SALCUSTOR: A multi-dimensional scale for salesperson’s customer orientation and implications for customer-oriented selling

Abstract

Recent studies suggest that the selling vs. customer orientation (SOCO) scale for measuring salesperson’s customer orientation does not completely assess behaviors essential for ensuring customer satisfaction. Therefore, few researchers call for new research on identifying the underlying dimensions of customer-oriented selling, and for developing a new scale. This study provides a new and expanded conceptualization, and develops and validates a multidimensional scale for salesperson’s customer orientation, SALCUSTOR. SALCUSTOR assesses the degree to which a salesperson: (1) provides relevant and correct information to his/her customers, (2) understands and learns the underlying needs of the customers, and (3) maintains relationships with customers, and thinks about their long-term benefits. We also establish the reliability, convergent, discriminant, and nomological validity of SALCUSTOR. The new scale would be useful for managers to identify specific gaps in the three dimensions of customeroriented selling behaviors of the salespersons, and address these gaps using appropriate intervention strategies.