THEORIES OF BUYING AND SELLING

INTRODUCTION

Selling and sales operations are considered doing activities and salespeople and
sales managers can often be heard complaining 'That's OK in theory but not in
practice', implying that trial and error or personal experience is all that matters.
This is a weak form of learning. We need to learn from others' experiences so
that everyone can operate more effectively, and this is the objective of this
chapter. To do this requires that we conceptualise what it is we should be doing
and then pursue what it is we want done. A model or theory is therefore
required. A theory is 'a systematically related set of statements, including some
law-like generalisations, that is empirically testable' (Hunt, 1983). In this
chapter, we consider theories of buyer behaviour, attempt to understand the
complexities of buyer motivation and make comparisons between individual
and organisational buying behaviour. We then outline the most popular theo-
ries of selling and examine the techniques and processes recommended for
salespeople to adopt. Remember, a theory that does not work in practice is a
poor theory.
In this chapter, the aim is:

• to understand buyer behaviour

• to appreciate the complexity of buyer motivations and how buyers' needs
and the buying process can be widely different
• to differentiate between individual and organisational buying
• to be aware of and understand theories of selling
• to explain and critique selling techniques
• to describe sales processes
• to outline negotiation practices and separate these from selling.

Chapter 3 described the characteristics of salespeople and factors, such as

status and role position, which affect sales performance and therefore concern
sales management. However, for a sale to take place requires both seller and
buyer, and in this chapter attention focuses first on theories of buyer behaviour
and then on theories of selling.

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B. Donaldson, Sales Management
© Bill Donaldson 1998
 THEORIES OF BUYING AND SELLING

THE BUYING PROCESS

Just as selling can be viewed as a process, so too can buying. Similarly, this
process is neither simple nor easy to generalise across different products and a
variety of circumstances. The actual purchase decision or the transaction of
money for a product or service is only a part of this process. Much activity,
usually but not always, precedes and follows the actual event of a purchase.
Some purchases are highly routine, some totally on impulse, some high value
and infrequent, some low value. The process, outlined in Figure 4.1, can be
compressed or stretched and is always affected by a variety of factors.

''
Need identification

Search

'
Evaluation

'
Purchase

Use

Figure 4.1 The buying process

Need identification starts the process and buyers have many varied needs
requiring satisfaction. These needs can be internally generated, such as hunger
and thirst at the physical level or status and self-esteem at the psychological
level. Alternatively, they can be externally stimulated by a variety of factors, of
which the salesperson can be one. Needs are problems to be solved for buyers.
Salespeople must assess what triggers or causes needs to develop and how they
can be stimulated and ultimately satisfied.
Search processes begin when buyers attempt to satisfy their needs. They do
this by collecting information, sometimes very superficially, sometimes
passively and on other occasions very actively and in great detail. The search
depends on various factors, including their own knowledge and experience,
immediate or delayed gratification, risk, time, money and effort. Again, sales-
people can assist in speeding up and narrowing down the search process by
identifying the attributes perceived as most important by buyers and home in
on these to solve the buyer's problem.
Evaluation by the buyer considers the alternatives to select the best, that is,
most suitable to satisfy their needs. This evaluation takes place at different
levels between companies, products and brands and is neither permanent nor
unequivocal. Salespeople can change or modify the beliefs and attitudes that
buyers possess. They can provide information and persuasion which encour-
ages buyers to select their product in preference to other competing alternatives.

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