13.3 Selling and Sales Management Issues : Strategic Issues in Sales Management

Customer satisfaction is an increasingly important issue for businesses, and managers need a greater understanding of the role of salespeople in creating satisfaction. This study examines the impact of salesperson created expectations on satisfaction with a product. Specifically, it discusses the competing recommendations of raising versus lowering expectations, and empirically assesses the impact of expectations on satisfaction. Result indicate that expectations have a dual role, in that they are positively related to satisfaction through perceptions of performance, and negatively related to satisfaction through disconfirmation. Implications for sales management are discussed.