Pergamon 0969-5931 (95)00028--3 International Business Review Vol.4, No. 4. pp. 483--498, 1995 Copyright © 1995 Elsevier ScienceLtd Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 0969-5931/95 $9.50 + 0.00 Relational Selling Behavior and Skills in Long-term Industrial Buyer-Seller Relationships Harald Biong* and Fred Selnest Norwegian Institute for Research in Marketing, Norwegian School of Management, Elias Smiths Vei 15, POB 275, 1301 Sandvika, Norway Relational Selling Behavior and Skills Abstract -- Marketing is no longer regarded as a series of independent transactions, but as a dynamic process of establishing and maintaining relationships. In spite of the acknowledged importance of relationship marketing, relational selling behavior and skills appear to be understudied. The authors examine how selling behaviors and skills affect relationship continuity. In contrast to much of the literature, which appears to suggest that relational selling behavior and skills are universally effective, their study among industrial customers shows that the effects of some selling behaviors and skills are contingent on the degree of supplier dependence. Personal similarity, for example, is most effective in low dependence relationships, whereas the negative effects of aggressive selling are less in high dependence relationships. Furthermore, the results suggest that communication and conflict handling have a universally positive impact on relationship continuity. Key Words -- Relationship Marketing, Relationship Selling, Sales Force Management, Business-to-Business Marketing. Introduction Rather than being regarded as a series of independent transactions, marketing is now viewed as a dynamic process of establishing and maintaining relationships (Anderson and Weitz, 1989; Arndt, 1979; Dwyer et al., 1987; Webster, 1992). This change in the perception of the marketing function is acknowledged both by academicians and practitioners. Leading companies are now beginning to measure salesperson success not only by units sold, but also by contribution to relationship quality through customer satisfaction (Business Week, 1992; Fierman, 1994). In spite of the apparent importance of this new perspective of marketing, research has left certain questions unanswered. With a few exceptions (i.e., Crosby et al., 1990; Lagace et al., 1991), little attention has been given to what relational selling behaviors and skills really are and how they affect *Harald Biong is Assistant Professor in Marketing at the Norwegian School of Management and in charge of the research program of Relationship Marketing at the Norwegian Institute of Research in Marketing. tFred Selnes is Principal at A. T. Kearney Management Consultants. When the study was conducted, he was Director of the Norwegian Institute for Research in Marketing at the Norwegian School of Management. 483