On February 3, Simon-Kucher partnered with Future of Field Service to host the Service Growth Executive Summit in our New York City office. We brought together senior field service and customer support leaders representing commercial, strategy, operational technology, and private equity value-creation to discuss one question: how do you scale services growth when customers expect more, costs keep rising, and execution gets harder every year?
The afternoon blended research and candid peer discussion across the growth journey, from market sentiment and priority shifts, to practical lessons on value selling and price realization, to a forward look at digital and AI. We closed with clear takeaways, and kept the conversation going over dinner.
What field service leaders are thinking about
Leaders remain bullish on services. But the message was consistent: growth is there but, scaling it is the challenge. Cost pressure, tougher competition, and organizational complexity are forcing a rethink of how services organizations are built, how they compete, and how they enable teams to execute with discipline.
Three themes kept surfacing: organization design, commercial strategy, and commercial enablement. Progress in one area without the others doesn’t hold.
Field service commercial strategy: Win more by going deeper
Across industries, leaders pointed to one reliable growth lever: retain and expand the right accounts. New logos and acquisitions can help, but the fastest and lowest-risk growth comes from deepening existing relationships, when account strategies are deliberate, not reactive.
A major strategic shift is accelerating: moving beyond transactional break-fix into contracts, preventative offerings, and recurring or outcome-based models. Leaders were candid about the friction: customer resistance, procurement pressure, discomfort with value conversations, and inconsistent execution account to account. But the conclusion was blunt: break-fix caps scalability, margin stability, and differentiation. Moving beyond it isn’t optional, it’s strategic.
Leaders also emphasized that value-based strategies break down when value conversations stay too low in the customer organization. Frontline credibility matters, but pricing power requires engaging customer leadership. The strongest approaches connect the dots between what technicians see in the field, what sellers (and customers) say in the deal, and what executives hear in leadership conversations, creating a single, consistent value story.
Organization design in field services: Alignment beats structure
There’s no single “right” commercial operating model for services. Some organizations run sales-led motions, others are service- or technician-led, and many are hybrid. The common denominator isn’t where selling sits, but whether the customer experience feels coordinated and intentional.
The biggest friction point is still misalignment between sales, service, and operations. When each function optimizes for different goals, customers feel it fast, and escalation follows. Several leaders noted that escalations often happen not because performance is failing, but because the organization isn’t speaking with one voice.
Focus came up repeatedly. Many teams are drowning in dashboards yet struggling to act. Leaders who simplified down to a small set of customer-relevant outcomes – uptime, responsiveness, first-time fix – found it easier to align teams and move faster. The takeaway: simplification isn’t cosmetic, it’s an execution advantage.
Commercial enablement in field services: Make strategy show up in the moment
If organization design and strategy define the “what,” enablement determines whether anything changes. Leaders emphasized that enablement has to drive behavior in real interactions, not just awareness in training sessions.
Leadership enablement is especially critical in seller-doer environments, where leaders are also operators. In his keynote, Pedro Buhigas CIO of Kodiak Gas, shared Kodiak’s initiatives tied to “greenprint.” It came up as a clear example: a small set of principles that guide decisions, align behavior, and increase speed without constant oversight. In these environments, clarity beats process.
Tools and systems were another theme. Data and reporting are abundant, but adoption often isn’t. Leaders agreed that adding tools, or swapping CRMs, rarely fixes the core issue. The biggest gains come from simplifying KPIs, clarifying expectations, and reinforcing consistent use of what already exists.
Compensation was viewed as one of the highest-leverage, and highest-risk, enablement levers. Bad plans can destroy pricing discipline and trust. Effective approaches tie incentives to a small set of critical outcomes, balance financial and non-financial reinforcement, and use accelerators to push strategic priorities like contracts and pricing discipline. A key point: even activity-based rewards can work, but only if the plan is simple enough to understand and believe.
AI came up as an enablement tool, not a silver bullet. The most compelling use cases were practical and embedded: call-center sentiment analysis to protect customer trust, AI-supported ride-along coaching, and negotiation prep to help teams defend value. The consistent message: AI only delivers when it’s built into workflows, backed by clean data, and tied to measurable economics.
Why commercial discipline now outweighs complexity
The takeaway was clear: service growth today is less about bold new ideas and more about disciplined execution. Organizations that align structure, strategy, and enablement around the customer, and simplify relentlessly, will be best positioned to scale in a tougher, more demanding market.
We partner with field service leaders who want to move beyond big ideas and focus on what really drives results, which is better pricing, clearer priorities, and teams that execute with confidence. If you’re navigating similar challenges, connect with us.
Gain even more insights on where Field Services has headed. Download Part 1 and Part 2 of our 2025 Commercial Excellence Benchmarking Study, developed in partnership with Future of Field Service. Uncover how companies are navigating commercial challenges, redefining pricing and customer models, and positioning for sustained growth.
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