Marketing theory and practice have focused persistently on exchange between buyers and sellers. Unfortunately, most of the research and too many of the marketing strategies treat buyer-seller exchanges as discrete events, not as ongoing relationships. The authors describe a framework for developing buyer-seller relationships that affords a vantage point for formulating marketing strategy and for stimulating new research directions.

Marketing theory and practice have focused persistently on exchange between buyers and sellers. Unfortunately, most of the research and too many of the marketing strategies treat buyer-seller exchanges as discrete events, not as ongoing relationships. The authors describe a framework for developing buyer-seller relationships that affords a vantage point for formulating marketing strategy and for stimulating new research directions.

Previous research has assessed industrial buyers' opinions of restaurant meetings with sales representatives but failed to clarify what settings are advantageous from a sales standpoint ( Dempsey, Bushman, and Plank 1980 ; Halvorson and Rudelius 1977 ). This experiment involving 211 purchasing personnel examines the impact of different restaurant meeting settings on industrial buyers' reactions to three user-versus-supplier problems. In a design where the environment of a buyer-seller meeting and the nature of user-supplier purchase problems were manipulated, it was found that an ordinary, unpretentious restaurant meeting caused more favorable evaluations than a nonroutine, fancy restaurant meeting.

Previous research has assessed industrial buyers' opinions of restaurant meetings with sales representatives but failed to clarify what settings are advantageous from a sales standpoint (Dempsey, Bushman, and Plank 1980; Halvorson and Rudelius 1977). This experiment involving 211 purchasing personnel examines the impact of different restaurant meeting settings on industrial buyers' reactions to three user-versus-supplier problems. In a design where the environment of a buyer-seller meeting and the nature of user-supplier purchase problems were manipulated, it was found that an ordinary, unpretentious restaurant meeting caused more favorable evaluations than a nonroutine, fancy restaurant meeting.