The increasing globalization has lead companies to venture into new areas of business, and thereby new markets. When entering a new market, it is important to gain market knowledge to be able to satisfy the customers’ needs. Companies are no longer competing only with products and services; they are also striving to increase their competitive advantage by improving the processes that ultimately deliver the result. In order to obtain competitive advantages, designing business processes to meet the needs of the customers is therefore vital for companies to succeed. Entries into new markets may therefore require adaption to new customers in order to sustain the purpose of the processes. For a telecommunications company venturing into the market of Public Safety, changing preconditions for customers are inevitable, why companies must be aware of changes in the customer’s needs and requirements. When preconditions are changed in this sense, adaptions to the supplier’s sales process might be necessary in order to enable building a relationship between the supplier and the customer. The aim of this study is therefore to establish how companies active in the telecommunications industry can adapt their sales process to new customer requirements and needs when entering the market of Public Safety. This to address the issues that may arise when the established sales process is no longer suited to new customers’ needs and requirements. The thesis is based on a case study at a global telecommunications company, which recently entered the Public Safety market. To create a greater understanding of subjects and findings presented in the report, a literature review touching on the structure of the sales process as well as the preconditions surrounding public procurement is presented. To further create an understanding of the case company’s sales process, nine in-depth interviews were conducted with employees active in the process. In order to draw conclusions on how the sales process should be adapted to Public Safety, five in-depth interviews with customers were conducted. Through analysis, seven underlying needs of the customers could be identified. Further analysis has focused on whether the case company fulfills these needs and aimed to identify gaps between the sales process and the customers’ procurement process. Based on the analysis, recommendations for companies who are entering markets where the customers have similar needs were formulated. One major conclusion of this thesis is that customers within the Public Safety market value traits in a supplier that are not specified as requirements in the formal tender documents. Furthermore, the conclusions expand on these traits and touches on their impact on the customer’s assessment of the supplier. The conclusions also connect the findings of the study to the theory presented, consequently emphasizing how companies should adapt their sales processes to better meet the customer needs. / <p>Validerat; 20160629 (global_studentproject_submitter)</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:ltu-42267 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Lindberg, Linnea, Perzon, Karolina |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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