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What are the critical traits and behaviors that a salesperson should exhibit in his/her interrelationships with various customer groups? According to an interview reported in Sales and Marketing Management magazine, buyers seek salespeople who "exude integrity" (honest and trustworthy), who know their product, applications and industry (something of an expert), who listen and custom design a solution, conduct follow-up activities in a timely fashion, work for the benefit of both the buying and selling organizations, and who are excellent communicators (Kaydo 2000). Kaydo further contends that the common mistakes salespeople make include: not being knowledgeable of their product, failing to evaluate and understand the company with which they are dealing, focusing only on price, not following through on commitments, not making appointments, not having an agenda, and not working to fit into the consuming firm's priorities. Based on the anecdotal evidence reported, it would seem that the key qualitites of a "good" salesperson are: honesty, knowledge, ability to adapt to the customer's situation, being dependable, allowing and encouraging customer input, and providing true solutions. As Garver and Mentzer (2000) point out, in the area of business logistics, the sales "interface is becoming increasingly important." Thus, it would seem that a listing of the traits and behaviors that are desired by buyers could be important for numerous reasons. First, one could reasonably assume that salespeople who possess the traits/behaviors most desired by their buyers would also be the ones with whom buyers prefer to work and interact. It could then be argued that this preference should result in more sales, higher profits, greater customer satisfaction, etc. Based on this premise, an identification of traits/behaviors of salespeople could also be valuable to firms as they engage in the selection process. For example, if product knowledge is identified as one of the buyer's most critical factors, then selection decisions may be predicated upon the applicant's ability and/or skills in understanding the product. Third, the listing of critical skills may also be useful in the development of sales training and development programs. If, as stated previously (Kaydo 2000), the ability to custom design a solution is a critical behavior, then firms should train their sales forces in developing custom designed solutions. Finally, the development of a list of key skills/traits of salespeople may also be useful in the development of performance appraisal programs. It would seem logical that salespeople be evaluated on criteria that are critical to their buyers. Using this logic, one might argue that salespeople should be assessed on their ability to communicate solutions to their buyers. However, while the information provided from interviews such as the one from Sales and Marketing Management (Kaydo 2000) is insightful, valuable, and may be useful in the selection, training, and evaluating of salespeople, it should be recognized that the definition and identification of "good" selling behavior/traits is probably largely dependent upon the perceptions and positions of the person listing the traits. One might find that different individuals identify different behaviors/traits as being critical to a sales position. Correspondingly, individuals in various industries may identify unique behaviors/traits as being important in their industries. Further, designing selection, training, and evaluation programs on the basis of a half a dozen interviews would seem tenuous. Based on these limitations, the purpose of this research is to evaluate the importance of alternative salesperson traits and behaviors from the perspectives of professional buyers in one selected industry, the transportation industry. The findings of this research may be valuable to firms that target this industry for their personal selling efforts. These organizations may use these findings to guide their sales force selection, training, and evaluation processes. …

journal of transportation management

Developing the buyer-friendly transportation salesperson: an empirical analysis of the most important seller traits and behaviors from the transportation buyer’s perspective