Customer business development: identifying and responding to buyer-implied information preferences

Customer business development (CBD) transforms the selling function from 'pushing products' towards creating value by developing the business customer's business. For key accounts, CBD salespeople align their customer relationship management tasks of planning, selling, and implementing solutions to best integrate customer needs with the seller's strategic account management goals. A vital process mechanism involves the salesperson's observations of their business buyer's tendencies to favor solutions steeped in information characterized here as either market-centered or cost-centered. Findings show that CBD salespeople use signals from buyer commitments to identify and adapt selling behaviors (relationship-forging tasks) to achieve relational and financial objectives. To align with market-centered preferences, CBD salespeople share information about the buyer's market and propose plans for market development. In contrast, to align with cost-centered preferences, CBD salespeople focus on coordinating interfirm activities. While cost-centered adaptations yield expected positive financial returns, interestingly, market-centered adaptations negatively impact on the seller's financial returns.