Kysymys-vastausjaksot myyjän ja asiakkaan etäneuvottelussa

Abstract

This paper examines technology-mediated sales interaction in which a prospective customer receives a salesperson’s video call in a research laboratory. The paper focusses on the prospect’s requests for information, the salesperson’s answers, and the prospect’s third position receipts. When the prospect asks potentially critical questions, the salesperson tries to maintain a no-problem impression by not attending to the reluctance implied in the customer’s questions. After the salesperson’s answer, an automated analysis of the prospect’s facial expressions reveals emotions of anger and contempt that are, however, not explicated in her verbal response. Simultaneously, a detailed analysis of the sequential organization of conversation specifies the results of the facial expression algorithm: the prospect’s successive and stepwise more critical questions convey that she treats the salesperson’s answers as insufficient. The data consist of two video-recorded business negotiations, supplemented by an automated analysis of the prospect’s facial expressions and galvanic skin response.