When Two Worlds Collide: Exploring and Conceptualising the Professional Identity Construction and Role Performance of Sales Engineers in B2B Selling



Wagstaff, James
(2021) When Two Worlds Collide: Exploring and Conceptualising the Professional Identity Construction and Role Performance of Sales Engineers in B2B Selling. Doctor of Business Administration thesis, University of Liverpool.

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Abstract

In business-to-business selling organisations, managers find it difficult to hire, develop, and retain expert sellers, such as sales engineers, who possess and provide the necessary mix of technical skills, customer skills, and hands-on experience to meet increasingly ‘technicised’ buyer requirements. Gaps in understanding the sales engineering role and professional identity can cause managers to be ineffective in the planning, deployment, and administration of the practice of sales engineering in business-to-business sales organisations. This study engages 18 experienced sales engineers, from three organisations, using methods of hermeneutic phenomenology and action research to examine and improve the ways in which they construct their professional identities, develop their sales engineering practices, and perform the sales engineering role in the face of changing buyer expectations. Furthermore, this study seeks to understand how these sales engineers successfully synthesise the juxtaposed ‘worlds’ of engineering and sales that are the domains of the sales engineer’s role. This research illuminates, conceptualises, and implements actions concerning the way that sales engineering is performed in support of business-to-business selling. A by-product of this study is an examination of the ways in which sales engineering has evolved toward a ‘natural’ and practical application of service-dominant logic. This study contributes to theory and practice through the development of two conceptual frameworks. First, a non-linear recurring lifecycle that SEs traverse as they establish, develop, practise, adapt, navigate, and synthesise their roles and identities in the pursuit of becoming expert technical sellers in their professional identities and roles. Second, a practical understanding of the competencies, knowledge, skills, behaviours, and outcomes developed and practised by expert SEs in their professional roles and identities. These conceptual frameworks provide a coherent way for scholars and practitioners to understand, apply, and engage with the practice of sales engineering in business-to-business selling.

Item Type: Thesis (Doctor of Business Administration)
Divisions: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Management
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 04 Jun 2021 11:22
Last Modified: 18 Jan 2023 22:36
DOI: 10.17638/03124901
Supervisors:
  • Mastorakis, George
  • Shepherd, Jill
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3124901