Sales Orientation versus Marketing Orientation in Providing Technical Service

Abstract

All organizations must adopt some method and philosophy of doing business. While a large number of firms worldwide are attempting to adopt a market-driven orientation to operating their business, still others operate from a philosophical basis of a sales-driven orientation. For each of these orientations, providing technical service is a growing challenge. A sales-driven orientation treats technical service as an opportunity to cross-sell. A market-driven orientation allows the organization to establish strong relationships with customers, apply customer relationship management (CRM) principles and continuously gather market intelligence. Enhancing the creativity of those who provide technical services can improve the quality that customers receive. The creativity of technical service providers can be improved through creativity training and adjustments to the work climate. Such training represents an opportunity for improving the quality of technical service that customers receive and may also increase profitability. Market-driven organizations see providing technical service as an opportunity to improve customer loyalty and establish strategic competitive advantage.