The effects of humour usage by financial advisors in sales encounters

Purpose – For many years, the financial industry has been perceived as conservative, old‐fashioned, and somewhat tedious. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of humour usage by financial advisors on several sales performance outcomes. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was completed by more than 400 buyer‐seller dyads. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses were conducted. An important strength of SEM is its ability to incorporate the psychometric notions of constructs and measurement errors in the same estimation procedure. Findings – A financial advisor's good sense of humour has a positive impact on the clients' perceptions of service quality, trust, satisfaction, purchase intentions, and word‐of‐mouth propensity. Research limitations/implications – Although only customer perceptions were used, the paper suggests many ways to use the results as a spring board by sales researchers to accrue research efforts in understanding the truly rich role of humour. Practical implications – Many practical implications are suggested to entice organizations to emphasize salespeople's humouristic skills as a competitive advantage. Originality/value – This is believed to be the first paper to investigate the effects of humour usage in sales encounters in the financial industry. A better understanding of humour is useful for service providers owing to its mass potential, its low cost, and its positive benefits for customers and financial advisors alike.