Closer to a win-win situation? Changes in the salespersons-customer relationship when implementing value-selling

Value selling is often presented to be the most profitable and competitive sales practice in business markets. This paper argues that the relevant theory does not consider the consequences of introducing value selling for the relationship between the individual salesperson and buyer. This is problematic since the literature assigns most responsibilities within value selling to the salesperson. The purpose of this paper is to understand how implementing value selling changes the salesperson-customer relationships. In a case study of two manufacturing firms and their implementation of value selling two changes have been identified. Firstly, value selling results in enhanced customer relationships, due to the salesperson’s improved understanding of the customer’s situation. Secondly, it leads to a stronger power position for the salesperson because of a decreased focus on prices and increased focus on value in the discussions with the customer.