15.06.2026

Sustainability as a topic has evolved from supplementary principle into central frame of reference, shaping value contributions, especially in sales.

In recent years, sustainability has evolved from a supplementary guiding principle into a central frame of reference for corporate action. In the B2B environment, companies are no longer assessed solely on the basis of traditional performance criteria such as price, quality and delivery reliability. Ecological, social and governance-related aspects (ESG) are increasingly shaping business decisions (Gabler, Landers and Itani, 2023).

Therefore, companies are required to disclose their sustainability performance transparently. They also need to communicate it in a way that meets both market expectations and the requirements of institutional frameworks. For sales, this means presenting sustainability not as an abstract ideal, but as a concrete and comprehensible performance dimension.

Role of sales is changing

At the same time, the role of sales is changing: it is no longer concerned exclusively with marketing products and services, but is becoming a central actor in communicating sustainability-related value contributions (Gabler, Landers and Itani, 2023).

In industrial and business-customer settings, superficial or purely image-driven communication is therefore insufficient. Where investment decisions are often rational, long-term and process-oriented, sustainability arguments must be embedded in the customer’s technical and commercial logic. In this context, sustainability communication serves not only positioning purposes, but also legitimisation and differentiation in competition.

Sustainability communication provides legitimisation and differentiation.

In order to implement sustainability successfully in the B2B context, sales must act as a central interface that connects internal strategies with external market requirements. Salespeople transmit information in both directions, between their own organisation and the customers and their organization (Gabler, Landers and Itani, 2023). On the one hand, they must communicate the company’s sustainable value proposition externally; on the other, they must convey customers’ specific sustainability needs back into the organisation (Hautamäki, Jensen and Urbinati, 2025). Without this interface, loss of credibility may arise (Gabler, Landers and Itani, 2023).

Ecological, social and governance-related aspects

Describing the technical features of a sustainable product is often not enough. The objective must be to demonstrate to the customer how sustainable solutions support business goals and generate measurable competitive advantages (Haas-Kotzegger, 2025). Effective value communication transforms abstract ESG goals into tangible economic and operational benefits for the buyer (Scheidler et al., 2024).

A central line of argument concerns economic efficiency, which often only becomes visible when considering the total cost of ownership (TCO). Although sustainable products frequently involve higher acquisition costs, they pay for themselves over the life cycle through significantly lower operating costs ,like energy savings, reduced material consumption or a longer service life (Hautamäki, Jensen and Urbinati, 2025). Salespeople must therefore be capable of quantifying these long-term cost advantages and demonstrating them transparently to the customer in order to reduce price sensitivity and increase investment.

Total cost of ownership and risk minimization can act as sustainability value creators

Alongside cost savings, risk minimisation is another strand of arguments, resting on the assumption that cooperation with an ESG-compliant supplier reduces the risk of fines, reputational damage and exclusion from public tenders (Wellbrock and Ludin, 2025). In many industries, proof of sustainable practices is thus becoming a license to operate.

At a strategic level, sustainability functions as a strong differentiating feature in saturated markets. By using sustainable upstream products, companies can improve their own brand image and position themselves as responsible actors. A credible sustainability profile also enables access to new customer segments and markets that require strict ESG criteria, as well as to more favorable financing conditions (Damhorst and Wilken, 2025). Not least, a clear commitment to sustainability strengthens employer attractiveness, which constitutes a valid argument for customers in the competition for skilled labor.

Importance of sustainability in sales

The question remains, however, what role sustainability aspects already play in day-to-day sales activities. The empirical evidence points to a growing importance of sustainability in sales, although this development is strongly driven by external factors. According to a recent survey conducted by FH Dortmund in 2024, 60% of the sales employees surveyed stated that the topic had become ‘more important’ or ‘much more important’ over the previous three years (Scheidler et al., 2024). This assessment is supported by data from the Bertelsmann Stiftung, according to which 42.2% of companies in the real economy recorded a clear increase in the importance of the issue compared with the previous year (Bertelsmann Stiftung, 2024c).

At the same time, 76% of sales employees assign only medium or no priority to the issue in their operational day-to-day work. A central reason for this lies in the lack of concrete implementation, as 80% of respondents have no sustainability-related targets anchored in their individual target agreements (Scheidler et al., 2024).

In addition, while 88% of B2B customers request information on sustainability in tenders, this often does not correspond to a genuine willingness to pay (Scheidler et al., 2024). This discrepancy leads to an attitude–behavior gap on the customer side and presents sales with the challenge of selling value that customers demand but are unwilling to pay for (Fröhlich et al., 2024).

German sustainability study

For this reason, we conducted our own survey among German sales employees in order to determine how frequently sustainability aspects form part of sales conversations. For this we asked for permission to collect data during a sales training for sales engineers from machinery. Out of the 12 participants, seven answered the short online survey (one mentioned being a buyer and was not taken into account). In addition, we collected data from nine interviews – based on the same questions as in the survey- with sales professionals across different industries. 25% of the participants worked for a company with up to 1,000 employees, 13% for one with between 1,000 and 5,000 employees and the rest – 63% for companies with more than 5,000 employees (the largest one having 30,000 employees). All respondents had more than three years of sales experience, 13% more than 5 years and 56% even more than ten years.

All but one participant mentioned a sustainability strategy in place with their employer. At the same time, half of the survey respondents mentioned that sustainability is not part of the sales strategy (one participant didn’t know), while the other half mentioned this to be the case. We also asked if sustainability goals were integrated into the sales target systems internally. Only a quarter mentioned this while the rest reported not having such goals within the sales target system.

We asked if customers actively approach sustainability as part of a typical sales pitch. Six (38%) mentioned this to be the case (“fully” and “mostly” agree) while five (31%) did not report this to be the case (“not” or “most likely not”) with the rest reporting no clear tendency (“sometimes”). We also asked for customers’ estimated willingness to pay more for sustainable solutions. Participants were sceptical here. 10 or 62.5% estimated a maximum of 5%, four or 25% estimated a premium of 5 to 10% and only two (12.5%) saw a premium of 10 to20% as being realistic.

Conclusion

Although our short study does not allow generalization, we see a gap in empirical data related to the role of sustainability in sales interactions with customers, and the integration of sustainability targets into sales strategies and targets.