Effective Customer Orientation in Salespeople: Evidences from India

The key issue that a sales manager faces in today?s business environment is ? ?How to achieve growth objectives through implementing customer-oriented strategies in sales interactions for improved customer satisfaction and retention?? Clearly, the challenge therefore is to ensure that the salespeople in pursuit of achieving their sales quota must not deviate from the customer-oriented policies of the firm and hence the importance of measurement and monitoring of customer orientation at individual level. These issues warrant deeper investigation and understanding on the type of salespeople who will use their customer-oriented predispositions to sell effectively through better handling of the customer?s needs and objections. This empirical research outlines an effectiveness model for salesperson's customer orientation and prescribes actions for Sales and HR Managers for building and maintaining a superior performing customer-oriented sales force.