Personal Selling - An Out-Dated Sales Concept? : The Effects Of Salespeople Engagement In Competitive Tenders

Since organizational customers actively seek to reduce the influence of personal relation-ships on buying decisions, competitive tenders have become important elements of compa-nies' purchasing strategies. Vendors face a high risk of failure, and given the considerable resource investment, successful participation in tenders is now a key challenge. Using structural equation modeling, this research shows that the attractiveness of both proposals and vendors affects vendors' achievement of tender-related objectives. Our findings indi-cate that a salesperson can influence vendor attractiveness by engaging in several activities throughout the buying process. Moreover, salespeople who are involved when customers specify their requirements are able to induce superior proposal attractiveness. We also find that the latter effect is completely negated by a noncompetitive price.