Industrial Buyers’ Assessments of Sales Behaviors

A number of surveys and much anecdotal material exist regarding what purchasing professionals prefer in sales presentations. This study provides new insights by examining what kinds of salesperson behaviors actually are preferred by buyers in terms of the people they choose to do business with. From an information perspective, sales behaviors can be divided into three basic types, those that get information, those that use that information, and those that give information. The data suggests that a salesperson’s ability to use the information gathered is most important to purchasing agents followed by their ability to get that information and lastly the giving of information. These findings have very specific implications for the training and development of salespeople and show the importance of adaptive behaviors in business-to-business selling.