Study One determined that buyers are more interested in the task, rather than
the social, aspects of the buyer-seller relationship. They prefer sellers who are
trustworthy, composed, and task-oriented. Study Two showed that sellers are
well aware of buyer's preferences for task related interaction, but they may
slightly overestimate the value of social interaction. Four complex communica
tor style profiles were obtained through cluster analysis. Buyer preferences did
not vary across Communicator style profiles, which suggests that adaptive
selling advice may be misguided. However, for buyers, the profiles revealed that
Apprehensive, Social, or Competitive sellers may need more communication
skill training than Cooperative sellers.
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