| Abstrakt: |
Is the future of the buyer-seller relationship between meeting planners and hotel salespeople in the MICE industry more likely to be high tech or high touch? A series of Hotel Sales and Marketing International (HSMAI) think tanks could not agree on an answer to this question (Rach, n.d.). However, since the 1980s, the emphasis in businessto- business selling has been on building long-term buyer-seller relationships through the relationship/consultative selling approach (i.e., high touch) (Alessandra & Barrera, 1993; Swenson & Link, 1998). The question is whether technology, particularly the growth of the Internet, may be causing the selling environment to change from the relationship/consultative approach to a traditional, transaction oriented approach (i.e., high tech). The framework for the proposed analysis is the continuum of buyer preferences for working relationships with sellers (Anderson & Narus, 1991). What is proposed is that further research needs to be done in the area of understanding buyers' preferences as they have been affected by the growth of technology in the MICE industry buyer-seller relationship. The result will be a better focus on the future sales training efforts of the hotel industry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER] |
