The role of guided selling in the purchasing behavior of investment goods
Myllykangas, Mikko (2015)
Myllykangas, Mikko
2015
Tuotantotalouden koulutusohjelma
Talouden ja rakentamisen tiedekunta - Faculty of Business and Built Environment
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2015-12-09
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201511251806
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201511251806
Tiivistelmä
The subject of value co-creation has been researched in the last decade more than ever before. All companies have access to the same production methods globally, thus the importance of delivered value and customer experience is increasingly important. The ability to offer customized products at the same cost and delivery rate, as generic ones, is a must for staying competitive in the current business environment. This study focused on the potential of guided selling in investment goods sales and increasing understanding of the concept in Finnish B2B-markets.
This study was conducted as a qualitative single-case study, which focused on the sourcing activities and digitalization in the case company’s customers’ organizations. The data gathering was performed as five semi-structured interviews in order to allow themes that the researcher hadn’t thought of, to arise in the interviews. The literature review aimed at understanding of how digitalization has affected B2B-sales and a suggested framework of guided selling. This review was then used to create the interview questions, which had three main themes: purchasing behavior, digitalization in business activities and sales configurators.
Based on the conducted research, it can be said that the construction industry is very conservative and the level of digitalization is quite low. The purchasing activities are very reactive due to difficulties in forecasting demand and possible customer needs. Thus the rational purchasing models cannot be applied in real-life context, yet a “muddling-through” model by Makkonen et al. (2012), which combined practical and rational approaches, is identifiable in the industry. A digital breakthrough was seen as coming, yet the direction of it was unclear and divided. The sales configurator was seen as having relatively little potential in the classical sense of a configurator at the moment, as order automation tool was the most common potential use for it. The academic field benefitted of this study by gaining a framework suggestion of the concept and confirmation that sourcing activities do not follow any rational models but muddle-through the process. The case company gained information on the perceived potential of a configurator in the Finnish markets and guidelines on implementation and characteristics.
This study was conducted as a qualitative single-case study, which focused on the sourcing activities and digitalization in the case company’s customers’ organizations. The data gathering was performed as five semi-structured interviews in order to allow themes that the researcher hadn’t thought of, to arise in the interviews. The literature review aimed at understanding of how digitalization has affected B2B-sales and a suggested framework of guided selling. This review was then used to create the interview questions, which had three main themes: purchasing behavior, digitalization in business activities and sales configurators.
Based on the conducted research, it can be said that the construction industry is very conservative and the level of digitalization is quite low. The purchasing activities are very reactive due to difficulties in forecasting demand and possible customer needs. Thus the rational purchasing models cannot be applied in real-life context, yet a “muddling-through” model by Makkonen et al. (2012), which combined practical and rational approaches, is identifiable in the industry. A digital breakthrough was seen as coming, yet the direction of it was unclear and divided. The sales configurator was seen as having relatively little potential in the classical sense of a configurator at the moment, as order automation tool was the most common potential use for it. The academic field benefitted of this study by gaining a framework suggestion of the concept and confirmation that sourcing activities do not follow any rational models but muddle-through the process. The case company gained information on the perceived potential of a configurator in the Finnish markets and guidelines on implementation and characteristics.