Rethinking B2B Sales Through Customer Value
Research-based perspectives, reflections, and practical insights on how B2B companies can move from product-focused selling to customer-centric value sales, create greater customer value, and build stronger, more profitable customer relationships.
What is the difference between sales training, a sales development program and a sales academy? Research-based definitions and how to choose the right one.
Read more: Sales Training, Sales Development Programs and Sales Academies: What Is the Difference?What is the difference between sales competencies and sales capabilities? Learn how the distinction clarifies sales enablement and B2B sales performance.
Read more: From Sales Competencies to Sales Capabilities: The Role of Sales EnablementThe four cornerstones of modern B2B sales leadership: data-driven coaching, value-based orchestration, psychological safety and freeing sellers’ time with AI.
Read more: Beyond the Quota: The 4 Cornerstones of Modern B2B Sales LeadershipWhy B2B sales leaders should build Sales Kickoff 2026 around customer value, with a four-step framework to identify, co-create, demonstrate and realize value.
Read more: Why Sales Kickoff 2026 Must Be the Year of Customer ValueWhy ready-to-buy customers hesitate at the moment of purchase, how suppliers make buying difficult, and how removing obstacles helps turn prospects into buyers.
Read more: Why You Should Make It Easy to Buy from YouHow to tell a great B2B salesperson from a self-proclaimed one: which numbers to check beyond revenue, and what to verify before hiring or partnering up.
Read more: You Know a Salesperson from the NumbersA short video by Dr. Paul Viio on three key components for building a successful value-based business through value co-creation, value sales and value pricing.
Read more: 3 Key Components for Success in Value SalesWhy B2B sales professionals should understand their customer’s purchasing, procurement and sourcing strategy and buying process. A short video by Paul Viio.
Read more: Why It's Important to Know Your CustomerWhat is customer focus, how does it differ from customer orientation, why does it matter in sales, and how do you build a customer-focused mindset and behavior?
Read more: What Is Customer Focus, Why Is It Important and How to Become Customer FocusedA short video by Dr. Paul Viio on the customer avatar and why it makes sense to zoom in on one customer avatar when segmenting your customers.
Read more: Why You Too Should Create Your Customer AvatarValue-based pricing sets prices by an offering’s value to the customer, not by cost or market price. See how it compares and what it offers buyers and sellers.
Read more: What Is Value Pricing or Value-Based Pricing?Digitalization is changing B2B buying and selling. The Divia Growth and Sales 2015 seminar covered digital sales, the value approach and IT–sales co-operation.
Read more: Sales Goes Digital at the Divia EventPaul Viio’s article in Myynti & Markkinointi explains why B2B salespeople must know their customer’s business, including its key figures and performance.
Read more: News: Value Sales Article in "Myynti & Markkinointi"Viio and Grönroos (2015) in Industrial Marketing Management: how the relationship orientation of buyer and seller affects sales process adaptation.
Read more: New Article by Viio & Grönroos: How buyer–seller relationship orientation affects adaptation of sales processes to the buying processA visit to The Bike Shop shows value-based selling in practice: probing questions, handling a price objection and making the value of service visible.
Read more: Value-Based Selling at the Bike ShopAs of 1 March 2015, Aalto University School of Business appointed Dr. Paul Viio Professor of Practice in Sales to bring business and sales research closer.
Read more: News: Dr. Paul Viio Appointed Professor of Practice in Sales at Aalto UniversityViio and Grönroos (2014) in Industrial Marketing Management: how sellers adapt sales processes to buyers and why the purchasing portfolio matters.
Read more: New article by Viio & Grönroos: Value-based sales process adaptation in business relationshipsHow to build a service business that is meaningful for customers and can revolutionise an industry: lessons from a Hanken workshop with Upplands Motor.
Read more: How to Build a Service Business That Can Revolutionise an IndustryIn March 2013 Dr. Paul Viio was appointed Visiting Lecturer at Donau-Universität Krems in Austria, teaching value-based selling to Executive MBA students.
Read more: News: Dr. Paul Viio Appointed Visiting Lecturer, Donau-Universität Krems, AustriaAs of 1 January 2013, Dr. Paul Viio was appointed Director Sales Research at CERS, Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, focusing on value-based sales.
Read more: News: Dr. Paul Viio Appointed Director Sales Research at HankenKnow yourself, know your customer: an article in Logica CGI’s Ratkaisu magazine on sales competence, customer relationships and why security matters in selling.
Read more: A Good Salesperson Knows His CustomerWhy knowing yourself and your values makes it easier to set meaningful goals, and why perseverance and honesty with yourself are needed to stay on track.
Read more: Stay True to YourselfIn August 2012 Dr. Paul Viio was appointed Visiting Professor at the International University of Monaco (IUM), teaching B2B sales to MBA students.
Read more: News: Dr. Paul Viio Appointed Visiting Professor at IUMWhat is real success? Why success based on values, not money alone, matters for executives, and how values, measurements and rewards tune organizations for it.
Read more: Success Based on Values Is Real SuccessWhy sales work should be derived from personal values such as honesty rather than from chasing quotas, and how this supports sustainable, accountable selling.
Read more: Values Should Drive the Sales WorkPaul Viio presented his sales and sales management research at the AMA SERVSIG International Service Research conference 2012, hosted by Hanken in Helsinki.
Read more: Presenting at the AMA SERVSIG Conference in Helsinki, Finland
