Introduction to the topic
Increasing competition in traditional markets, decreasing sales margins, more complex customer needs or an extension of existing market scopes are the main drivers underlying the shift from a product-based towards a service-based business model for many business-to-business (B2B) manufacturing organisations (Paiola et al., 2012; Kindström, 2010). This “servitisation of business“ (Vandermerwe and Rada, 1988, p. 314) does not only offer new market opportunities, it also creates new challenges such as adjusted organisational strategies and structures (Raddats and Burton, 2011). Ulaga and Reinartz‘s (2011) concept of hybrid offerings acknowledge that organisations usually are not positioned at one of the two extremes product or service. They are rather positioned anywhere inbetween of this continuum, since they combine products and services in their offerings (Ulaga and Reinartz, 2011). In terms of selling solutions, it requires different capabilities such as a service culture, technical expertise and a customer-orientated attitude (Paiola et al., 2012). The shift from a product-centric business to a service-centric business also requires another kind of selling. Consultative selling focuses on solving the customer‘s problem, but also includes higher costs of selling and longer sales cycles (Sheth and Sharma, 2008; Ryals and Rackham, 2012). It inevitably includes another type of salesperson, “instead of charisma and push, salespeople will now need to understand the customer and sharpen their ability to provide excellence customer service” (Sheth and Sharma, 2008, p. 266). Networking capabilities and the capability to sell value are the main requirements of hybrid or service salespeople (Ulaga and Reinartz, 2011).
Since the selection of new salespeople and/or the development of existing salespeople within the process of servitisation has not been investigated yet, this thesis strives to contribute to the knowledge of understanding the characteristics of ideal salespeople in organisations who offer products and services. It will be therefore contribute to the academic knowledge as well as the successful transformation of organisations.
This research tries to answer the question of “How can organisations select and recruit the best-performing salespeople within hybrid B2B sales organisations?”
Structure of Lit Review
• About 50%: servitisation in general, hybrid organisations, shift from product towards service companies (why, what happens in organisations, etc)
• About 50%: the nature of B2B sales, success factors in sales – performance criteria, assessment of sales performance in B2B sales organisations (personality traits vs. Behaviour based assessment, etc.; maybe assessments in general); it should cover the Piercy paper below, role of sales in organisations who are shifting from products to services
Example Literature
Marks, et. al. 1996: A psychometric evaluation of the ADAPTS Scale: A Critique and Recommendations, further development of a a scale developed by Spiro and Weitz in 1990
Behrman & Perreault, 1982: Measuring the Performance of Industrial Salespersons – more generic, no scale
Piercy et al., 1996: Salesforce performance and behaviour-based management processes in business-to-business sales organizations
Article title Publication Authors Date
Servitisation in European manufacturing industries: empirical evidence The Service Industries Journal Dachs, Biege, Borowiecki, Lay, 2013
form a large-scale database Jager and Schartinger
Service networks: Concepts and research agenda Industrial Marketing Management Henneberg, Gruber & Naude 2013
Characterising service networks for moving from products to solutions Industrial Marketing Management Gebauer, Paiola & 2013
Saccani
Beyond the service factory: Service innovation in manufacturing supply Industrial Marketing Management Spring & Araujo 2013
networks
Service innovation in manufacturing. Journal of Service Management Ettlie, John & Rosenthal. 2012
Moving from products to solutions: Strategic approaches for developing European Management Paiola, Saccani, 2012
capabilities Journal Perona & Gebauer
Visualizing the value of service-based offerings: empirical findings Journal of Business & Industrial Kindstom, Kowlakowski & 2012
from the manufacturing industry Marketing Nordin
Customer-focused and service-focused orientation in organisational Journal of Business & Industrial Gebauer & Kowlakowski 2012
structures Marketing
Any way goes: Identifying value constellations for service infusion Industrial Marketing Management Kowalkowski, Witell & 2012
in SMEs Gustafsson
Value co-creation in solution networks Industrial Marketing Management Jaakkola & Hakanen 2012
A capability perspective on service business development in small and Scandanavian Journal of Gebauer, Paiola & Edvardsson 2012
medium-sized suppliers Management
Service business development in small- to medium-sized Journal of Business-to-business Paiola, Gebauer & 2012
equipment manufacturers marketing Edvardsson
Enabling service innovation: a dynamic capabilities approach Journal of Business Research Kindstrom, Kowalkowski & 2012
Sandberg
Service-driven manufacturing: Provision, evolution and Journal of Service Management Gebauer, Ren, Valtakoski, 2012
financial impact of services in industrial firms & Reynoso
Separate or integrate? Assessing the impact of separation between product Journal of Business-to-Business Oliva, Gebauer & Brann 2012
and service business on service performance in product manufacturing firms Marketing
Internationalisation or externalisation? Examining organisational Managing Service Quality Kowalkowski, Kindstrom & 2011
arrangements for industrial services Witell
Servitization within manufacturing Journal of Manufacturing Technology Baines, Lightfoot & 2011
Smart
Service Logic: Transforming product-focused businesses Centre for Services leadership Brown, Gustafsson & 2011
Witell
Customer solutions in the capital goods industry: Examining the impact Industrial Marketing Management Tollner & Blut 2011
of the buying centre
Are pricing policies an impediment to the success of customer Industrial Marketing Management Sharma & Iyer 2011
solutions?
Exploring the contribution of management innovation to the Industrial Marketing Management Gebauer 2011
evolution of dynamic capbilities
Exploring the alignment between service strategy and service innovation Journal of Service Management Lightfoot & Gebauer 2011
Strategy and structure configurations for services within product-centric Journal of Service Management Raddats & Burton 2011
businesses
Aligning industrial services with strategies and sources of market Journal of Business & Industrial Raddats 2011
differentiation Marketing
Global approaches to the service business in manufacturing Journal of Business & Industrial Kucza & Gebauer 2011
companies Marketing
The service function as a holistic management concept Journal of Business & Industrial Kowalkowski 2011
Marketing
Service transition strategies of industrial manufacturers Industrial Marketing Management Salonen 2011
Industrial services, product innovations, and form profitability: a multiple Industrial Marketing Management Eggert, Hogreve, Ulaga, 2011
group latent growth curve Muenkhoff
A solution business model. Capabilities and management practices for Industrial Marketing Management Storbacka 2011
integrated solutions
Service and solution innovation: overview and research agenda Industrial Marketing Management Evanschitzky, Wangenheim, 2011
Woisetschlager
Hybrid offerings: how manufacturing firms combine goods and services Journal of Marketing Ulaga & Reinartz 2011
successfully
Misc
• Harvard Style
• Primarily peer-reviewed journals from credible journals (prefferably publishers like EBSCO, SAGE, etc.)
• 60+ references required
