Selling Teams: A Conceptual Framework and Research Agenda

Abstract

As products and services become more technologically complex, and as buyers come to expect increasing levels of service, team selling is becoming more prevalent. Although the practitioner literature recognizes the emergence of team selling, the academic literature has yet to provide a clear conceptual model to guide research in this area. This article develops such a model and offers an organizing framework that proposes two types of selling teams: core teams and selling centers. It describes how different types of selling teams operate in practice and articulates both managerial and academic issues involved in team selling.