Correspondence: Jasmin Bergeron, School of Business and Management, University of Quebec in Montreal, C.P. 6192 Succ. Centre-Ville, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3C 4R2. E-mail: bergeron.jasmin@uqam.ca

¹is Professor of Marketing at the Business School of the University of Quebec in Montreal. He gave more than 1000 practical conferences in more than 50 financial institutions around the world. He also published articles in journals such as the International Journal of Bank Marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Journal of Retailing and the Journal of Service Research, among others. He has also authored several books on selling and negotiating strategies in the financial industry. Jasmin Bergeron is the corresponding author and can be contacted at bergeron.jasmin@uqam.ca. You can also contact him via his website at www.jasminbergeron.com/en.

²is the Royal Bank Distinguished Professor of Marketing at the John Molson School of Business, Concordia University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, of the American Psychological Association and a Distinguished SMA Fellow. He has been named the 2000 Concordia University Research Fellow, and has received the 2000 Jacques-Rousseau Prize for the best multidisciplinary researcher in Canada. He has published 27 books, and more than 60 journal articles. He has also participated in numerous conferences and published over 80 papers in all major conference proceedings.

Received 16 December 2008; Revised 16 December 2008.

Abstract

The goals of this paper are twofold: (a) to test the multidimensional structure of the listening construct and (b) to identify major consequences of perceived salesperson listening effectiveness. A survey was completed by more than 400 buyer–seller dyads. Following structural equations modelling analyses, results show that customers' perceptions of listening effectiveness is positively (and strongly) associated with service quality, trust, satisfaction, word-of-mouth propensity, purchase intentions and sales performance. Numerous managerial implications are proposed to entice organisations to emphasise salespeople listening skills as a competitive advantage. Research opportunities are also presented to accrue academic efforts in understanding the truly rich role of listening.