Dissertation: ​Customer Meetings Considered Valuable regardless of Sales Results

In her doctoral dissertation in the field of marketing, to be examined at the University of Turku, Sini Jokiniemi studied the creation, appreciation and utilisation of value created in the interaction between companies buying and selling professional services.

In her dissertation, Jokiniemi examined customer meetings from the participants' perspectives. She concluded that both sellers and customers felt that meetings had a positive impact on them in their personal and professional roles, and from the business and company perspectives.

Seller Helps Buyer Become a Better Internal Seller

The dissertation material contains detailed descriptions, given by the sellers and the representatives of the buyer companies, of the variety of impacts an individual meeting had on their activities both during and after the meeting. According to Jokiniemi, some of these were surprising. Buyers appreciated discussions with the sellers, which, in their opinion, clarified their plans and selection criteria.

– These discussions give buyers more leverage when it comes to proving their point to internal customers. When a buyer talks to someone else within the company, such as the management group, the buyer becomes an internal seller whose success partly depends on how well the external seller has prepared him or her for this situation.

Meanwhile, sellers appreciate the opportunity to help the buyer meet a challenge.

– Rather than focusing on making money, sellers were enthusiastic about helping their customers. This provides sales executives with food for thought, particularly in terms of incentives and occupational wellbeing.

Better Understanding Is Required of the Value of Sales Meetings

Jokiniemi's dissertation challenges the prevailing approach to sales meetings, which views them as an expense. Instead, she says, companies need a better understanding of the value of customer meetings, as the benefits spread to both companies and have a positive effect on cooperation with other customer companies and networks.

– Companies should view customer meetings as a kind of equity that provides value to a number of beneficiaries, and adopt a management style in accordance with this notion, Jokiniemi points out.

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Sini Jokiniemi defended her doctoral dissertation in Marketing entitled ’Once again I gained so much’ - Understanding the value of business-to-business sales interactions from an individual viewpoint on the 12th of September, 2014.

Opponent: Christian Kowalkowski (Hanken School of Economics)
Custodian: Aino Halinen-Kaila