Abstract
This research investigates the impact of selling strategies on selling effectiveness. The authors compare two selling strategies: (1) an agenda strategy, in which a salesperson attempts to influence the structure of the buyer’s decision by suggesting constraints that eliminate competitive products from consideration, and (2) a more typical selling strategy that summarizes the target product’s benefits. The results show that when sellers use an agenda selling strategy, target products receive higher evaluations and have higher probabilities of being considered and chosen. Buyer expertise moderates this effect, with the agenda strategy in most cases having more impact on novice buyers than on expert buyers. These findings demonstrate the importance of selling strategy to selling effectiveness, suggest the potential benefit for sellers of using selling strategies that attempt to influence the structure of the buyer’s decision, and provide support for the contingent nature of selling effectiveness.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alba, Joseph W. and J. Wesley Hutchinson. 1987. “Dimensions of Consumer Expertise.”Journal of Consumer Research 13 (March): 411–454.
Anderson, Rolph E., Joseph F. Hair, Jr., and Alan J. Bush. 1999.Professional Sales Management. Houston, TX: DAME.
Andrews, Rick L. and Ajau K. Manrai. 1998. “Simulation Experiments in Choice Simplification: The Effects of Task and Context on Forecasting Performance.”Journal of Marketing Research 35 (May): 198–209.
Bagozzi, Richard P. and Youjae Yi. 1991. “Multitrait-Multimethod Matrices in Consumer Research.”Journal of Consumer Research 17 (March): 426–439.
Bettman, James R. 1979.An Information Processing Theory of Consumer Choice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
—, Mary Frances Luce, and John W. Payne. 1998. “Constructive Consumer Choice Processes.”Journal of Consumer Research 25 (December): 187–217.
Brucks, Merrie. 1985. “The Effects of Product Class Knowledge on Information Search Behavior.”Journal of Consumer Research 12 (June): 1–16.
Chu, Wujin, Eitan Gerstner, and James D. Hess. 1995. “Costs and Benefits of Hard-Sell.”Journal of Marketing Research 35 (May): 198–209.
Churchill, Gilbert A., Jr. 1979. “A Paradigm for Developing Better Measures of Marketing Constructs.”Journal of Marketing Research 16 (February): 64–73.
Crow, Lowell E., Richard W. Olshavsky, and John O. Summers. 1980. “Industrial Buyer’s Choice Strategies: A Protocol Analysis.”Journal of Marketing Research 17 (February): 34–44.
Dalrymple, Douglas J. and William L. Cron. 1995.Sales Management: Concepts and Cases. New York: John Wiley.
Donoho, Casey L. and Michael J. Swenson. 1996. “Top-Down Versus Bottom-Up Sales Tactics Effects on the Presentation of a Product Line.”Journal of Business Research 37 (September): 51–61.
Forrester, William R. and William B. Locander. 1989. “Effects of Sales Presentation Topic on Cognitive Responses of Industrial Buying Groups.”Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 17 (Fall): 305–313.
Futrell, Charles M. 1998Sales Management. Fort Worth, TX: Dryden.
— 1999.Fundamentals of Selling. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Glazer, Rashi, Barbara E. Kahn, and William L. Moore. 1991. “The Influence of External Constraints on Brand Choice: The Lone-Alternative Effect.”Journal of Consumer Research 18 (June): 119–127.
Hauser, John R. 1986. “Agendas and Consumer Choice.”Journal of Marketing Research 23 (August): 199–212.
Hauser, John R. and Birger Wernerfelt. 1990. “An Evaluation Cost Model of Consideration Sets.”Journal of Consumer Research 16 (March): 393–408.
Hawes, Jon M., James T. Strong, and Bernard S. Winick. 1996. “Do Closing Techniques Diminish Prospect Trust?”Industrial Marketing Management 25 (September): 349–360.
Hinkelmann, Klaus and Oscar Kempthorne. 1994.Design and Analysis of Experiments: Introduction to Experimental Design. New York: John Wiley.
Hunt, Kenneth A. and R. Edward Bashaw. 1990. “Using Buyer’s Information Processing to Formulate Selling Strategies.”Industrial Marketing Management 28 (January): 99–107.
Jackson, Ralph W. and Robert D. Hisrich. 1996.Sales and Sales Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Johnson, Eric J. and J. Edward Russo. 1984. “Product Familiarity and Learning New Information.”Journal of Consumer Research 21 (June): 542–550.
Jolson, Marvin A. 1975. “The Underestimated Potential of the Canned Sales Presentation.”Journal of Marketing 39 (January): 75–78.
Kahn, Barbara, William L. Moore, and Rashi Glazer 1987. “Experiments in Constrained Choice.”Journal of Consumer Research 14 (June): 96–113.
Levine, M. E. and C. R. Plott. 1977. “Agenda Influence and Its Implications.”Virginia Law Review 63:561–604.
Milliman, Ronald E. and Douglas L. Fugate. 1988. “Using Trust-Transference as a Persuasion Technique: An Empirical Investigation.”Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management 8 (August): 1–7.
Moon, Youngme. 2000. “Intimate Exchanges: Using Computers to Elicit Self-Disclosure From Consumers.”Journal of Consumer Research 26 (March): 323–339.
Mort, Terry A. 1977.Systematic Selling: How to Influence the Buying Decision Process. New York: AMACOM.
Nass, Clifford I., Youngme Moon, B. J. Fogg, Byron Reeves, and D. Christopher Dryer. 1995. “Can Computer Personalities Be Human Personalities?”International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 43: 223–239.
Patton, W. E. III. 1996. “Use of Human Judgment Models in Industrial Buyers’ Vendor Selection Decisions”Industrial Marketing Management 25:135–149.
Peacock, Peter and Harry L. Davis. 1970. “The Alphabet as an Independent Variable.”Journal of Business 43 (April): 205–209.
Perkins, W. Steven and Ram C. Rao. 1990. “The Role of Experience in Information Use and Decision Making by Marketing Managers.”Journal of Marketing Research 27 (February): 1–10.
Rao, Akshay R. and Kent B. Monroe. 1988. “The Moderating Effect of Prior Knowledge on Cue Utilization.”Journal of Consumer Research 15 (September): 253–264.
Robinson, Patrick J., Charles W. Faris and Yoran Wind. 1967.Industrial Buying and Creative Marketing. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Rosenthal, Robert and Ralph L. Rosnow. 1985.Contrast Analysis: Focused Comparisons in the Analysis of Variance. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Ross, William T. and Elizabeth H. Creyer. 1993. “Interpreting Interactions: Raw Means or Residual Means?”Journal of Consumer Research 20 (September): 330–338.
Sawtooth Software. 1991.Ci3 System, Version 1.0. Ketchum, ID: Sawtooth Software.
Shanteau, James. 1992. “How Much Information Does an Expert Use? Is It Relevant?”Acta Psychologica 81:75–86.
Spence, Mark T. and Merrie Brucks. 1997. “The Moderating Effects of Problem Characteristics on Experts’ and Novices’ Judgements.”Journal of Marketing Research 34 (May): 233–247.
Tversky, Amos. 1972. “Elimination by Aspects: A Theory of Choice.”Psychological Review 79 (4): 281–299.
Weitz, Barton A. 1978. “Relationship Between Salesperson Performance and Understanding of Customer Decision Making.”Journal of Marketing Research 15 (November): 501–516.
— 1981. “Effectiveness in Sales Interactions: A Contingency Framework.”Journal of Marketing 45 (Winter): 85–103.
—, Harish Sujan, and Mita Sujan. 1986. “Knowledge, Motivation, and Adaptive Behavior: A Framework for Improving Selling Effectiveness.”Journal of Marketing 50 (October): 174–191.
Wright, Peter L. and Frederick Barbour. 1975. “The Relevance of Decision Process Models in Structuring Persuasive Messages.”Communication Research 2 (July): 246–259.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Judy A. Wagner (Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) is currently an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Texas at Arlington. Her primary research interests are personal selling strategies, sales management, and buyer decision making. Her research has been published inAdvances in Consumer Research and the proceedings of the American Marketing Association and is forthcoming in theJournal of Business Research.
Noreen M. Klein (Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University) is currently an associate professor of marketing at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Her research interests include consumer decision making and the behavioral aspects of pricing, and her research has been published in theJournal of Consumer Research andOrganizational Behavior and Human Decision Making.
Janet E. Keith (Ph.D., Arizona State University) is currently an associate professor of marketing at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Her research interests lie in behavioral issues in channels of distribution and in sales and sales management. Her studies have been published in journals such as theJournal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, andJournal of Marketing Channels.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wagner, J.A., Klein, N.M. & Keith, J.E. Selling strategies: The effects of suggesting a decision structure to novice and expert buyers. JAMS 29, 289–306 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02890786
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02890786