Customer Orientation of the Salesperson

What it measures

A four-item scale measuring the extent to which a customer perceives their salesperson as being genuinely oriented toward understanding and satisfying customer needs rather than simply making a sale. Items assess need-eliciting behaviour, customer-best-interest orientation, solution provision, and need-satisfying product recommendations. Grounded in the SOCO (Selling Orientation-Customer Orientation) tradition, the scale captures dyadic perceptions of salesperson customer focus from the buyer's perspective.

Representative items

• The salesperson tried to find out my needs.
• The salesperson had my best interests in mind.
• The salesperson offered me products that satisfied my needs.

Citation

Ryari, Hanane, Sascha Alavi, and Jan Wieseke (2021). Selling to active customers: The benefits and challenges of customer engagement initiation in personal selling. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 49(2), 214–234.