Examining Consumers' Thoughts during a Telemarketing Message

We report the results of a study which examined consumers' thoughts while listening to a salesperson deliver a telemarketing message. Although telemarketing does not involve a face to face sales encounter, our results suggest that the salesperson continues to play a vital role in the telemarketing sales process. Consumers think about the salesperson throughout the encounter, even when the telemarketing presentation is dominated by product information. Consumers' product attitudes, developed during the telemarketing presentation, appear to be influenced by thoughts about both the salesperson (source-oriented) and the product (message-oriented). In addition, attitudes appear to form during the early stages of the sales process. Managerial implications of these findings are discussed.