In this paper we invesigate a common locus of consumer decision-making in buyer-seller interactions—customer non-acceptances to a proposed sale and the verbal negotiations that often ensue. The research is based on a study of recordings of real-life telephone-selling calls. In this study the prospective customers often raised their nonacceptances implicitly, and salespeople and prospective customers tended, at first, to negotiate these non-acceptances in veiled, indirect and delicate ways. Explicit objections and rejections appeared to be less important and consequential than is usually appreciated. This type of sales negotiation is contrasted with the way difficulties are raised and resolved within conversational interaction. Also we briefly compare our findings with the advice given by sales trainers and address the implications of this type of research for our understanding of the role and influence of communicative skill on selling activity.
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