Learning as ContextualWhen prompted to proffer examples of learning about clients, our participants invariably furnished accounts of specific situations in which they deemed learning to have taken place. These accounts were often accompanied by a vivid reflexive awareness that this learning was inextricably tied to the situation or context in which it had occurred. Normative generalities of selling practice and procedure had their place but, as discussed earlier, learning was properly grounded in a specific dyadic salesperson-client relationship and such relationships, as with all relationships, are co- constituted by both parties. Learning is in this sense fundamentally context-bound.Learning as NaturalA noteworthy feature of all participants’ accounts of learning about clients was that this learning mirrored both the pace and framing of ordinary lived social interaction. In this sense, it was quintessentially natural. Learning about clients should both reflect and synchronise with the rhythm of normal interpersonal encounters and relationships. Indeed, if such natural learning was the preferred option of salespersons it was also perceived to approximate more closely with what clients themselves felt comfortable with.Learning as open-endedIf salesperson learning in customer relationships adopts a natural rhythm, then it follows that, as with the relationships from which it emanates, learning itself is never complete. Participants repeatedly emphasised that in their opinion, learning about customers is never ‘done’, and knowing about a customer is never static. Customers change; there will always be new, unforeseen situations even with the same customers, and as learning is embedded in both the relationship and the sales situation, there will always be something ‘new’ or something more to learn.Learning - unconscious or deliberate?In the recent management literature, much thought has been given to the fact that not all knowledge is explicit and not all learning happens at a conscious level (Baumard, 1999). Pursuing this issue in the present research, the authors found that salesperson learning in the relationship nexus can happen both at a conscious, deliberate level as well as at an unconscious, instinctive level. Salespeople are generally socialised into a mindset where ‘knowledge is power’; they are frequently prompted both by their managers and by information systems to collect and pass on certain details about their clients. In this climate, many respondents were aware of the strategic role of such conscious learning about the customer and endeavoured to gather customer details in a deliberate manner.
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