Abstract
By utilising the blueprinting technique, this study develops a sales process framework that visualises different activities, actors, and customer touch-points in the solution sales process. Based on a multiple-case study that includes data from eight Finnish manufacturers (18 face-to-face interviews with company representatives), our findings show that, although the main actors that have a direct encounter with customers are the salespeople, early engagement of the project and design divisions help firms serve and understand customers better. Additionally, interactions with customers during post-sales delivery allow the acquisition and dissemination of new information. While displaying the customer touch-points and how actors in provider's organisation interact to deliver value for customers, the process blueprint reveals the need for improvements in the firms' sales process design, to better integrate the service function into the selling phase and to enhance the opportunities for post-sales customer support.
Highlights
Increasing competition in the industrial markets has forced many manufacturers to move from products to solutions (LaForge et al 2009; Shepherd & Ahmed 2000; Ingram 2004)
Previous studies have shown that service mapping provides organizations with a visible platform to understand how customer demands can be better served by developing service practices (Kingman-Brundage et al 1995), none of the existing studies uses any modelling technique to map the activities in detail
This study contributes to solution selling literature in two major dimensions
Summary
Increasing competition in the industrial markets has forced many manufacturers to move from products to solutions (LaForge et al 2009; Shepherd & Ahmed 2000; Ingram 2004). The literature on sales process models depicts major stages of the sales process (Moncrief & Marshall, 2005; Töytäri, Brashear Alejandro, Parvinen, Ollila, & Rosendahl, 2011; Brady, Davies, & Gann, 2005; Storbacka, 2011) and studies the effects of solutions sales to company outcomes, such as innovativeness and performance. The existing research gives very little attention to the micro activities in the seller – customer touch-points that forms the central locus for understanding and identifying the unique attributes of individual customer; which facilitates both strategic and tactical decisionmaking process in delivering customized solutions as well as developing personalized customer relationship (Bitner et al 2008). A need exists to study the solution sales process in detail to understand the micro activities of solution sales
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
