Interrelations of success factors for selling product-service systems from a solution sales perspective

Abstract

Many Business-to-Business (B2B) companies are shifting their focus from transactional selling to engaging in long-lasting relationships with their customers. This impacts how companies sell their products and services. Instead of selling isolated products and services in single transactions, companies bundle and individualize their products and service to address individual customer needs. These bundles are called product-service systems (PSS) or solutions. This work reflects the current body of knowledge on selling PSS based on a literature review and provides new insights based on a qualitative study conducted with three multinational B2B companies providing PSS. Our findings propose that companies struggle to profit from PSS with a variety of different reasons. Implications on PSS itself are not quantified easily due to high variability of accounting practice regarding PSS and their service components. Furthermore, according to our interview results, for achieving long-term success with PSS three factors and their interrelations are critically important. First, PSS must fit into the targeted market strategy. Second, PSS and the market strategy must be consequently implemented within the organizational structure and the conduct of day-to-day business. Third, PSS providers have to deal with complexity which PSS comprise.