An explorative analysis of salespeople’s emotions and their effect on the selling situation perceived by the buyer
(A2019-9176)

AUTHORS

Ilona Pezenka, FHWien der WKW University of Applied Sciences for Management & Communication

KEYWORDS

Emotions; Sales; facerecognition

ABSTRACT

Although emotions play a key role in the sales process there is little research on this topic to date. There is general consent that salespeople’s ability to perceive emotion is a crucial factor for sales performance. Nevertheless, consequences of salespeople’s emotion expressions are underexplored. As facial expressions are strong indicators for emotions, this paper analyzes sales conversations by employing computer-based facial expression analysis. An explorative analysis of the data revealed that the most important emotions during sales conversations are joy and surprise, with surprise having the greatest impact on the evaluation of the selling situation. This paper is a first step in helping to understand the effects of emotion expressions on the selling situation.