Examining the consequences of adaptive selling behavior by door-to-door salespeople in the Korean cosmetic industry

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to assess the effect of adaptive selling behavior on customer outcomes, mutual outcomes and salesperson outcomes.Design/methodology/approachThe respondents were salespeople and customers in selected door-to-door cosmetics companies in South Korea. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data in this study.FindingsFindings show that adaptive selling behavior positively affects customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, sales performance, job satisfaction and relationship quality. These findings suggest that adaptive selling is crucial for the firm's survival depending on the industry and the product. Additionally, unlike previous studies, the authors use salespeople's self-reporting responses and customer-reporting of salespeople, which further enhances the richness and uniqueness of the results.Originality/valueStudies investigating mutual outcomes of adaptive selling behavior are scarce. The study also emphasizes that adaptive selling behavior enhances salesperson outcomes and customer outcomes and primarily uses dyadic data between door-to-door salespeople and their customers, which is not very common.