Working with customers: Cooperation and competition in relational marketing

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Abstract
The relationship and interaction between salespeople and their customers may be usefiilly examined in terms of how they believe their goals and interests are related. Twenty‐five sales persons and 40 travel agents and managers in charge of corporate travel were interviewed on specific interactions. Results support previous theorizing that productive conflict management and resulting trust and personal bonds contribute to successful marketing relationships and suggest that these dynamics occur when sales representatives and clients have developed strongly cooperative goals, but not when they have competitive or independent goals. Results were interpreted that the constructive discussion of opposing views complements cooperative goals as important contributors for developing successful relational marketing.

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