Salesperson effectiveness in customer interaction is evaluated from a script-theoretic perspective. Differences in salesperson performance are traced to differences in knowledge of the actions and events across and within sales situations and the salesperson's ability to abstract from relevant previous experience. Results of two experiments conducted in an insurance context indicate that, as hypothesized, high effective salespeople provided more elaborate, distinctive, contingent, and hypothetical scripts than low effective salespeople. Moreover, these effects were accentuated in less typical sales situations, as suggested by results in the homeowner's insurance but not the life insurance experiment. Theoretical, methodological, and managerial implications of the findings are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AbbottValerie, JohnB. Black, and EdwardE. Smith (1985), “The Representation of Scripts in Memory,” Journal of Memory and Language, 24 (April), 179–99.
2.
AbelsonRobert P. (1981), “Psychological Status of the Script Concept,” American Psychologist, 36 (July), 715–29.
3.
AdelsonBeth (1981), “Problem Solving and the Development of Abstract Categories in Programming Languages,” Memory and Cognition, 9 (July), 422–33.
4.
AlbaJoseph W. and HutchinsonJ. Wesley (1987), “Dimensions of Consumer Expertise,” Journal of Consumer Research, 13 (March), 411–54.
5.
AndersonRonald T. (1980), Agents’ Legal Responsibility. Cincinnati, OH: National Underwriter Company.
6.
AshcraftMark H. (1978), “Property Norms for Typical and Atypical Items from 17 Categories: A Description and Discussion,” Memory and Cognition, 6 (3), 227–32.
7.
BarsalouLawrence W. (1985), “Ideals, Central Tendency, and Frequency of Instantiation as Determinants of Graded Structure in Categories,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 11 (October), 629–49.
8.
BelthJoseph O. (1973), Life Insurance: A Consumer's Handbook. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
9.
BlackJohn B., JamesA. Galambos, and ReadStephen J. (1984), “Comprehending Stories and Social Situations,” in Handbook of Social Cognition, Vol. 3, WyerR. S. and SrullT. K., eds. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 45–86.
10.
BowerGordon H., JohnB. Black, and TurnerTerrence J. (1979), “Scripts in Memory for Text,” Cognitive Psychology, 11 (April), 177–220.
11.
BurridgeJohn C. (1985), “Review and Preview,” Best's Review: Property/Casuality Insurance Edition, 85 (January), 16–18, 76–83.
12.
CantorNancy, WalterMischel, and JudithC. Schwartz (1982), “A Prototype Analysis of Psychological Situations,” Cognitive Psychology, 14 (January), 45–77.
13.
ChurchillGilbert A.Jr., FordNeil M., HartleySteven W., and OrvilleC. WalkerJr. (1985), “The Determinants of Salesperson Performance: A Meta Analysis,” Journal of Marketing Research, 22 (May), 103–18.
14.
ChurchillGilbert A.Jr., FordNeil M., HartleySteven W., and OrvilleC. WalkerJr., and WalkerOrville C.Jr. (1985), Sales Force Management, 2nd ed. Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin, Inc.
15.
DwyerF. R., SchurrPaul H., and SejoOh (1987), “Developing Buyer-Seller Relationships,” Journal of Marketing, 51 (April), 11–27.
16.
GioiaDennis A. and PeterP. Poole (1984), “Scripts in Organizational Behavior,” Academy of Management Review, 9 (3), 449–59.
17.
HornRonald C. (1978), On Professions, Professionals, and Professional Ethics. Malvern, PA: American Institute for Property and Liability Underwriters, Inc.
18.
JohnDeborah Roedder (1985), “The Development of Knowledge Structures in Children,” in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 12, HirschmanE. C. and HolbrookM. B., eds. Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 329–33.
19.
JohnDeborah Roedder and JohnC. WhitneyJr. (1986), “The Development of Consumer Knowledge in Children: A Cognitive Structure Approach,” Journal of Consumer Research, 12 (March), 406–17.
20.
Johnston-O'ConnorElizabeth J., RobertJ. O'Connor, and WalterH. Zultowski (1984), “The Personal Selling Process in the Life Insurance Industry,” in Personal Selling: Theory, Research, and Practice, JacobJacoby and CraigC. Samuel, eds. Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath and Company, 205–22.
21.
KassarjianHarold H. (1977), “Content Analysis in Consumer Research,” Journal of Consumer Research, 3 (June), 8–18.
22.
LarkinJill H. (1981), “Enriching Formal Knowledge: A Model for Learning to Solve Textbook Physics Problems,” in Cognitive Skills and Their Acquisition, AndersonJ. R., ed. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 311–34.
23.
LaTourStephen A. and PaulW. Miniard (1983), “The Misuse of Repeated Measures Analysis in Marketing Research,” Journal of Marketing Research, 20 (February), 45–57.
24.
LeighThomas W. (1987), “Cognitive Selling Scripts and Sales Training,” Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 1 (August), 39–48.
25.
LeighThomas W. and ArnoJ. Rethans (1983), “Experiences with Script Elicitation Within Consumer Decision Making Contexts,” in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 10, BagozziR. P. and TyboutA. M., eds. Ann Arbor, MI: Association for Consumer Research, 667–72.
26.
LeighThomas W. and ArnoJ. Rethans (1984a), “A Script-Theoretic Analysis of Industrial Purchasing Behavior,” Journal of Marketing, 48 (Fall), 22–32.
27.
LeighThomas W. and ArnoJ. Rethans (1984b), “Consumer Scripts for Insurance Salesperson Behaviors in Sales Encounters,” in Personal Selling: Theory, Research, and Practice, JacobJacoby and CraigC. Samuel, eds. Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath and Company, 223–36.
28.
Life Insurance Fact Book (1984). Washington, DC: American Council of Life Insurance.
29.
MandlerJean M. (1983), “Representation,” in Handbook of Child Psychology, Vol. 3, PaulHenry Mussen, ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 440–94.
30.
MandlerJean M. and CathleenM. Murphy (1983), “Subjective Judgements of Script Structure,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 9 (July), 534–43.
31.
MartinJoanne, WendyHarrod, and CarenSiehl (1980), “The Development of Knowledge Structures,” Research Paper No. 557, Stanford University.
32.
MervisCarolyn B. and JohnR. Pani (1980), “Acquisition of Basic Object Categories,” Cognitive Psychology, 12 (October), 496–522.
33.
MervisCarolyn B. and JohnR. Pani and EleanorRosch (1981), “Categorization of Natural Objects,” Annual Review of Psychology, 32, 89–115.
34.
NelsonKatherine (1981), “Social Cognition in a Script Framework,” in Social Cognitive Development, RossL. and FlavellJ., eds. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 97–118.
35.
NewellAllan and HerbertA. Simon (1972), Human Problem Solving. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
36.
O'BrienRalph G. and MaryKister Kaiser (1985), “MANOVA Method for Analyzing Repeated Measures Designs: An Extensive Primer,” Psychological Bulletin, 97 (March), 316–33.
37.
RittenburgTerri L. and RobertA. Mittelstaedt (1985), “Validation of the Serial Ordering of a Sales Encounter Script,” in AMA Educators’ Proceedings, Series 51, LuschR. F. et al., eds. Chicago: American Marketing Association, 16–20.
38.
RoschEleanor, MervisCarolyn B., WayneD. Gray, DeniseM. Johnson, and PennyBoyes-Braem (1976), “Basic Objects in Natural Categories,” Cognitive Psychology, 8 (July), 382–439.
39.
RoschEleanor, MervisCarolyn B., WayneD. Gray, DeniseM. Johnson, and PennyBoyes-Braem, SimpsonCarol, and MillerR. Scott (1976), “Structural Bases of Typicality Effects,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 2 (4), 491–502.
40.
SalernoSteve (1985), The New Salesmanship: The Newest Profession. New York: William Morrow & Co.
41.
Sales and Marketing Management (1987), “Survey of Selling Costs,” 137 (February), 31–5.
42.
SchankRoger C. and RobertP. Abelson (1977), Scripts, Plans, Goals, and Understanding: An Inquiry into Human Knowledge Structures. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
43.
SmithRuth Ann and MichaelJ. Houston (1985), “A Psychometric Assessment of Measures of Scripts in Consumer Memory,” Journal of Consumer Research, 12 (September), 214–24.
44.
SujanHarish, MitaSujan, and JamesR. Bettman (1988), “Knowledge Structure Differences Between More Effective and Less Effective Salespeople,” Journal of Marketing Research, 25 (February), 81–6.
45.
SzymanskiDavid M. (1988), “Determinants of Selling Effectiveness: The Importance of Declarative Knowledge to the Personal Selling Concept,” Journal of Marketing, 52 (January), 64–77.
46.
TverskyBarbara and KathleenHemenway (1983), “Categories of Environmental Scenes,” Cognitive Psychology, 15 (January), 121–49.
47.
WeitzBarton A. (1978), “The Relationship Between Salesperson Performance and Understanding of Customer Decision Making,” Journal of Marketing Research, 15 (November), 501–16.
48.
WeitzBarton A. (1981), “Effectiveness of Sales Interactions: A Contingency Framework,” Journal of Marketing, 45 (Winter), 85–103.
49.
WeitzBarton A., SujanHarish, and SujanMita (1986), “Knowledge, Motivation, and Adaptive Behavior: A Framework for Improving Selling Effectiveness,” Journal of Marketing, 50 (October), 174–91.
