Does Relevant Information Exchange Create Relationships Between Buyers and Sellers That Affect Sales?

This study quantitatively and qualitatively tests the influence of sales-deployed relational marketing material using an ongoing information stream (OIS) of relevant literature, and measures the impact on a buyer’s likelihood to purchase in the future, the allocation of dollars to a purchase, and the development of relationship, trust, expertise, and reduction of uncertainty in decision making. The study produces generalizable results from a large cross-section sample of 400 buyers under specific conditions that included both imminent and no imminent sale conditions, and varying levels of deployment of the OIS. It was found that relevant information exchange by itself does not create relationships that affect sales outcomes, and there was no significant interaction between the deployment of an OIS in varying scenarios and likelihood to purchase in the future, nor the allocation of dollars. It was also found that an OIS does not significantly affect the develop of relationship, trust, expertise, nor reduction of uncertainty in decision making. Strategic sourcing principles, and qualitative results lead to a more complex story, where variables are highly correlated, and buyers consider additional factors not present in this study. This research adds to study of the field of sales and relationship marketing, and the general study of buyer-seller exchanges, by empirically showing that the effects of regular exchange of relevant information are negligible without consideration of other factors. Practitioners will benefit from deeper understanding of sales from the buyer perspective and buyer behavior, which can lead to strategies to establish relationships more quickly, and with larger effect