Analyzing the shift in sales approaches towards selling advanced industrial services

Abstract

Globally, the manufacturing industry is faced with heavy competition and technological disruptions compelling it to continuously adapt to the changes and modify itself to offer innovative offerings or solutions to its customers. Therefore, the companies especially the ones investing in cutting-edge technological advancements like Internet of Things (IoT), remote monitoring and big data analytics, have begun to focus on selling high-value complex solutions or advanced services that prioritize customers benefitting through product usability as well as the outcome with greater performance or capability. This study explores sales domain transitions and capabilities associated when selling advanced services.

Sales is indisputably one of the important functions of the company. Advanced services which are complex solutions customized and provided after a detailed assessment of customer’s requirements and challenges, require a lengthier sales process. This in turn necessitates different sales strategy and approach than usual, also requiring the sales personnel to be more skilled and technically equipped. There has been a lack of academic research on the Selling of advanced service. Thus, this study has been designed to answer research questions about the shift in sales approaches, processes, and strategies that occur while selling advanced services and the specific sales capabilities required.

Conducted as cross-sectional exploratory research, this study involved semi-structured interviews with five managerial-level professionals who are engaged in the provision of advanced services, with one participant representing the customer’s viewpoint on the matter. Drawing from their experiences and perspectives, this study outlines six key transitions in companies related to selling advanced services: changes in the business logic, culture, and organization structure, Integration of digital technologies: IoT, remote monitoring, big data analytics, customer-centric value proposition, and value communication, choosing appropriate selling approach, cross-functional collaboration, Data privacy, cyber security, and compliance. Also, in this study the empirical data is analyzed in conjunction with relevant literature highlighting the significance of distinct sales capabilities, specifically technology-enabled sales capability, risk mitigation capability, and transformational capability as the essential ones for the transformation, in the context of selling advanced services. The findings of the study also highlight the necessity for greater expertise and training in practicing value-based selling, a highly effective strategy for selling advanced services especially quantifying and communicating value, within the sales domain.

This study includes insights from experts within medium to large sized companies, prompting the question of whether the capability to offer advanced services and shift towards service centric business model is exclusive to bigger companies. This initiates the notion for potential future studies to investigate the adaptability of small scale companies to these transformations. This study also recommends strategic partnerships with industry peers to create customized solutions for customers, highlighting the role of open platforms in resource identification, enabling successful cooperation as another possible avenue for future research.