Rich & Smith, 2000), the sales literature should analyze what successful relationship sellers do with their clients in a social context and describe these activities in a manner that proves useful to sales practice and research. This paper examines how successful salespeople in business-to-business selling use the social event to initiate, enhance and maintain a friendly and fruitful buyer relationship. It extends a concept formulated over 30 years ago, namely how salespeople ‘cultivate’ their client relationships through social interaction (Bigus, 1972). While sales research in the intervening years has referred to the positive effects of social bonding on the development and maintenance of buyer–seller relationships (Crosby et al., 1990, Jacobs et al., 2001 and Jap et al., 1999), it has failed to address such specific questions as the range of appropriate socializing behaviors, the mechanics of client social interaction, and the impact of such interaction on both relationship and sales outcomes. Presenting the results of a qualitative investigation of industrial salespeople involved in long-term buyer–seller relationships, this study elaborates on the inner workings of socializing behaviors and proposes a framework to assess both relational and sales outcomes of such behaviors. The article concludes by offering recommendations on how sales management can encourage staff to engage in productive cultivating activities with their clients.

This study represents an initial foray into an area that has been virtually overlooked in the academic literature: the effects of client entertainment. Specifically, it has shown that ‘cultivating strategies’, that is, social activities aimed predominantly at furthering the client relationship, may be highly beneficial in realizing some of the theoretical dividends of relationship selling, namely personal knowledge, understanding, friendship and non-economic satisfaction. Future research should build on the taxonomies and insights presented here and investigate the extent to which different cultivating activities—golf outings, invitations to watch sports matches, dinners, travel, etc.—can be and are used to achieve specific relational goals. Such research may also be able to quantify cost–benefit ratios of client entertainment both in selling and relational terms.