3.3 Questionnaire design
3.4.3 Paired-Sample t-test
A paired sample t-test is used to determine whether there is a significant difference between the average values of the same measurement made under two different
conditions. Both measurements are made on each unit in a sample, and the test is based on the paired differences between these two values. The usual null hypothesis is that the difference in the mean values is zero
The null hypothesis for the paired sample t-test is H0: d = µ1 - µ2 = 0
Where d is the mean value of the difference. This null hypothesis is tested against one of
Chapter Four Result Finding 4.1 Descriptive Statistic Analysis
Table 4-1 ：Characteristics of Respondents
Characteristic Define person Percentage
female 11 21
(1) Gender: 79% of salespeople are male, female share 21%
(2) Marriage: 66.7% of salesperson gets married.
(3) Age: Over 90% salespersons are 30 years old 53.6% salesperson age is over 35 years old.
(4) Working period: 50% salesperson’s working period is over 6 years.
(5) Education: All salesperson education is college or University at least. 31.5% has master degree.
(6) Salary: The monthly salary of 40-60 thousand is 40.7%. 60-80 thousand is 37%.
Salesperson have bonus and incentive are exclude in the salary.
4.2 Internal Consistency Analysis (Cronbach’s alpha)
This is to see if the questionnaires in the survey are reliable or not.
The most common type is Cronbach’s a reliability measurement.
Table 4-2：Reliability measurement
Source：吳明隆, Wu, Ming-Long (2005)
From the table below we know that the factors are strongly reliable or extremely reliable.
Table 4-3：Reliability of these study 4 factors
a＜0.3 not reliable 0.3≦ a＜0.4 slightly reliable
0.4≦ a＜0.5 reliable 0.5≦ a＜0.7 very reliable (most common)
0.7≦ a＜0.9 strongly reliable (the second most common)
0.9 ≦α extremely reliable
Factors Cronbach’s a
Characteristic 0.889
Experience & Knowledge 0.884 Company Culture & reputation 0.931
Training 0.885
4.3 Paired sample t-test
1. Characteristic
The Table4-4 is the output of Characteristics factor elements’ paired sample t test. The significant greater than 0.05 has the pair of p3- p6 that are the same group and have relatively high important to the rapport. On the other hand, the rest of elements have relatively low important to the rapport. The test shows that Characteristics’ elements have two group that indicate the important level to the rapport( Table 4-5).
Table 4-4 Paired Samples Test
Paired Differences t df
Note: “p” is the symbol of characteristics element
Table 4-5 Characteristics elements ascending by mean and level
element mean Std Dev level
3)Integrity help build rapport 4.7037 .6028 6)Responsibility help build
rapport
4.5370 .7181
Level I
2)Aggressive help build rapport 4.4815 .6028 13) Caring help rapport building 4.444 .6635 11)Empathy help build rapport 4.3333 .6143 9)Passion to work and customer
help build rapport
4.2037 .6835
4)discipline help build rapport 4.2037 .6553 7)Public relationship help rapport
building
4.2037 .6553
1)Humor sense help build rapport 4.1111 .7181 10)Positive attitude help build
rapport
4.1111 .6635
14)Curtness help rapport building 4.0926 .7076 15)Like your customers help
rapport building
4.0370 .8233
12)Motivation help build rapport 3.9630 .8233 5)Independent help build rapport 3.8704 .8912 Characteristics
4.2
8)Open mind help build rapport 3.7037 .8385
Level II
2. Experience and knowledge
The Table4-4 is the output of Experience and knowledge factor elements’ paired sample t
of elements have relatively low important to the rapport. The test shows that Experience and knowledge’ elements have two group that indicate the important level to the rapport ( Table 4-7).
Table 4-6 Paired Samples Test
Paired Differences t df Sig. (2-tailed)
Mean
Std.
Deviation
Std. Error Mean
95% Confidence Interval
of the Difference
Lower Upper
Pair 1 e5 - e15 1.259 .975 .133 .993 1.525 9.492 53 .000
Pair 2 e5 - e11 .722 .998 .136 .450 .995 5.316 53 .000
Pair 3 e4 - e5 -.704 1.002 .136 -.977 -.430 -5.159 53 .000
Pair 4 e5 - e10 .593 .922 .125 .341 .844 4.724 53 .000
Pair 5 e5 - e14 .519 .818 .111 .295 .742 4.657 53 .000
Pair 6 e5 - e9 .519 .926 .126 .266 .771 4.113 53 .000
Pair 7 e1 - e5 -.481 .947 .129 -.740 -.223 -3.738 53 .000
Pair 8 e2 - e5 -.426 .903 .123 -.672 -.179 -3.467 53 .001
Pair 9 e5 - e8 .296 .861 .117 .061 .531 2.530 53 .014
Pair 10 e5 - e13 .333 .801 .109 .115 .552 3.058 53 .003
Pair 11 e3 - e5 -.278 .811 .110 -.499 -.056 -2.518 53 .015
Pair 12 e5 - e7 .278 .899 .122 .032 .523 2.271 53 .027
Pair 13 e5 - e12 .167 .818 .111 -.057 .390 1.496 53 .140
Pair 14 e5 - e6 .019 .714 .097 -.176 .213 .191 53 .849
Note: “e “is the symbol of experience and knowledge element’s element
Table 4-7 ： Experience & knowledge element ascending by mean and level and on time help rapport building
9) call customer’s last name 3.9630 .6994 14) demonstrate skill help
rapport building
3. Company culture and reputation
The Table4-4 is the output of Experience and knowledge factor elements’ paired sample t test. The significant greater than 0.05 have the pair of c1-c12, c2-c12 and c6- c12 that are the same group and have relatively high important to the rapport. On the other hand, the rest of elements have relatively low important to the rapport. The test shows that Company culture and reputation’s elements have two group that indicate the important level to the rapport (Table 4-9).
Table 4-8 Paired Samples Test
Note: “c” is the symbol of the company culture and reputation factor element
Paired Differences t df
Table4-9：Company culture & reputation elements ascending by mean and level
The Table4-4 is the output of Experience and knowledge factor elements’ paired sample t test. The significant greater than 0.05 has the pair of t11-t12 that is the same group and have relatively high important to the rapport. On the other hand, the rest of elements have relatively low important to the rapport. The test shows that Training’s elements have two group that indicate the important level to the rapport (Table 4-11).
4-10 Paired Samples Test
Note: “t” is the symbol of training factor’s element
Paired Differences t df
Table 4-11 Training elements ascending by mean and level
element mean Std Dev Level
11) prepare well help rapport building 4.3889 .5961 12)listening and feedback help rapport
building
4.2963 .6652
Level I
9) conduct seminar for customer help rapport building
4.1111 .6914
8)filed call with technical engineer help rapport building
4.0741 .8434
7)access the meeting environment and customer body language help rapport building
4.0000 .5828
6)time& territory management, negotiation, leading& managing, marketing...and so on selling management course help rapport building
3.9630 .7761
2)supervisors’ behavior and talking help rapport building
3.9259 .6964
5)braining storming meeting, distributor meeting, product & application training…
conducted by sales department help rapport building
3.8704 .9526
10)internationalized environment help rapport building
3.8519 .7869
3)field call with supervisor help rapport building
3.8519 .7869
1)the selling skill training conduct by HR help the rapport building
3.8333 .7709
4)colleagues’ behavior and talking help rapport building
3.7778 .7689
15)group meeting or division meeting help rapport building
3.7222 .8777
13)training conduct by oversea, like, 3.4259 1.1092 Training
3.879
Level II
meeting, family day, incentive trip, outing or sports activities help rapport building
Chapter Five
Conclusion and suggestion
5.1. Conclusion
(1) Four factors help rapport building：
There are plenty of researches on the salespersons and customers relationships, but there are few models on how to build the rapport. This study does not claim to have built the conceptual domain of rapport structure. However, this study confirmed the earlier sayings from the interview made from various 3M sales representatives that characteristics, experience & knowledge, company culture &
reputation, and training are the key factors that influence rapport.
(2) Warm characteristics help establish rapport：
With warm characteristics, a salesperson is inclined to caring, liking, passion, and positive attitude to customers. Our study supports that the warm characteristics have the extremely help to the rapport building. Salespeople with warm characteristics have interests in people. That helps them apt to get close to people and care the customers.
(3) Integrity is important to build a relationship：
There have been dozens of studies regarding top sellers’ characteristics. Integrity has always showed up and as a high priority attribute. This study supports that the trait is significant to rapport establishing.
(4) Experience contributes to rapport building：
Previous studies propose that rapport building needs to access the customers’
reaction. Selling is an art process. The experience plays a crucial role and expedites the harmonious relationship building. It is not easy to be trained and taught. It comes from the salesperson’s personal experiences.
(5) Enjoyable and humane culture：
This study shows that company culture influences the salesperson’s ability to build rapport. That helps the intensity of customer interaction. The managers should build the enjoyable environment for employee. The intangible asset will shape employee and provide good service to customers.
(6) Company image and reputation play an important role in personal selling：
Nickels (1983) put it on his research that a salesperson should observe nonverbal and verbal patterns to build rapport with customers. Based on the previous studies, company reputation and image provide a prominent motivator to stimulate a better foundation for building customer-seller relationships. That helps the salesperson instantly build the immediacy.
(7) Interaction among employees help facilitate the learning process of rapport building ： Employee interaction offers opportunities to learn from others’
experience. In particular, senior employee could share their knowledge of rapport building with the more inexperience junior staff.
5.2 Research Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research
(1) Rapport as a particular component of relationship between salespersons and customers lacks of specific measure method. Boshoff (1999) pointed out that what does not get measured does not get managed. In the real world, the experimental test is difficult to design to access specific components of relationships. This should limit our understanding of how the rapport influences valuable outcomes of relationship of customers.
(2) The effective rapport mode insufficient：
future research could pay attention to this area.
(3) Enlarge the population：
The result of this study was limited with the only contacts among the sales representatives of 3M Taiwan and should not be generalized as applicable to the general population. It is therefore suggested that this study should be replicated on a larger scale to further test the results obtained.
(4) Extend to other area：
Aside from the personal selling, the rapport concept could be duplicated to other platform of selling, like telephone marketing, e-business, complain handle.
Especially, some industries (banks, supermarkets, fast-foot restaurant, ticket terminals) receive rapport from the clerks may not be an essential condition for retaining customer loyalty. Rapport provides an eminent tool.
(5) Rapport helps for cross-culture：
Rapport help establish the close agreement and understanding for each other. In the international environment, rapport helps bridge the different culture gap.
Campbell (2006) put it on his recent research that rapport increases as Western corporation grow globally and sell across culture. As soon as the rapport is built, the customers from collective culture begin to purchase.
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智庫
Appendix：
13 關心客戶，對建立客戶融洽關係 □ □ □ □ □
8 公司走近客戶的文化，對建立客戶融洽關係 □ □ □ □ □ 14 參與公司活動，如sales meeting、family day、 incentive
Trip、outing及社團活動 ，對建立客戶融洽關係 □ □ □ □ □ 15 部門會議或業務會議中所學的技巧、心得，對建立客戶融洽關係 □ □ □ □ □
第三部份：
1．請問您的性別？
□女性 □男性 2．請問您的婚姻狀況？
□已婚 □未婚 3．請問您的年齡？
□30 ? 以下 □30－35 歲 □35—40 ? □40—45 ? □45—50 ? □50—55 ? □60 ? 以上
4．請問您的服務年資？
□3 年以下 □3－6 年 □6—9 年 □9—12 年 □12－15 年□15—18 年□18 年以上
5．請問您目前最高的學歷？
□高中 □大專、大學 □碩士 □博士 6．請問您個人月所得為？
□4 萬元以下 □4-6 萬元 □6-8 萬元 □8-10 萬元
□10-12 萬元□12-15 萬元 □15 萬元以上
本部分是希望瞭解您的個人基本資料，以作為資料統計分析之用，請您在 描述最適當的〝□〞打Ｖ。
Questionnaire 一、preface
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Ladies and Gentlemen：
Sales representatives build the instant rapport which helps the selling process (not for key accounts) efficiently very much.
What factors help build rapport efficiently is the objective of this study? The results will be of reference for the sales representative recruiting, training. Please pay attention to help this questionnaire. It is very important for the study success that has your attention. Thanks for your kindness and supports.
The result is just for education study. We will not open your information. If you are interesting in the result, you could contact us. We love to share with you.
National Sun-Yen-Sheng University (NSYSU) Business Management Department
Dr. Der-Fa Chen Researcher Tsun-Shang Chan TEL：07-3812112 FAX：07-3812113 E-Mail：[email protected]
☆ ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
二、question
Characteristics
1 Humor sense help rapport building □ □ □ □ □ 2 Aggressive help build rapport □ □ □ □ □ 3 Integrity help rapport building □ □ □ □ □ 4 Good discipline help build rapport □ □ □ □ □ 5 Independent help build rapport □ □ □ □ □ 6 Responsibility help build rapport □ □ □ □ □ 7 Public relationship help rapport building □ □ □ □ □ 8 Open minded help build rapport □ □ □ □ □ 9 Passion to work and customer help build rapport □ □ □ □ □ 10 Positive attitude help build rapport □ □ □ □ □ 11 Empathy help build rapport □ □ □ □ □
Not very importantNot importantOrdinaryImportantVery important
12 Motivation help build rapport □ □ □ □ □ 13 Caring customers help rapport building □ □ □ □ □ 14 Curtness help rapport building □ □ □ □ □ 15 Liking your customers □ □ □ □ □
Experiences（Here means personal experience, not behavior or Acton）
1 Appearance help rapport building □ □ □ □ □ 2 Clear and active pronounce □ □ □ □ □ 3 Smart and flexibility help rapport building □ □ □ □ □ 4 Giving gift, e.g. post-it, scotch-brite, hanger, help rapport
building □ □ □ □ □ 5 Product knowledge help rapport building □ □ □ □ □ 6 Market knowledge help rapport building □ □ □ □ □ 7 The supporting function colleague support help rapport
building □ □ □ □ □ 5 Product knowledge help rapport building □ □ □ □ □ 6 Market knowledge help rapport building □ □ □ □ □ 7 The supporting function colleague support help rapport