O impacto do estilo de comunicação na adaptabilidade do vendedor: uma análise do efeito moderador da distância social

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis, in the first instance, is to discuss the relationship between communication style and sales adaptability. In addition, it is expected to analyze the moderating effect of social distance between communication style and selling adaptability. The studies were conducted from the perspective of the Theory of Interpretation Levels and Psychological Distance and the Selling Adaptability Theory – CLT, covering the areas of marketing (personal selling) and social psychology. In this sense, this analysis becomes relevant by investigating, from an epistemological point of view, how salespeople prepare their communication style in order to adapt to the customer. It is also intended to understand how social distance moderates the relationship between the salesperson's communication style and sales adaptability. To this end, a literature review and an online survey were carried out, with the participation of 297 retail salespeople, in order to investigate this phenomenon. The hypotheses point out that task-oriented and self-oriented communication style affect positively sales adaptability. But, interaction-oriented communication style affects negatively adaptability. Creativity surely influences positively the selling adaptability and there is the moderating effect between communication style and selling adaptability from the social distance of the seller-customer dyad. In this sense, the academic contributions of this inquiry serve to broaden the understanding of Adaptive Selling Theory, as well as to analyze the moderating effect of social distance, expanding the scientific knowledge of the theories used in this analysis, and, in this sense, all hypotheses were confirmed. Finally, regarding the managerial relevance of this research, it is considered that this study offers practical implications for managers in the sales area, regarding personal selling. It is considered that the results generated in this research can be used by companies to adapt the image of the salesperson, through the communication style, in order to enhance marketing relationships, based on social interaction. This enables commercial managers to gather information on the customer profile and create optimized training sessions, guiding the salespeople in a consultative and personalized manner, in order to increase sales in the market.