Adaptive Selling

Hausarbeit zum Thema

„Adaptive Selling“

Table of Contents List of figures III Relevance of adaptive selling for marketing 1
1 Central concepts in the context of adaptive selling 3
2 Analysis of the research progress regarding adaptive selling 5 Bibliography 16

List of figures

Fig. 1: Conceptual framework of Román and Iacobucci……………………………………7

Relevance of adaptive selling for marketing

Since the 1970s, researchers are trying to understand the various determinants, antecedents and consequences of adaptive selling. It all began with the perception of personal selling as a dyadic sales process (Spiro 1976). This process is determined by a continuous reflection and consideration of the progress achieved so far. Based on these insights, a salesman is able to adjust his presentation to the specific needs and expectations expressed by the customer during and across conversations (Weitz 1978). Thus, adaptive selling can be defined, in a first approach, as a seller´s strategy for moderating and governing a personal sales conversation with a potential buyer.
Compared to other marketing communication vehicles such as mass media, personal selling requires considerably more human resources. For this reason, personal selling is a particularly expensive way to enhance sales performance (Stanton 1984, Román and Martín 2008). However, it is seen as the only way to immediately fit a marketing message to a specific situation and to the expectations of the individual customer. This flexibility to alter the own sales approach during the selling process by far surpasses the flexibility of common marketing methods. In comparison to personal selling, the restructuring of most standard marketing methods usually involves significant costs and takes considerably more time. In addition, personal selling appears more convincing to potential buyers due to its personal element and thereby influences customers more effectively than other

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