The Impact of Bodily Behaviors of Sales Representatives on Charisma Evaluations by Consumers: A Time-Series Perspective

Abstract

Significant resources are spent each year on sales forces and the means by which to enhance their effectiveness during a sales interaction or presentation. Specifically, studies point to the importance of charismatic nonverbal cues (for example, facial expressions, gestures) in impression formation. However, these behaviors are mainly perceived in an unconscious manner, making behavior measurement a difficult task. Moreover, existing research is dominated by post-exposure measures and neglects customers’ processing of impressions over time. This research addresses the outlined gaps and introduces continuous measurement of sales presentations based on different data sources. First, we provide novel insights by applying high-precision coding of 141 nonverbal behaviors of 22 videotaped sales presentations using body actions and posture coding procedures. Second, this study uses an innovative approach to capture customer impressions of sales representatives’ charisma in real-time by means of a program analyzer, which allows evaluative measurements while concurrently being exposed to sales presentations. This time-series evaluation approach contributes to the understanding of impression formation and allows for linking nonverbal sales behaviors to customers’ evaluations over the course of time. Findings from a large sample experimental study (n = 663) show that negative opinions are formed somewhat faster than positive ones. In addition, body movements (e.g., head/trunk/leg/knee movements, arm actions) driving these impressions are the same for the first few seconds and for longer periods.