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Although there is substantial practitioner evidence for changes in the role and functioning of sales in the twenty‐first century, there is little academic research charting new directions for the sales function in a business‐to‐business context. This paper aims to report on four case studies that illustrate how sales is changing.

The case studies involve large global companies who were changing their existing sales process to adapt to changing circumstances. The organizations comprised four global industries: construction, power solutions, building technology, and electronics and software.

The results demonstrate that sales is changing in three interrelated aspects: from a function to a process; from an isolated activity to an integrated one; and is becoming strategic rather than operational.

The results suggest that changes in the role of sales will affect sales processes and the way that the sales function liaises with other departments.

This paper aims to provide an overview of the European Journal of Marketing's special section on the Forum of Markets and Marketing, “Extending Service‐Dominant Logic”.

The approach takes the form of a conceptual integration of core concepts in S‐D logic, markets, and marketing.

This special section provides insight into the complexity of markets by investigating markets as configurations and systems and how value propositions drive value co‐creation.

This introduction to the special section integrates individual contributions toward advancing S‐D logic and suggests that additional research in this area will help to develop a general theory of markets and marketing.

The overview of this special section provides insight into how the development of a positive theory of the market(s) will help to further advance normative marketing theories and practice.

This overview of the special section integrates multiple perspectives on complex, dynamic systems and discusses their contributions to the development of an S‐D logic‐based theory of the market.