Answer to Question
Introduction
Social interaction is apparent in almost all aspects of daily living, whether a teacher talking to his students or a car salesman selling the latest car model to an eager client. Within this interaction people makes a good realization of another person’s personality and how the other person perceive the other’s personality through interpersonal perception. The concepts of attribution theory, interpersonal perception relates to the tenets of social psychology (Krauss, 2008). The application of interpersonal perception to daily social interaction considers how people understand the world for what it is, but responds to the cues that defines the meaning of the things in our environment (Sierra et al., 2010). In the social context, perception is key to understanding people particularly in the communication process in which people create an image of another person’s personality through demonstrated attitudes and beliefs and attribute them for casual judgment. These concepts will be further demonstrated in describing a real event that encompasses, interaction, interpersonal perception, principles of attribution theory and attitudes. A good example scenario to explain the connection between the aforementioned concepts is a car salesman selling a Porsche Cayenne car model to a man that loves outdoor activities. The example scenario will demonstrate how the concepts of interpersonal perception, attitude and attribution theory come into play during a normal daily activity and how they affect the outcome of an event. From the scenario and the general definition of the concepts mentioned herewith, it is apparent that interpersonal perception, attribution theory and attitude are key factors in personal growth and poses significance to how the view of person and things in the outside depends on what goes in our minds.
Background
The scenario starts with the description of the product being sold, which is a Porsche Cayenne 2011 model. This is an SUV type of car that was made specifically for high performance driving and utility purposes. However, the brand and the model of the car itself are considered as a high-end European model that is both expensive and a luxury item. Most people with a tighter budget for a brand new car would consider a Porsche Cayenne model as a luxury vehicle rather than using it for a rough-road kind of activities because of the price perception of expensiveness that makes an average buyer to take extra care of the car. On the other hand, a much financially abundant car buyer would not mind buying the car and use it for its intended rough kind of activities because the buyer is not concerned about any damages inflicted on the car because he literally can just buy two or more of the same.
Therefore, differentiating the two types of probable person that would consider buying the car, it can be assumed that the target market for a Porsche Cayenne are mostly high-end users with more money than they can ever spend. Meanwhile, the car dealer employs Jimmy as a car salesman assigned specifically to sell the Porsche Cayenne. Jimmy was instructed by his sales supervisor to assess the clients thoroughly when demonstrating the product because the dealer does not want to end up selling the car to the wrong person. Wrong person means, the one with a limited budget for such a car model. Its not that the sales supervisor is being discriminatory about the financial capabilities of the people looking into their product, but the dealership avoids financial implications arising from non-payments of their clients. Therefore, the company is just assuring that the clients are what they say they are and Jimmy was appointed with the task to do reasonable judgment on who to sell the car and who to turn down.
The place of the transaction is in a high-end mall showroom, which is regularly frequented with both average and rich shoppers. The mall is situated just a mile ahead of a high-end exclusive neighborhood, but another mile ahead is a neighborhood with average-income family dwellers and marginal percentage of low-income residents. The mall itself is packed with high-end brand stores with a few popular brand shops. With regards to Jimmy’s appearance, he is very presentable wearing corporate attire. Jimmy just graduated college with a degree in business administration and hired by Porsche as a Sales Associate.
Establishment of Relation Between Client and Salesperson
Just as the showroom opens, a client Alex who is an adventurer and lives in the exclusive neighborhood comes in the showroom and went straight to the black Porsche Cayenne sitting in the middle of the room. Alex is a very reserved guy, doesn’t speak much and prefer to dress-down when going to the mall. He is a son of a rich tycoon and owns an adventure shop of his own, but his tattered jeans, facial hair and messed up shoulder-length hair does not speak much of his financial status. Alex was impressed in the settings of the showroom and headed straight to the car on display because that is the model and brand he was seeking to buy for his next adventure trip. In general Alex (the customer) is not typical of a rich guy with flashy clothes and appearance. Jimmy (salesperson) already saw Alex entered the showroom, but did not approach him immediately because of the hesitations that Alex is not the right customer for the product he is selling.
This is an example of an observed external in which perceiving a person’s qualities were based on outside appearance. Jimmy did not approach Alex because he believes that Alex is not the type of customer that will buy a Porsche Cayenne. Furthermore, Alex did not actually called for anyone to assist him when browsing through the car’s features. Alex just went through the car features, opened its doors and having a feel of the car interiors. In the concept of attribution theory, the salesman attached meaning to the customer’s behavior on his own without making a direct conversation to the customer. The salesman made an early assumption of the customer based on what he sees of the customer’s appearance and behavior in the showroom, which Heider (1958) describes as external attribution or probing from the depths of commonsense (Kelley, 1967). Commonsense encompasses making assumptions based on the perceived outside characteristics and attribute them to the common surrounding elements or experiences (Fletcher, 1984).
Going back to the scenario, since after a few minutes of watching the customer opening the car’s doors and inspecting its interiors Jimmy approached Alex, but only because he is already feeling uncertainty towards Alex. However, Jimmy only gave Alex a very cold approach, which can be felt in the tone of his voice that is very passive in uttering “can I help you sir”. This approach did not made a negative impression on the customer as he responded politely in saying yes and began to ask questions about the car. The customer (Alex) seemed to ignore the attitude that Jimmy demonstrated towards him and responded appropriately in a professional manner. Customers have a common expectation of salesperson such as Jimmy as professionals and it helped that Jimmy also appeared very professional looking. The reason that the customer never have perceived the passive tone in the salesperson voice or had a perception of rudeness is because of the principle called internal and external judgment in interpersonal perception (Kenny, 1994). External judgment is demonstrated as the customer responded according to the perceived personality of the salesman as a professional person encompassing professional behavior despite the passive attitude of the salesman (Naumann et al., 2009; Chiu et al., 2001).
The scenario generally indicates the concept of first-impression, the customers apparently failed to demonstrate the characteristics and impression of a potential buyer. On the other hand, the salesperson demonstrated an impression of a professional sales associate. Therefore, judgment about the salesperson and the customer’s perception of perception appeared to be more of an automatic response rather than a controlled process (Ambady et al., 2006). The salesperson to customer relation is considered as the most important element in the marketing and communication (Weitz, 1978). Since social interaction constitutes both verbal and non-verbal channels, it plays an important role in the stages of sales interaction from establishing relationship. Non-verbal cues can communicate intentions feelings and motives, but they can all be perceived in self-perceptional manner (Leigh and Summers, 2002). In the case of Jimmy and Alex, customer-salesperson relationship was not established immediately because of the barriers that hinders the establishment of interpersonal, or the prior perception of the salesperson was different from due to assumptive judgment based on external appearance of the customer.
Going back to the scenario, the salesperson (Jimmy) assisted the customer (Alex) with his inquiries about the car, its specifications, and price and payment options. Although the sales person is having hesitations about the capabilities of the customer to purchase the car due to his early perceptions, the salesperson became more engaged in the sales conversation because the customer demonstrated greater interest. The salesperson was able to demonstrate the key features of the car making him very knowledgeable about the product he is selling and expertise in product insinuates a positive encouragement on the part of the customer. In the end, the Jimmy was able to close the sale and convinced that Alex is the right customer for him because when the customer filled the information sheet and stipulated and provided proof of his capability to own the car, the early perception of the salesperson was replaced with confidence. This event has a correlation to the concept of multiple necessary causes and multiple sufficient causes under attribution theory. If the customer has failed to show proof of his capability to own or purchase the car, the salesman would have not pursued the sales.
There are encompassing sufficient causes that will lead to the validation of the salesperson’s prior perception of the customer because of the failure to meet the financial criteria to purchase a high-priced item. In addition, the customer’s external attributes do not correspond to the criteria of someone with financial capacity to purchase a very expensive car. However, multiple necessary causes, which are positive attributions that provides rational of a persons high motivation and all effects that fits the criteria to of potential buyer ( Jones and Davis, 1965). Furthermore, the attribution of cause of behaviors, which is an important factor in perception in making assumption of another person’s actions. For example, the salesperson’s passive attitude upon conceiving a wrong perception of the customer is considered as an unpleasant action motivated by internal factors such as discriminatory judgment (Wish, Deutsch and Kaplan, 1976). There are so-called natural tendencies that enable each person to view others based on the number of internal and external characteristics patching together to either conceive a positive or negative perception (Oliver and Swan, 1989). These natural tendencies impose implicit rules that regarding the customer’s personality, which from a salesperson’s standpoint would prevent him from perceiving the customer’s realistic situation (Kenny and Albright, 1987).
Conclusion
References
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