Storytelling by the sales force and its effect on buyer–seller exchange

• Use of storytelling in business-to-business personal selling is examined.
• The inquiry employs an extensive literature review and qualitative study.
• Narrative transportation theory and the Persuasion Knowledge Model are used.
• Informing, persuading, and bonding with the buyer are key motives in storytelling.
• The salesperson's motives, the story's characteristics, and the buyer's response are modeled.

Researchers in disciplines such as sociology, psychology, and management have widely recognized the power of stories. Storytelling research in marketing has been limited in its focus on advertising and branding. Less effort has been made to understand the role of stories in personal selling. The current study explores the role that storytelling plays in the exchange between salesperson and buyer. The authors use qualitative inquiry combined with extensive literature search to examine storytelling by salespeople. Ideas from the humanities, psychology, management, and marketing literature are juxtaposed with insights from depth interviews and field observations of 81 buyers and sellers. Based on these insights the authors identify core themes and a model for storytelling in sales, and point to managerial implications of storytelling.