The impact of the information revolution on the classical sales model

Abstract

The ready availability of information about purchase options has shifted the point at which customers make purchase decisions; they often come into the sales interaction knowing what they want (i.e., have higher preference certainty). Yet companies continue to base their selling strategies, spending billions of dollars, on a model of the customer decision process that is predicated on low preference certainty. Therefore, understanding the impact of customer preference certainty on the efficacy of the traditional selling paradigm is crucial. Through an extensive field study spanning four months across 15 different stores of a durable goods retailer and two experiments, the authors examine the consequences of this shift toward higher preference certainty for the practice of selling. Drawing on the theory of cognitive dissonance and adaptive selling, they find that a lack of consideration of the shift in customer decision making can hurt both salespeople and customers. Specifically, they find that ignoring customer preference certainty and unconditionally employing tactics that involve educating and challenging customers can have negative repercussions on purchase probability and sales revenue.