Entertainment Orientation and Salesperson Relationship Performance

Many sales organizations invest in “relationship-building activities” by allocating a portion of their budget to socially engage current customers and future prospects. In their boundary-spanning role, salespeople are responsible for developing and managing relationships with customer buying centers and internal cross-functional support teams. The purpose of this study is to assess the importance of entertainment in the sales process. Utilizing social exchange theory and relationship marketing as theoretical foundations, we introduce and develop the conceptual entertainment orientation model. We examine the current role of entertainment in developing and managing sales relationships with internal and external customers. The results confirm that relationship-building activities in the form of entertainment are perceived to play an important role in both external sales with customers and internal relationships with co-workers. The results also reveal that entertainment and internal bonding are viewed as positive influences on firm performance. The findings provide an improved understanding of the current role and importance of entertainment by sales professionals.