An exploratory study to investigate the interpersonal listening behaviour in personal sales context, its impact on the customer's perception and outcomes

Authors argue that the perception of salespersons about their interpersonal listening ability is important but the perspective of the listened-to is equally important for an assessment of the competence. As the traditional studies on listening in sales refer to either self or buyer's evaluation, we propose to investigate their validity. We also argue that the traditional scales to measure listening behaviour proposed by Castleberry and Ramsey and Sohi in 1997 may produce diverse results when used in a different setting and on a different population. The findings suggest a gap in the self-perceived listening abilities of the salesperson with that of the buyers' evaluation. Further, the results display a positive link between the salesperson's listening and the trust and satisfaction developed throughout sales interactions but contrary to past studies, it does not necessarily lead to the possibility of future interaction. The discussion focuses on directions for future research using this scale and the need to develop additional measures that tap components of listening in sales.