Title: Relationship marketing and customer orientation of sales people: learning from banks

Authors: Nalin Abeysekera; Ananda Wickramasinghe

Addresses: Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo, Colombo, 00300, Sri Lanka ' Sydney Business School, Innovation Campus, University of Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia

Abstract: Selling is supremely important in marketing and considered as the lifeblood of marketing. It is evident that selling based on customer orientation and relationship marketing will play a vital role in attracting, retaining and sustainable growth of customers. This study based on Sri Lankan banking sector aims to attempt such integration by conceptualising the concepts of customer orientation and relationship marketing in Sri Lankan corporate banking sector. Responses were gathered via a survey questionnaire to measure interaction and impact of customer orientation on relationship marketing. The results show that there is a significant relationship between customer orientation and relationship marketing. This has been highlighted in Sri Lankan banking context as it has a significant contribution to national economy as well as a non-price determinant to get competitive advantage in the market.

Keywords: customer orientation; relationship marketing; corporate banking sector; sales persons; Sri Lanka.

DOI: 10.1504/IJFSM.2013.052893

International Journal of Financial Services Management, 2013 Vol.6 No.1, pp.79 - 91

Received: 21 May 2012
Accepted: 12 Jan 2013
Published online: 13 Sep 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article