orientation (i.e., task orientation) (Novicevic & Harvey, 2001), people orientation (Jordan & Cartwright, 1998), and service orientation (i.e., treatment, customers’ employee empowerment, and service aspects (Lytle, Hom, & Mokwa, 1998)). However, customer orientation presents some side effects and risks; thus, it requires an effective management in order to be profitable. Customer oriented salespeople have to face and overcome the opportunity cost that arises when short-term sales are sacrificed to maintain customer satisfaction and increase the probability of future purchase (Pettijohn et al., 2002; Saxe & Weitz, 1982). In addition, they also have to face the costs supported and time spent in gathering information about customers’ needs, rather than selling (Saxe & Weitz, 1982; Singh & Koshy, 2011). Saxe & Weitz, (1982) individuated two main circumstances that permit the customer-oriented salespeople to profitably engage in the sales approach. They need independency and availability of resources in order to be able to tailor offering to needs. customers’ More specifically, they need the ability to understand the needs and accessibility of a broad range of products that can be offered as solutions. Then, they need to be able to establish a free flow of information, result of a close and trustworthy relationship between the seller and the customer. Indeed, the salespeople are required to represent a source of trustworthy information and a partner with which the customers collaborate in order to identify first, and then solve, their needs (Jaramillo et al., 2007). By doing so, they are similarly able to reduce the cost per sale and increase satisfaction for both parts (Saxe & Weitz, 1982). To sum up, Saxe and Weitz propose two situational factors that determine the customer benefits to overweigh its cost: (1) which is relations, orientation’s
orientation (i.e., task orientation) (Novicevic & Harvey, 2001), people orientation (Jordan & Cartwright, 1998), and service orientation (i.e., customers’ treatment, employee empowerment, and service aspects (Lytle, Hom, & Mokwa, 1998)). However, customer orientation presents some side effects and risks; thus, it requires an effective management in order to be profitable. Customer oriented salespeople have to face and overcome the opportunity cost that arises when short-term sales are sacrificed to maintain customer satisfaction and increase the probability of future purchase (Pettijohn et al., 2002; Saxe & Weitz, 1982). In addition, they also have to face the costs supported and time spent in gathering information about customers’ needs, rather than selling (Saxe & Weitz, 1982; Singh & Koshy, 2011). Saxe & Weitz, (1982) individuated two main circumstances that permit the customer-oriented salespeople to profitably engage in the sales approach. They need independency and availability of resources in order to be able to tailor offering to customers’ needs. More specifically, they need the ability to understand the needs and accessibility of a broad range of products that can be offered as solutions. Then, they need to be able to establish a free flow of information, result of a close and trustworthy relationship between the seller and the customer. Indeed, the salespeople are required to represent a source of trustworthy information and a partner with which the customers collaborate in order to identify first, and then solve, their needs (Jaramillo et al., 2007). By doing so, they are similarly able to reduce the cost per sale and increase satisfaction for both parts (Saxe & Weitz, 1982). To sum up, Saxe and Weitz propose two situational factors that determine the customer orientation’s benefits to overweigh its cost: (1) relations, which is
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