A Value-in-Use-Oriented Sales Approach for Digital Services of Technology Companies

Today, technology companies are paying increased attention to the provision of digital services, and business customers’ actual usage process has become a pivotal concern. Thus, technology companies are turning their focus to customer value created during usage processes, referred to as “value-in-use”. This implies that the entire organization and ist ecosystem must adapt accordingly. This qualitative study identifies and classifies concrete fields of action for the sales team structure, the sales role itself, the selling process, and the customer-supplier relationship. The results shed light on a value-in-use-oriented sales approach for digital services that is currently implemented in the technology industry. The theoretical contributions include a holistic perspective on a changing business environment and its impact on the sales organization as well as an explicit focus on value-in-use. Managerial implications include recommendations to adjust recruitment and training activities based on developments in the team structure and a salesperson’s individual skills as well as to strengthen and extend the customer-supplier relationship.