Value-Based Marketing and Sales of Industrial Services: A systematic literature review in the age of digital technologies

Abstract

With digital technologies, smart services become a cornerstone of industrial product-service systems. Services are increasingly delivered by digital means and thereby become difficult to grasp for customers. For manufacturing companies, this is an opportunity to leverage value-based marketing and sales (VBMS). Despite this approach appearing promising in the age of digital technologies, no research combined so far the perspectives of VBMS, servitization and digital technologies. This paper fills this gap through a systematic literature review. We find that a limited number of authors and papers discuss this topic, but using a plethora of different terms. We consolidate the extant terminology in an overarching framework for VBMS. Furthermore, we identify four pillars of digital technologies that influence VBMS of industrial services. Finally, we suggest that in the age of digital technologies, the effectiveness of VBMS is contingent on relational rather than technological factors.