Relationship Management: a sales role, or a state of mind? An investigation offunctions and attitudes across a business-to-business sales force

摘要

Commentators suggest that the business-to-business sales role is changing andevolving into relationship management. Previous research indicates that arelationship management role is very different from ‘traditional' sales, andthat it may require a different attitude on the part of the relationshipmanager. This research explores attitudes towards various aspects ofrelationship management across an entire international business-to-businesssales force in a service industry context. We find that attitudes towardsrelationship management do not in fact align with job role. A cluster analysisreveals three attitudinal types of sales person: Self-Directed; Team Leaders;and Strategic Sellers. Our findings suggest that some individuals may haveattitudes that are inappropriate to their roles, and that attitudes should betaken into account when selecting relationship manager