Understanding the role of service and value co-creation in sales functions

In today's market a customer buys a product not just for transactional value but for a value in use. Companies tend to look at the customer as a co-creator of value by engaging with the customers through learning, dialogue, mailers, and social media thereby following a collaborative approach for customized products and services. Accordingly, companies have moved from a post sales reactive strategy, to a presales proactive engagement with the customer leading to reduced dissonance and increased collaborative value creation. This paper critically analyses the essence of collaborative value creation and discusses the critical role of customers, intermediaries, and communication in current business scenario.