Holistic Selling: An Emerging Paradigm in B2B Markets

Abstract

Contemporary trends in the buying behavior of increasingly technology-empowered business customers are triggering disruptive shifts in B2B selling and sales management, which have recently been the subject of extensive research. So far, however, there has been no comprehensive investigation into how foundational elements of B2B selling, encompassing its purpose, the salesperson's role, and core selling activities, are being impacted by rapidly evolving B2B buying behaviors. This research probes this issue, drawing on the theories-in-use of B2B executives and salespeople struggling to meet today's B2B selling challenges. The authors find that a novel selling paradigm, which they call holistic selling (HS), is emerging. The article details how HS differs from the existing paradigms of personal selling, relational selling, and digital selling regarding the foundational elements of B2B selling. Under HS, the key role of the salesperson evolves from order getting or long-term relationship building, as in existing paradigms, to orchestrating all buyer–seller touchpoints to boost buyers along buyer-led purchase journeys. The authors provide propositions for the effect of HS versus other paradigms on buying effectiveness at different purchase journey stages, along with key boundary conditions of this effect. The article closes with implications for reorienting B2B sales organizations and future research directions.

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