The final ingredients of source credibility, trustworthiness, competence, and dynamism are interrelated concepts as well as being closely related to dimensions of nonverbal communication.  In fact, no single factor can be isolated and identified as the vital agent conveying source credibility.  Source credibility is a result of an interaction between two or more individuals.

Trustworthiness is identified by traits and behaviour activities as they are meshed with the salesperson's verbal message.  Dr. Harrison has shown us that we may make decisions about trustworthiness, competence, and dynamism merely as a result of viewing the other individual.  What may be a minimal cue to one may be a major cue to another. 

In addition to cues from appearance (clothing and physical) certain traits suggest degrees of trustworthiness." Such traits as just versus unjust, honest versus dishonest, reliable versus unreliable, dependable versus undependable, open-mindedness versus closed-mindedness are associated with trustworthiness.

Another dimension of trustworthiness that merits study by the salesperson is the coalition concept.  Since it is widely practiced, many salesmen apparently believe that they enhance their credibility position with the prospect or customer by forming a coalition with the customer against a third party, usually the salesperson's firm.  In carrying out the coalition or "buddy" philosophy, the salesperson usually presents himself as being on the customer's side.  A good illustration of this can be seen in the automotive field.  Some dealers, and hopefully it is a minority, have a well developed coalition theory.  The show goes like this.  The appraiser sets the price on the customer's trade-in.  The sales manager must approve of the final deal, that is, the net cash outlay the customer pays for the new car.  During the process of negotiations, the salesperson engages in a series of coalition moves with the potential customer.  He or she gets the low appraisal price increased.  Next, he or she attempts to get the net final price between old and new car reduced.  He or she may make several visits between the "hard nose" appraiser and the sales manager.  On the last "preplanned" trip to the sales manager's office, he or she tells the buyer "Perhaps I can get another 50 dollars.  I'll try.  But you have a real good deal now.  I don't think that he or she will reduce the price further." Nevertheless the salesperson visits with the sales manager.  After a struggle he or she gets another 25 dollars.  He or she relays this information to the buyer.  The deal is made with a close bond existing between the salesperson and the customer as a result of their coalition against the appraiser and the sales manager.

This same form of coalition manoeuvring that exists in the automotive field exists in most industries.  However, the vast majority of coalition situations are not the result of a pre rehearsed coalition between firm and salesperson, but they are the result of overly optimistic promises by the salesperson and, more frequently, the errors of business and communication.  Salesmen's promises or business errors may involve delivery dates, quality adjustments, special discounts, price changes, changes in product design, trade-in deals, price adjustments, or many other factors that are not what the customer expected.  The coalition exists when the salesperson represents the customer against his firm.  The extreme is when the salesperson's promises or claims do not materialise, and he or she then does everything possible (even calling the home office in front of the customer) to convince the customer that he or she, the salesperson, will fight it out even if he or she has to take the case to the vice-president of marketing.

In such situations, a few successes will do much to enhance the salesperson's source credibility with the customer.  But it is strongly recommended, and most business executives would agree, that the salesperson not cause the coalition game to happen.  It may lead to a lack of credibility in the salesperson's company and a loss of sales.  Each salesperson should have a strong sense of integrity and business ethics.  Enacting a sales role within a strong integrity and business ethics framework will, in the long run, give the salesperson a solid source credibility foundation with a buying company.  In business today there is no need to trick the buyer.

Competence

Research indicates that the competent individual tends to be judged as informed, intelligent, experienced, trained, capable, and possessing a degree of expertness.  To the customer viewing the salesperson, competence can probably be measured best in terms of expertness.  Expertness, however, must be used judiciously.  Communications authority Crane, speaking about the marketer, warns us that ". . . if the customer does not trust his intentions, his expertness may repel rather than attract, since it puts the customer at a disadvantage.  Why? It happens "because expertness represents power and if the person who holds such power isn't perceived as sharing the customer's interest, he or she may be perceived as likely to sacrifice those interests for his own.

Extensive research involving some 165 salesmen in joint calls conclusively indicated that salesmen have a strong tendency to be too product knowledge oriented.  This is especially true of industrial salesmen.  Most of the salesmen involved in this sample were competent; many had a high degree of expertness.  But in some cases they overwhelmed the prospect or customer with product knowledge.  As this happened, effective communications collapsed.  Why? To enlarge on Dr. Crane's "why" above, a number of related concepts may be considered.  Superiority by salesmen may damage the ego of the prospect, and, when needs are damaged, there is a tendency to project blame back to the source.  Thus it isn't the fault of the prospect or respondent who doesn't understand, but, in some way, it is the fault of the salesperson.  Further, expertness marked by an overwhelming of the prospect's or customers-that is, the sales message is too enthusiastically given, or it isn't presented in terms of the business needs involved, or it is beyond the quick understanding of the respondent-may be interpreted in terms of untrustworthiness or lack of credibility.

On the other hand, expertness properly used is one of the main determinants of source credibility.  That is why, it is recommended that the salesperson plan his call, use verification and permissive questions to determine the direction of the sale and identify the needs of the firm, use a problem-solving approach, make the discussion meaningful to the respondent, and obtain his mental involvement.  There is much more to the contact stage.  However, this points out that the salesperson must determine the prospect's readiness to communicate, for, as Campbell and Hepler say: "The amount of knowledge held in common by two interacting communicators will determine in large part the manner in which they will interact.

 The eighth and final fact relating to source credibility is dynamism.  Dynamism has dimensions of confidence versus uncertainty, aggressive versus meek, energetic versus tired, bold versus timid, decisive versus indecisive, active versus passive, fast versus slow.  From the previous discussion of confidence and expertness it can be seen that too much dynamism-that is, the type of dynamism classified as overly aggressive or overly energetic or overly forceful-will repel and reduce the salesperson's source credibility.  Even when dynamism is associated with expertness it may repel rather than attract.  The salesperson's source credibility is most enhanced when he or she has balance between the various factors that determine trustworthiness, competence, and dynamism.

In summary it can be seen that source credibility is a complex subject.  It involves a host of interactive factors from the world of verbal and nonverbal communications.  Much is known about source credibility, but much research remains to be done.  Upon analysis, the strands of thought involving source credibility lead from discipline to discipline.  The entire world of the behavioural sciences seems to be involved.  Thus, at this point it may be worthwhile to give a capsule view of the overall sales process and to identify a few of the factors that relate to source credibility.

"At the outset of a sales call," Crane tells us, a receiver will judge an unknown salesperson's credibility by the firm he or she works for.",--, This is a good start.  Most companies have a fair degree of source credibility.  Within moments of the contact, however, the respondent will be judging the salesperson's credibility through his beliefs and feelings about the salesperson's trustworthiness, competence, and dynamism.  His beliefs and feelings about the salesperson will be determined, at least in part, from countless nonverbal cues that he or she will get throughout the sales interview.  He or she will obtain cues from eye contact, purposeful behaviour (such as a positive walk, good posture, a moderately firm hand shake), punctuality, use of testimonials to support statements, use of research from credible sources, use of visuals, dress (hopefully moderate), physical appearance and, finally, from the salesperson's verbal message with all of its dimensions as discussed in this subject.

Assume that the sale is made.  What about future relations with the customer? Hovland, Janis, and Kelley give the salesperson a valuable tip concerning source credibility and the salesperson's future relation with the customer.  They do it with a question and answer. They ask, "But how do we go about assigning credibility levels to the people who attempt to persuade us?" They answer the question by stating,

"One way to gain or lose confidence in the messages of a source is to check our ability to predict his behaviour.  If, in the past, we have been able to predict with some accuracy what he or she would do, we come to trust him or her because we feel he or she will not surprise us.  That is, his credibility is increased.  If the source seldom does as we predict, his credibility falls."

Purpose and Product Knowledge

In most sales texts, lengthy chapters on product knowledge are found.  This suggests the importance placed on product knowledge.  And product knowledge is one of the most important ingredients in selling, for without product knowledge it would be difficult to sell in most situations, but not all.

Product knowledge in itself is, however, not important according to communication theory.  The purpose of the sales message is to persuade.  Since product knowledge is invariably an important part of any sales talk, it must also be designed to persuade.  Unless product knowledge is utilised to persuade, it is not important.  By product knowledge, the author is referring to any knowledge utilised by the salesperson to inform the prospect regarding technical information or the value of the product or proposal to him or her, be it a tangible or intangible.  For product knowledge to persuade, it must be presented in such a way that the prospect realises the advantages of buying.  Perhaps no one has said it better than Elmer Wheeler with his "Don't sell the steak, sell the sizzle."

Utilisation of product knowledge in a sales talk depends to some degree on the sales philosophy of the salesperson-that is, does he or she use stimulus-response, formulised, want-satisfaction, mood, barrier, or depth selling? It will vary also according to the product and the prospect.  In some cases, little product knowledge will be utilised; in others, a great deal.

In general, a salesperson (or any individual for that matter) cannot have too much knowledge about his product or subject matter.  He or she must know when to use his product knowledge and how much to use.  The man who talks too much and who is too technical obviously will lose the interest of many prospects, but not all.  The man who skips lightly over product knowledge and the technical aspects of the product or proposal may lose the interest of some prospects, but not all.  The key is to adjust product knowledge to the demand and needs of each individual prospect. 

Benefitizing means finding ways the product knowledge or product will solve prospect problems or be of value to a prospect. 

Elements of product knowledge are listed on the left-hand side of the sheet.  Each item so listed is analysed to determine what it will do for, or what it will mean to, the prospect.  Each of these points become multipliers and are projected to the right-hand side of the sheet as persuaders.  Talking about the quality of construction, the ease of the tape preparation, the greater productivity of the machine or its flexibility to do a job may not be meaningful in itself.  As a general rule each sales point is more effective when benefitized. instead of just talking greater productivity, the salesperson specifically identifies what it will do and how it will do it for the prospect.

This idea can be utilised by any salesperson selling any product.  One group of manufacturer's salesmen who sold automatic dishwashers to restaurants, institutions, etc., held a buzz session, placed a blackboard in front of the group, and then listed on the blackboard such elements of product knowledge as the gauge of the steel, the weight of the machines, dish washing capacity per hour, etc.  They then brainstormed to see how many persuaders they could develop from each fact concerning their product.  Assuming that a restaurant has a peak customer load from 12 to 2 p.m. and from 5:30 to 8:30 A.M., this question was posed, "Just what would a machine that washed 200 dishes per hour mean to each restaurateur?" This group of salesmen developed seventeen salient persuaders concerning this one element alone.  They found it would mean less dish inventory, less breakage owing to stack-up, less danger of waitresses slipping or falling in the kitchen owing to messy conditions, less turnover owing to better working conditions, fewer problems in securing dishwashers, etc.

It is highly recommended that not only should the salesperson follow the process above in developing persuaders, but each salesperson should provide feedback to his firm regarding unique user applications he or she has found for his product.  It is further recommended that each salesperson consistently read professional journals and trade publications in his field. 

Practically every retail salesperson will find consumer magazines devoted to the product he or she is selling.  Practically every manufacturer salesperson will find trade publications devoted to the product he or she is selling.  Practically every wholesale salesperson will find trade publications dealing with the product line he or she handles as well as trade publications devoted to those stages in the market distribution system which represent his customers and prospects.  Practically every specialty salesperson will find trade publications devoted to the product he or she is selling.  In brief, in this modern world of communication there is relatively little excuse for the salesperson who claims he or she doesn't know where to get information about his product and about the user of his product, be it a manufacturer, a wholesaler, a middleman, a retailer, or the ultimate consumer.  The salesperson's company, of course, should make every effort to provide the salesperson with meaningful product knowledge.

Some aspects of communicating with the executive

At the outset, it should be made clear that there is no difference in the communication pattern which takes place between the salesperson and the executive and that which takes place between the salesperson and other prospects.  His job is to adjust his communication pattern to each individual.  Of course, salesmen who are knowledgeable about the problem solving and decision-making process will be more effective, other things being equal, in communicating with the individual who occupies a decision making slot in a particular organisation.  The purpose of this section is to call attention to the fact that the climate in any organisation is established by the top executive.  It is a filtering-down process.  It is both vertical and horizontal in its impact.  Each salesperson who sells to a business fin-n, a corporation, or institution, has to operate within the climate which pervades a particular organisation.  It must be understood, however, that in the larger organisation many executives have almost complete autonomy in their area of responsibility-for example, the master mechanic. 

Thus, the vertical impact of his form of leadership is of greatest concern to the salesperson.  On the other hand, whenever the salesperson is presenting a proposal to a group of individuals representing various areas of responsibility within an organisation, he or she is more concerned with the total climate that prevails in a company.

No pretence is made in this section to define or discuss executive traits (perhaps an impossible task) or distinguish between such terms as administrator, leader, or executive.  Here we are interested in the form of leadership effected by an individual that occupies what is acknowledged in business as the executive chair.

Books have been written on the what, why, when, where, and how of leadership.  Most books are concerned with various forms of leadership and the effect of each form on the individual within the corporate structure.  Most management authorities seem to concur that there is no one best organisation nor is there one best form of leadership.  Moreover, it must be understood that seldom does one find a pure form of leadership associated with an executive.  A leader may be identified as predominantly one type but seldom totally.  This issue is further blurred because the leader may exhibit various forms of leadership at various levels.  For instance, a plant superintendent may consult with his several foremen; he or she may direct his secretary, and he or she may suggest to an assistant.

This is where the salesperson starts.  He or she is not involved in passing judgment on the various forms of leadership, but he or she is involved in identifying certain forms of leadership and their effect on the organisation.  After all, the salesperson does deal with individuals within an organisation and the climate that affects them indirectly affects him or her.

So far, customer motivation has been emphasised.  Emphasis has been on how the strongly structured ' customer-oriented communication system will change the customer's behaviour pattern so that he or she may react favourably to the salesperson's proposal.  The fact has been stressed that in most situations the salesperson can motivate best by appealing to the needs of the individual-the behaviour change must come willingly from the prospect.  A salesperson has no authority; he or she cannot order a prospect to buy.  He or she must persuade.

Product knowledge and the process of benefitizing have been discussed as having a communication purpose-to persuade.  Some aspects of communicating with the executive have been discussed as well.  Now to analyse one of the most important concepts in selling, the art of listening effectively.