Requirements Engineering Practices to Support Understanding Customer Needs in B2B Sales
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Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Perustieteiden korkeakoulu |
Master's thesis
Author
Date
2023-08-21
Department
Major/Subject
International Design Business Management, Master of Science (Technology)
Mcode
SCI3043
Degree programme
Master’s Degree Programme in International Design Business Management (IDBM)
Language
en
Pages
93 + 11
Series
Abstract
This B2B sales process has changed severely during the last decades due to the industry's growth and increased competition. Therefore exploring this area was a big part of my professional and personal interest. Since the evolving nature of sales, people in sales nowadays must have a deep understanding of customer needs. The goal of the study was to find the potential methods to understand customer needs better and support identifying unknown customer needs in a B2B sales environment. A literature review was undertaken to research the specifics of the B2B sales process and its challenges. The empirical study, by the mean of interviews, reaffirmed these challenges and further explored the limitations imposed by the B2B sales environment. The literature review deepens into analyzing the requirements engineering process and its elicitation techniques. It was concluded that requirements elicitation practices best contribute to understanding customer needs during the discovery phase. Moreover, applying requirements engineering practices to B2B sales could potentially improve the communication between the salespeople and stakeholders. The study suggests that although requirements elicitation practices could support addressing customer needs during the discovery phase of the B2B sales process, these practices would need to be tailored to suit the dynamic sales process. Specifically, those techniques should focus on understanding customer needs and fostering customer relationships, as well as focusing on bringing value to the customer. Therefore, while promising, their application requires careful consideration and adoption.Description
Supervisor
Kauppinen, MarjoThesis advisor
Kauppinen, MarjoKeywords
Requirement engineering, B2B Sales, Understanding Customer Needs, Unknown Customer Requirements
