How business-to-business salespeople deal with buying center dissenters

Abstract

Salespeople routinely sell to multiple members with influence over the purchasing decision in the customer organization. Given these buying center members’ varying needs, wants, perspectives, and motivations, dispositions toward a sales discussion can be heterogeneous. Salespeople may encounter situations in which members of the buying center react positively to the sales discussion, with the exception of a dissenter who exerts a negative impact on the salesperson in the interaction. Through a qualitative research design, this article provides insight into salespeople’s approaches in dealing with a dissenter in the buying center. The findings provide an integrated understanding of salespeople’s experiences of dissent encounters in business-to-business selling. In-meeting mitigation and post-meeting remediation strategies are advanced along with influencing situational factors. In illustrating how salespeople handle dissenters, the article contributes to scholarship, provides managerial guidance, and advances avenues for future research.