2011/03/01 by Christian Homburg, Michael Müller, Martin Klarmann · 301 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Social Sciences · #Advertising #Business #Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification #Customer Service Quality and Loyalty #Customer advocacy #Customer delight #Customer orientation #Customer retention #Customer to customer #Digital Marketing and Social Media #Market orientation #Marketing #Sales management #Service (business) #Service quality
paper · doi:10.1509/jm.75.2.55
published in Journal of Marketing 75(2), 55-74 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2011/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
In today's age of relational selling, a key challenge for salespeople is to determine the degree to which their customer-oriented behaviors drive sales performance. Therefore, this study analyzes whether a salesperson's customer orientation in sales encounters has an optimum level with regard to sales performance and customer attitudes. Using triadic data from a cross-industry survey of 56 sales managers, 195 sales representatives, and 538 customers, the authors provide strong empirical support for a curvilinear, inverted U-shaped effect of a salesperson's customer orientation on sales performance, whereas the effect of customer orientation on customer attitudes is continuously positive. Moreover, the findings reveal that the optimum level of customer orientation with regard to sales performance is higher for salespeople selling individualized products, in firms pursuing a premium price strategy, and in markets with a high degree of competitive intensity.