Selling digital twins in business-to-business markets

Abstract

Selling value generated by digital solutions for customers is different than selling traditional physical equipment. The purpose of this chapter is to study how digital twin sales can be promoted. The chapter combines the literature of business-to-business (B2B) sales with new information coming from a study on digital twinning in a manufacturing context. The study includes the results of ten semi-structured theme interviews that were conducted in January and February of 2020 with six digital twin provider companies from the areas of intelligent machine control systems, software solutions, real-time simulation, and machine engineering. The result is a model illustrating the levels of customer and data-based-solution understanding needed to successfully sell digital twins in the B2B market. The model was applied to the six case companies, each with a different digital-twin solution, and practical examples are presented that were revealed during the qualitative interviews. The empirical study identified different challenges related to the sale of differing levels of the digital-twin solution. The results indicate that companies that targeted more complex digital-twin developments required a higher level of technological proficiency from their salespeople and a stronger understanding of the value elements for the customers, their businesses, and their business ecosystems.