Structured Participant Observation

Observation is the act of watching a situation or a process to collect information from a primary source (Diekmann, 2011). Interviews provide data on how people perceive what is happening, but not necessarily on what is actually happening. Observations are an additional method of providing data which help researchers to find out whether people really do what they say or if they really behave in the way that they say (Bell, 2010).

Observation research in social science is divided into systematic and participant observation (Bryman, 2012). The former is mainly used when studying interactions in settings such as school groups, and is applied in quantitative data collection and statistical analysis. On the contrary, participant observation is applied when the researcher participates in the daily lives of people who are taking part in the study in question (Bortz & Döring, 2006). The researchers does it either openly or in a specific role, and he observes what is happening and listens to what is being said. This method is linked to qualitative data collection (Denscombe, 2011). Systematic and participant observation could be used in an unstructured and structured manner. Unstructured observation is designed to gather as much as information without the need to adhere to an observation protocol. Structured observations have a predefined observation protocol to systematically observe situations and record the participants’ behaviour (Bryman, 2012).

The current study involved structured participant observations. One of the problems with structured participant observations is that different researchers who observe the same situation could perceive it differently. This could lead to different interpretations and results, which may lead to different conclusions about the situation to be observed (Denscombe, 2011). Therefore, it is crucial to have clear observation criteria for all researchers observing the same situation and to align the observation protocol to it (Bryman, 2012). Researchers should consider two points: Firstly, it must be clear who or what is to be observed and secondly, the related research problem must be known so that the observers know which actions must be recorded. The observation protocol must carefully identify the categories of behaviour or events being examined and under what conditions they should be allocated to these categories (Bortz & Döring, 2006). As in the face-to-face interviews and suggested by various researchers such as Bortz and Döring (2006) and Denscombe (2011), there are important steps to be considered when conducting structured participant observations: (1) Deciding the objects to be observed, (2) Determining the criteria for the observation, (3) Developing an observation protocol, (4) Choosing the framework for the observation, (5)

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Preparing and conducting the observation, and (6) Analysing and interpreting the observational findings.

In the present study, structured participant observation was undertaken by attending three initial salesperson-customer meetings. These meetings were observed to examine the initial stage of a potential long-term salesperson-customer relationship. The objective of the observation was to find out how a salesperson behaves when he first meets a customer and how he attempts to foster a relationship. Furthermore, efforts were made to deduce the interests of both parties and the role they play. Each meeting took place with a senior salesperson and a senior customer from two different high-technology companies who were meeting for the first time. These initial meetings took place on 10 June 2014, on 11 June 2014 and on 18 June 2014, and they were part of a project where the researcher’s second supervisor brought the buyer and seller companies together for an initial meeting. The general business objective was to develop interesting business opportunities which should be the start of a long-term relationship between the buyer and seller parties. Thus, the role of the second supervisor was the one of facilitator. The researcher of this study was officially present in the role of a sales consultant for high-technology products and services, and unofficially as the observer of the senior salespeople. This had been previously discussed with the respective line managers of the salespeople and their consent had been obtained. None of the participants knew what the researcher was investigating at the beginning of the meeting.

The senior salespeople under observation were employed in companies S16, S17 and S18, which are described in Appendix E. For the main phase, the senior executive managers were interviewed face-to-face in each case; whereas, in the subsequent phase, senior salespeople were observed in an initial meeting with a potential new customer. It is very important that salespeople and customers who meet for the first time share a common interest; otherwise, the first meeting would not even have been taken place (Ingram et al., 2008). Thus, with this setup in the initial salesperson-customer meetings, a social relationship between a salesperson and a customer was created which was discussed in the methodology Section

5.7.3. Such an intensive social relationship is referred to as a dyadic. Therefore, these

situations represent a dyadic perspective (Bruhn, 2013).

Two criteria were used for this observation of the three dyadic relationships to see whether the three concepts of the social domain of certainty (Section 7.2.1) were acted out by the salesperson, and to see the order in which the three concepts occurred during the salesperson-customer interaction. It was also interesting to observe the welcome phase and the final phase of an initial salesperson-customer meeting. This first meeting of a long-term salesperson-customer relationship was further investigated because it is the first few minutes of a salesperson-customer relationship which have the greatest impact on whether this relationship even eventuates, and how it develops (Ingram et al., 2008; Petermann, 2013). The researcher observed how certainty is created in the relatively uncertain initial phase of a business relationship. For this reason, a predefined structured participant observation protocol (Appendix C) was developed. The social domain of certainty, which was focused coded during the qualitative content analysis process (Section 7.2.1), was used for the

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observations with the following concepts: a salesperson can overcome a relatively uncertain initial phase in front of the customer by clarifying the customer’s expectations, establishing a

positive relationship on a common basis, and demonstrating technical and social competence.

The observation protocol for the structured participant observations is divided into five categories. Each category represents a phase of the conversation between the salesperson and his customer. In the following summary, the five phases as well as the criteria used to assess each phase of the observation are shown:

• Phase 1: Welcome – the welcome phase was used to introduce the participants and to familiarise them with the new situation. During this time, the participants assessed their respective social status. Furthermore, the salesperson had to make himself and his products and services attractive and set a clear agenda which he could always return to during the discussion. Within this phase, the criteria to assess the observations were twofold: (1) how the salesperson and the customer welcomed each other (wait-and-see or expectant attitude) and (2) how the salesperson tried to create proximity to the customer (eye contact, handshake, accidental contact).

• Phase 2: Clarifying the customer’s expectations – this phase clarifies how the salesperson finds out about the customer’s expectations and how he takes a cautious approach to the new relationship to understand the customer and to meet his needs. Within this phase, the criteria to assess the observations were as follows: (1) whether and how the salesperson refers to reference projects, (2) to application notes, (3) to quality standards, (4) to confidentiality agreements and (5) to utility models and items on loan. The researcher observed whether and how the salesperson adhered to these five criteria, and how he implemented them in his approach.

• Phase 3: Establishing a positive relationship on a common basis – this phase clarifies how the salesperson builds on his existing knowledge base and creates a fact-based situation with transparent information to establish a personal connection with the customer. Within this phase, the criteria to assess the observations were as follows: (1) whether and how the salesperson attempts to find out what the customer knows about the technology, (2) background information on the customer, (3) understands the personal situation of the customer. The researcher observed whether and how the salesperson adheres to these three criteria in his approach.

• Phase 4: Demonstrating technical and social competence – this phase clarified how the salesperson showed technically skilled and socially competent behaviour so that the customer experiences consistent behaviour from him at different points in time. Within this phase, the criteria to assess the observations were as follows: (1) whether and how the salesperson attempts to understand the intended applications of the product that the customer wants to buy, (2) understands the customer’s technical issues, and (3) understands the customer’s personal needs and preferences.

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• Phase 5: Final stage – the final phase focused on how the salesperson arranged a follow-up meeting with the customer and how he was able to attract the customer’s interest in his product. Furthermore, researcher observed how he concluded the meeting and how he presented this conclusion to the customer (flipchart, laptop, verbal). In addition to that, he also looked at how the salesperson and customer took their leave from one another (handover of customer giveaways, invitation for lunch, or an event, etc.).

As mentioned in Section 5.6.2.3, the researcher was present as part of the normal business as a sales consultant. However, he was not involved in the discussions during the first stage of the meetings. At the end of the meetings, the researcher gave his recommendations on how the relationship between the buyer and seller parties could be further developed. During the last phase of these initial meetings, once the main conversations concerning business development were over, all the parties were informed and their consent to the use of the results was obtained by the researcher.

These structured participant observations enabled the researcher to better understand the role of the technical salesperson in sales and to interpret how this research relates to that role. In addition to this, it helped him to better understand how co-creation with the customer occurs (Section 3.4.2). Section 6.2.4 will present empirical data from the three observations.