Clark2003

From emcawiki
Jump to: navigation, search
Clark2003
BibType ARTICLE
Key Clark2003
Author(s) Colin Clark, Paul Drew, Trevor Pinch
Title Managing prospect affiliation and rapport in real-life sales encounters
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Conversation Analysis, Affiliation, Agreement, Assessments, Business Communication, Obligation, Rapport, Selling
Publisher
Year 2003
Language
City
Month
Journal Discourse Studies
Volume 5
Number 1
Pages 5–31
URL Link
DOI 10.1177/14614456030050010101
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

Download BibTex

Abstract

Detailed examination of audio recordings of business-to-business `field-sales' encounters are used to report one way in which salespeople elicit verbal expressions of affiliation from their prospective customers — by reciprocating second assessments which affiliate with, trade off and build on prospects' own assessments. This article outlines the prototypical features of these junctures of assessment-affiliation and describes how salespeople can mobilize such assessments to build extended sequences of `rapport' that take the form of adjacent and mutual expressions of substantive verbal affiliation. Consideration is also given to explicating both the interactional basis of these sequences as well as the socially obligating influence such affiliation and rapport can have on sales outcomes.

Notes