ales situations and respond to them with appropriate adaptations in behavior. In this analysis, sales people categorize each current selling situation according to previous sales interactions in their memories. Such categorization has often been instinctive in the past, but sales training that helps salespeople recognize and define a large number of sales situation categories will help them become more effective.
Effective salespeople have what the authors called sales situation "hieracchies" at their command:
A salesperson receives information on a small customer that is inconsistent with her or her 'small customer type' category (e.g., the prototypic small customer is ill-informed about market options, whereas this customer is very knowledgealbe. The expert sales person with a hierarchical structure is able to classify the customer at a more specific level (e.g., the MBA small scale entrepreneur type) (Weitz et al., 1986, p. 179).
In what the authors call "working smarter instead of harder," Weitz, Sujan & Sujan urge companies with product lines that favor adaptiv
...