Sales promises: what expectations are set before signing?
In high-value selling, salespeople do more than present an offer: they help define what the customer will regard as a satisfactory outcome. The managerial question is specific: how can expectations be kept in check before signing without weakening the commercial proposition?
What the literature establishes
Richard L. Oliver (1980, Journal of Marketing Research) proposes and tests a model in which satisfaction depends, among other things, on expectations and whether experience confirms or disconfirms them. A service is therefore assessed not only on its characteristics, but also against a prior reference point. Applied to selling, this framework suggests treating the sales promise as a component of future evaluation, rather than merely a means of persuasion.
The asymmetric cost of unmet expectations
Eugene W. Anderson and Mary W. Sullivan (1993, Marketing Science) show that satisfaction is associated with perceived quality and the gap between that quality and expectations. In their data, falling short of expectations reduces satisfaction more than an equivalent positive surprise increases it. This asymmetry provides a reason to scrutinise wording that implies a turnaround time, availability or support that the organisation cannot control.
The premature conclusion
One might conclude that promising less is the way to increase satisfaction. Yet these studies do not demonstrate that systematically lowering expectations improves overall commercial outcomes: an undemanding promise may also make the offer unattractive. The more useful distinction is between a commitment the organisation can deliver, a conditional objective and a possibility still requiring confirmation. (our executive and employee training programmes)
What these data cannot determine
These articles concern satisfaction; they do not directly test sales wording in complex transactions in Lugano. They establish neither an optimal level of promise nor a rule specific to banking, fashion, trading or Italian-speaking family SMEs. Reviewing the contract alone cannot verify the expectations created: a customer may remember a verbal assurance that never appeared in the written offer.
A practical check in Lugano
As part of SHR’s « Vente à forte valeur ajoutée » programme, a Lugano team could pilot an expectations record, written in Italian when that is the customer’s language, for new business signed over one month. Each record would document the expected outcome in the customer’s own words, the commitment validated by the team responsible for delivery and any attached conditions: bank processing time, collection availability, goods delivery or support for a family SME. At the first agreed milestone, the team would measure the proportion of cases with a documented gap between recorded expectations and service received, stating how many cases were actually checked. This monitoring would not prove an effect on sales, but would make visible the gap that sales promises may help create. To go further: explore the High-Value Selling training in Lugano in the canton of Ticino, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
In pictures: High-Value Selling in Lugano
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