Enhancing Customer-Salesperson Relationships: The Role of Salesperson Behavioral Traits and Relational Cohesion in the Banking Sector

Abstract Researchers have indicated the significance of relationship quality and closeness in nurturing long-term relationships between customers and salespeople, this research underscores the significance of salespeople in cultivating robust customer relationships, focusing on bank employees’ interactions with customers within the banking sector. Highlighting the employees’ role as key representatives of the organization, the study emphasizes the crucial function of these employees as boundary spanners. Salesperson’s interpersonal relationships affect their performance, emphasizing building customer relationships leading to increased salesperson performance. It examines the impact of salesperson behavioral traits and relational cohesion on building long-lasting relationships with customers. A cross-sectional, structured questionnaire was used to collect responses from salespersons, a total of 400 usable data were collected from bank employees. This research provides directions to sales managers on how to blend relationship-oriented measures with traditional objective criteria to assess salesperson performance and focus on priority areas for salesperson learning and development. This can aid in developing suitable sales training programs that enhance selling skills for better customer relationship building and salesperson performance.