B2B sales force productivity: applications of revenue management strategies to sales management

Firms should be able to apply the time-based philosophy of revenue management to their sales forces. To do so requires a revision in the way most sales divisions traditionally have viewed salesperson time. Hence, a different type of proposed measure, revenue per available salesperson hour, is proposed to better integrate the value of the salesperson's time as a factor in sales potential and revenue calculation. This article seeks to (1) foster a positive perception of revenue management as a viable sales approach, (2) establish a framework for such a strategy, and (3) set a useful road map for facilitating execution.     

The role of customer entertainment in B2B sales strategy: Comparative insights from professional buyers and salespeople

Customer entertainment is any activity considered to provide entertainment, amusement, or recreation. Business-to-business firms, as part of their sales strategy, have entertained customers for decades in hopes of influencing purchasing and building long-term relationships. Using social exchange theory and the element of reciprocity, this study examines how customer entertainment influences buyers' perceptions of gratitude, indebtedness, and purchase intention within their relationship with the B2B seller. In order to assess the importance and strategic role of customer entertainment in building and strengthening buyer-seller relationships, this study investigates customer entertainment throughout the sequential relationship stages of exploration, expansion, and commitment. A multimethod research design was developed comprised of 2 qualitative studies, 3 pretests, and a conclusive experimental field study that compared buyer attitudes with salespeople's perceptions of buyer attitudes. The final study contrasts results between 248 buyers and 245 salespeople and consists of a 3 × 3 experimental field study, with the levels of customer entertainment events and stage of relationship as manipulating variables. The analysis reveals that salespeople and buyers view of reciprocity differs, with salespeople being more socially oriented and focused on gratitude while buyers are more economically oriented and more attuned to indebtedness.     

Collective action initiatives to improve marketing performance: Lessons from farmer groups in Tanzania

This study aims to examine the extent to which certain characteristics and asset endowments of smallholder farmer groups facilitate collective action initiatives to improve group marketing performance. This is approached through an evaluation of a government-led programme in Tanzania, which is attempting to increase smallholder farmers’ incomes and food security through a market-oriented intervention. Findings suggest that more mature groups with strong internal institutions, functioning group activities, and a good asset base of natural capital are more likely to improve their market situation. Gender composition of groups also affects group marketing performance, as an enabling factor for male-dominated groups. Structural social capital in the form of membership in other groups and ties to external service providers, and cognitive social capital in the form of intra-group trust and altruistic behaviour are not significant factors in a group’s ability to improve its market situation.     

Marketing capabilities: Antecedents and implications for B2B SME performance

The study provides a new perspective on SME marketing strategies in the B2B context. Using a resource-based view of the firm, the study develops a structural model linking marketing capabilities and marketing performance. A study of 367 SME Australian firms reveals that two key marketing capabilities, namely branding and innovation, have major performance outcomes in the SME B2B context. This is the first SME study to evaluate concurrently the contribution of innovation and branding marketing capabilities, with innovation capability the strongest determinant of SME performance. The study also finds market orientation and management capability act as enabling mechanisms for building marketing capabilities. Disaggregation tests indicate that the same findings apply to three size categories denoting micro firms (less than 20 staff), small firms (20-99 staff) and medium-sized firms (100-499 staff).     

Transitioning from product to service-led growth in manufacturing firms: Emergent challenges in selecting and managing the industrial sales force

Despite the increasing strategic value of service-led growth in competitive and commoditized markets, firms frequently encounter problems orienting their industrial sales forces toward these new organizational objectives. To identify important potential challenges to firms attempting to make the transition to service-led growth, we conducted focus groups and depth interviews with 38 sales executives at goods-dominant business-to-business firms. Our discussion with C-suite managers uncovered four major transition issues, to wit, (1) the magnitude of change at the sales organization level triggered by a service transformation; (2) unique elements of selling hybrid offerings versus industrial goods; (3) the link between these differences and the sales proficiencies required for hybrid offering sales; and (4) potential individual differences among high-performing hybrid offering salespeople, compared with sales reps focused on goods sales. These insights highlight some of the managerial and sales force-level challenges that goods dominant firms will have to address as they attempt to initiate and maintain the transition to a service-led growth strategy.     

Organizational variables, sales force perceptions of readiness for change, learning, and performance among boundary-spanning teams: A conceptual framework and propositions for research

Sales organizations are continuously developing new ideas and approaches to be more competitive. One of the approaches taken by most successful organizations is the move from individuals to boundary-spanning, cross-functional teams. Sales teams are being employed to counter efforts by buying organizations to form buying centers. It is proffered in this paper that organizations that are ready for change are conducive to enhancement of sales team learning. Organization readiness for change is a condition impacted by a variety of organizational antecedent variables such as culture and climate. This paper proposes that sales team learning is impacted by team members' perceptions of the organization's readiness for change. In addition, we also posit the moderating influence of two environmental variables: turbulence and competitive intensity on the relationship between readiness for change and sales team learning. Sales team learning is then proposed to be related to a variety of sales outcomes. In this paper, we present a conceptual framework for understanding the contexts in which team learning occurs and the impact of team learning on team effectiveness. Throughout the paper, we present research propositions that provide opportunities for future examinations of team learning.     

Understanding the links between technological opportunism, marketing emphasis and firm performance: Implications for B2B

The capability of firms to sense and respond to changes in technologies, called technological opportunism, is of growing importance to managers as a source of competitive advantage. However, exactly how technological opportunism impacts firm performance is still not clearly understood. Furthermore, the role of marketing in this relationship, if any, has yet to be examined. Understanding this relationship is critical for marketing managers not only for determining strategic investments of resources but also for demonstrating marketing return on activities. This paper explores the links between technological opportunism and firm performance. The results show that technological opportunism has a strong positive impact on key measures of performance such as firm sales, profits and market value. Importantly, marketing emphasis is the mechanism through which the technological opportunism-performance relationship is achieved. Finally, the impact of marketing emphasis on B2B firms is different than that for B2C firms, highlighting the importance of these activities for B2B marketing managers.     

Using design thinking to respond to crises: B2B lessons from the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic

We examine the value of design thinking in times of crisis. Drawing on examples of firm innovations during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown, we propose that disruptive events represent wicked problems that require managers to break out of established patterns of thinking. Design thinking, or the problem solving approaches and tools of designers, represents one such approach. Drawing on extant research, we identify a three-stage process of design thinking: disrupt, develop and deliver, and transform. We examine each stage, identifying how careful disruptive thinking with a focus on understanding problems within their context can give rise to innovative solutions, resulting in a more resilient organisation.     

Green supply chain practices and environmental performance in Brazil: Survey,case studies,and implications for B2B

This article examines whether or not customers cooperate in organisations' environmental performance, in what circumstances it happens; and how customers can collaborate with organisations in order to they improve their environmental performance. This research uses both the Ecological Modernisation (EM) and the Resource Dependence Theory (RDT) to analyse the effects of external Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) practices, namely, ‘Cooperation with Customers’ (CC) and ‘Green Purchasing’ (GP) on the Environmental Performance (EP) of organisations. A multi-method research is used, combining a survey and multiple-case studies of Brazilian organisations. The main results and contributions of this research include: (a) the Brazilian setting, in the context of EM, provides incentives for adopting GSCM practices, especially CC practices; (b) Brazilian organisations depend more on customers than on suppliers to improve EP; and (c) an original matrix for a better understanding of the roles of suppliers and customers to achieve a better EP through a GSCM approach is proposed. This paper provides an extension to EM and RDT theories applied to green operations management by showing that external GSCM can improve EP and such process depends more on CC than GP. Implications for B2B are highlighted.     

A transition from goods-dominant to service-dominant exchange logic in a B2B relationship: A relationship positioning perspective

The study complements the dominant interpretations of positioning in marketing management research by introducing a relational perspective on positioning in the industrial markets. Instead of focusing on products, brand, or company image only, the study focuses on the exchange logic of the relationship. The study suggests that exchange logic of the relationship i.e. relationship logic comprises a fundamental unit of positioning in the industrial markets. Accordingly, the study defines that relationship logic stems from the dynamics of the action, structural and management dimensions that integrate the buyer and supplier organizations into their mutual relationship. Through a longitudinal empirical study of a relationship between buyer and supplier companies in the food service industry, we show how the relationship has been repositioned from goods-dominant to service-dominant relationship logic. The results reveal elements on the action and structural dimensions, their mutual dynamics and managerial reframing actions that catalyze changes in the relationship logic, i.e., reposit the relationship. The results are organized into a framework that delineates the relationship positioning dimensions, and discusses the implications of such relationship positioning to guide further academic research and managerial practice.     

You have not been archiving emails for no reason! Using big data analytics to cluster B2B interest in products and services and link clusters to financial performance

The potential of big data analytics when it comes to gaining business insights, such as market trends and consumer preferences, has captured the interest of both scholars and business practitioners. However, the extant literature has so far provided limited empirical evidence to demonstrate how big data analytics can create business value. To address this research gap, this paper followed a novel big data analytical approach that involved analysing email archives about product/services demand clusters in a B2B setting. We analysed 621 k emails exchanged between 2009 and 2018. We identified a number of discussion clusters that were considered proxies for the interest buyers expressed in the products/services on offer. These clusters and associated discussion trends were linked to the company's revenues and financial performance, showing good predictive power. In doing this, we have demonstrated how widely available data, such as emails, which all companies have, can be used to underpin new methods for the early identification and monitoring of product demand trends, informing marketing strategies.     

Exploring reputation of B2B partnerships: Extending the study of reputation from the perception of single firms to the perception of inter-firm partnerships

Reputation is a concept that has been widely studied in terms of the perceptions of characteristics of single firms. We argue that there is merit in extending the study of reputation to the perception of characteristics of inter-firm partnerships. Cases of business-to-business partnerships are used to explore the notion of partnership reputation and its associated characteristics. Insights from the study of corporate reputation are used to develop a conceptual model and propositions that specify some of the characteristics and outcomes of partnership reputation. We propose that partnership reputation includes perceptions of mutual understanding, flexibility of interaction and synergy. The benefits of partnership reputation are then explored in terms of the positive behaviours such a reputation may engender with stakeholders. The paper concludes by discussing limitations and outlining directions for future research.     

Learning from the implementation of Universal Free School Meals in Scotland using Normalisation Process Theory: Lessons for policymakers to engage multiple stakeholders

In 2014/15, Universal Free School Meals (UFSM) were introduced in Scotland and England for children in their first three years of primary school. This study examined the implementation of UFSM in Scotland using Normalisation Process Theory (NPT), a middle-range theory of implementation, to identify areas of learning for policymakers wishing to introduce or extend similar policies. NPT is predominantly used to evaluate interventions or new technologies in healthcare settings. Qualitative data were collected across Scotland using a case study approach shortly after implementation (n = 29 school-level stakeholders) and in the following school year (n = 18 school-level stakeholders and n = 19 local authority-level stakeholders). Observations of lunchtime in each school were conducted at both timepoints. Data were analysed using a thematic framework approach using NPT constructs and sub-constructs. Results suggested education and catering stakeholders experiences of implementation diverged most around the NPT concepts of coherence, cognitive participation, and reflexive monitoring. Lack of coherence around the purpose and long-term benefits of UFSM appeared to reduce education stakeholders’ willingness to engage with the policy beyond operational issues. In contrast, catering stakeholders identified a direct benefit to their everyday work and described receiving additional resources to deliver the policy. Overall, participants described an absence of monitoring data around the areas of greatest salience for education stakeholders. This study successfully used NPT to identify policy learning around school meals. Policymakers must increase the salience of such intersectoral policies for all relevant stakeholders involved before policy implementation, and plan adequate monitoring to evaluate potential long-term benefits.