Three essays on b2b solution selling - challenges in sales, contracting, and pricing

  • Offering solutions impose manifold challenges on suppliers. To master these challenges, suppliers need excellent commercial capabilities. This thesis considers these challenges and opportunities in sales, contracting, and pricing of complex B2B solutions in three essays: Essay 1 addresses the increased complexity for solution salespeople, who represent an essential strategic asset in solution selling. In-depth interviews with solution sales managers in study 1 and survey data from matched sales manager-salesperson dyads in study 2, reveal nine specific equifinal configurations of key personal and procedural competencies that qualify individual salespeople in their role and thus determine their solution sales success. The focus of essay 2 lies on B2B export relationships for complex product-service combinations in an international context. A regression analysis based on a survey study with 198 responses shows several direct and indirect effects of contractual and cultural constructs. The results give insights under which culturalOffering solutions impose manifold challenges on suppliers. To master these challenges, suppliers need excellent commercial capabilities. This thesis considers these challenges and opportunities in sales, contracting, and pricing of complex B2B solutions in three essays: Essay 1 addresses the increased complexity for solution salespeople, who represent an essential strategic asset in solution selling. In-depth interviews with solution sales managers in study 1 and survey data from matched sales manager-salesperson dyads in study 2, reveal nine specific equifinal configurations of key personal and procedural competencies that qualify individual salespeople in their role and thus determine their solution sales success. The focus of essay 2 lies on B2B export relationships for complex product-service combinations in an international context. A regression analysis based on a survey study with 198 responses shows several direct and indirect effects of contractual and cultural constructs. The results give insights under which cultural framework conditions contract specificity serves as a safeguarding mechanism against uncertainty and opportunism. Essay 3 examines how the bidirectional agency relationship between suppliers and customers and the performance uncertainty of a solution influence B2B customers’ acceptance of performance-based pricing (PBP). Drawing on a cross-industry survey with 196 managers of B2B firms, this study contributes to extend PBP literature by showing how bidirectional agency relationships shape customers’ acceptance of PBP. In sum, this thesis contributes to a better understanding on how to optimize commercial capabilities in the context of national and international solution selling. It thereby focuses on addressing recently identified causes that hinder B2B firms from increasing their margins through solution selling by (1) optimizing the sales force through a better understanding of important resources and capabilities for solution selling, (2) optimizing their contractual set-up through a better understanding of cultural factors and the interplay with contract specificity, and 3) optimizing price policy through a better understanding of framework conditions, which have an impact on customers’ acceptance of PBP.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author:Gloria Stoffer
URN:urn:nbn:de:bvb:739-opus4-14728
Advisor:Dirk Totzek, Jan H. Schumann
Document Type:Doctoral Thesis
Language:English
Year of Completion:2024
Date of Publication (online):2024/08/27
Date of first Publication:2024/08/27
Publishing Institution:Universität Passau
Granting Institution:Universität Passau, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät
Date of final exam:2023/12/20
Release Date:2024/08/27
Tag:business-to-business; customization; solution selling
Page Number:VIII, 165 Seiten
Institutes:Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät
Dewey Decimal Classification:3 Sozialwissenschaften / 33 Wirtschaft / 330 Wirtschaft
open_access (DINI-Set):open_access
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - CC BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International