How to sell without words: What science knows about nonverbal behavior in personal sales and service

Abstract In recent decades, a very modest number of papers on nonverbal behavior in sales and the service sector have affected the field of study. Nevertheless, a comprehensive conceptual model is missing. Very heterogenous views appear to shape the topic. Scholars have shown that empathy is a crucial factor in interpersonal interaction. In particular, this applies to salesperson-customer interaction. Additionally, researchers found that nonverbal behavior shapes 90 % of mutual understanding and verbal communication hardly has an influence. However, salespersons’ nonverbal behavior has received scant attention in marketing research. This study contributes to the corpus of knowledge by evaluating how the existent research is founded on various intellectual frameworks and by identifying the most important references, authors, themes, and journals, as well as comprehending it in a conceptual model of salespersons nonverbal behavior. To achieve this objective, I examined more than 3,000 publications published between 1994 and 2021 using bibliometric methods. This is a small body of literature compared to other fields. I determined four publishing eras that affected the evolution of research in this field. Nonverbal behavior has been studied from a range of angles in the publications that have published these articles. The predominant emphasis is on the United States and empathy as a central trait, offering scholars the ability to conduct further cross-national and cross-industry research. My study not only provides intellectual and social frameworks, but integrates them in a conceptual model. Thus, it lays the foundation for future study.