Smooth Operators: Reflections on Sales Representatives' Influence Expressions.

The article presents debate concerning consumers' cognitive and evaluative processes during the personal selling process. The sales representatives' efforts influence consumers' decision making through priming strategies. The author applaud Professor Thomas F. Stafford for his efforts to extend some conceptual thoughts he presented about this relatively unexplored, persuasion area. A key contribution he makes is the distinction between the effects of detected overt and undetected/subtle priming expressions, the author address this and other issues he raises. Based upon the traditional priming notion, the author argued that sales representatives use expressions that activate consumers' commonly-used decision rules. Although consumers may not be aware of priming expressions presented during sales presentation, their judgments or product evaluations are ultimately influenced. The benefits from the personal selling research may help practitioners and researchers to understand the impact of sales presentations on consumers' purchase behavior.