SOCO — Selling Orientation–Customer Orientation Scale

What it measures

Measures the degree to which salespeople practise the marketing concept by trying to help customers make purchase decisions that satisfy their needs, as opposed to focusing on making the sale regardless of customer fit. Customer-oriented salespeople identify customer needs, avoid deceptive tactics, offer products that genuinely satisfy those needs, and take a long-term relationship view. Selling-oriented salespeople focus on closing the sale, use high-pressure tactics, and prioritise short-term transactions. The SOCO is foundational to relationship selling, sales management, and customer relationship research, applied extensively in banking, insurance, healthcare, retail, and B2B contexts.

Representative items

• I try to figure out what a customer's needs are. (Customer Orientation)
• I try to help customers achieve their goals. (Customer Orientation)
• I try to sell a customer all I can convince them to buy, even if I think it is more than they need. (R, Selling Orientation)
• I try to bring a customer with a problem together with a product that helps solve the problem. (Customer Orientation)
• I paint too rosy a picture of my products, to make them sound as good as possible. (R, Selling Orientation)

Citation

Saxe, R., & Weitz, B.A. (1982). The SOCO scale: A measure of the customer orientation of salespeople. Journal of Marketing Research, 19(3), 343–351.