The clue is in the name but solution selling involves the sale of a solution that solves a customer’s problems. The consultative solution sales methodology turns traditional sales on it’s head by focusing on a customer’s pain points and how to solve them rather than selling a capability or a product. Interestingly, not all sales people think or operate in this way after nearly four decades since the concept was first coined. Conversely, not all marketing teams think in this way and are more often than not wedded to products. So, read on and find out why solution selling is the present and the future.
Solution selling is the only way
In mature, saturated markets, how do you differentiate? Price? Features? Promotions? Unfortunately, this leads to a race to the bottom on price. The best sales reps in these markets either ‘own’ the best accounts or they have evolved into consultative solution sales. Given that so many CEOs still bemoan the slow pace of transition from selling products to solutions, it remains the future and not the present for many.
Traditional sales focus is on the capabilities of a product or the organisation to convey their value before closing a deal. Solution selling involves a dynamic understanding of the customer’s needs, problems and situation. It also involves the positioning of products, services and solutions to meet those needs. Put simply, it means a shift from pitching a product to listening to needs and presenting solutions.
For those in declining markets such as IT equipment, in transition from products to services such as mobile, or legacy products to internet-enabled services including software, the move to solution selling is critical to survival. Who would have foreseen IBM selling it’s product business (Lenovo)? Who foresaw Amazon as the market leader in cloud infrastructure (AWS)?
A marketing engine
It goes without saying that solution selling is largely the preserve of the B2B domain. But, is this transition entirely within the gift of sales? The answer is that it depends. It depends on the average deal size. The lower the deal size, the more likely that sales employ a hybrid approach between capability selling and solution selling. The larger the deal size, the more support that sales are likely to need to educate and convert.
The key to larger deal sizes is well-documented. Once enabled with solution selling trained teams, organisations look for lead generation initiatives to support greater success. This often starts at demand generation and evolves into account-based marketing (ABM) or beyond. The beyond is often linked to experience (ABX), intent-based technologies (OBM) and automation. B2B marketers ignore the relationship with sales at their peril.
Crucially, if solution selling is not central to your business strategy, you should critically ask yourself how you differentiate. A focus on needs, value, insight and expertise may enable you to win more, larger deals, more often. Perhaps it’s time to value your sales process.
Feeding the (solution) sales machine
Who remembers Shaun Goater, the footballer? Fans would often chant, “Feed the goat and he will score”. If the ball reached him, he was prolific and became his team’s top scorer for four seasons in a row until 2002. Fast forward 20 years and look at how few out and out strikers there are in top flight football. The top teams play high-energy, high-tempo passing, working together to hold the ball and patiently probe the opposition until an opportunity appears. In summary, a different type of player is perhaps required to succeed today.
Marketing is the machine that feeds B2B sales but not every business does it well. Imagine poor, old Shaun later in his career, only occasionally getting an opportunity to score when an opponent makes a mistake and the ball comes loose. He knows how to score but can’t get to the ball very often to convert. The opponents swarm him and his team and no matter how hard he works, his returns don’t increase proportionately. The competition is too fierce.
But, what if the manager, coaches, fitness staff, nutritionists, psychologists and an enhanced support team can get Shaun to not just wait for the ball? What if they can get the rest of the team to work together to create many more chances? What if they can embed a mindset to work the other team to open up opportunities? So, let’s now look at a business example.
A solution success story
Sheena is the top solution selling performer for Biz Solutions Ltd and has worked there for 4 years. They started out making 10-12 low margin product deals per week and thought about leaving for a competitor. The products were great and there was a real buzz around the place but their earning potential was limited. After sitting down with the Sales Director, they agreed that the sales strategy was an area of focus. Long-term, they would no longer compete solely on price, luck or the law of numbers. The rest of the board agreed.
The Sales Director and Marketing Director sat down to discuss how to transform marketing to support the new sales strategy. The new focus would see an evolution from high-volume demand generation to key-account marketing. Although the sales pipeline would temporarily dry up, it would lead to fewer, large high-margin deals.
Sheena now lands 2-3 high-margin solution deals per month and their commission has doubled. Sheena knows that how they integrate products and services into unique solutions to serve customer needs is the best in the market. With marketing’s support, they nurture customer relationships and understanding whilst listening to and identifying their business issues. It is a far cry from low-margin product sales and endless cold-calling.
Solution sales leadership
If you are reading this in a sales role, you are perhaps wondering how Sheena moved from 10-12 small deals per week to 2-3 large deals per month? The answer is leadership. If today, you manage based on bottom of the funnel pipeline conversion, this is contradictory to solution sales. If you pressure to close deals in the last week of the month, this is rooted in capability selling. Customers also get savvy to ‘fire sales’ or deals at the end of the month or the quarter. So, what’s the answer?
First of all, make sure that your business strategy includes solution selling. There is value in this methodology after all. Second, consider whether you can provide insight to your prospects. This is also important, aka insight selling, since 94% of decision-makers in B2B[1] look for vendors that display insight into their exact problems. Thirdly, it pays to feed the sales engine with good marketing. We think of this like a hybrid vehicle with two forms of propulsion, one ICE and one electric, which together achieve greater performance and economy.
Solution selling and a lead gen engine
This brings us neatly to a conclusion. Solution selling is clearly a better way to close larger deals and a necessity to avoid decline. Insight selling is the cherry on the cake once you are really good at it. So, who is responsible for it? Do we call a good sales trainer? Do we hire some solution sales roles? How about we hire some marketers? Ultimately, you must first decide that sales is central to strategy and leverage marketing capabilities to enhance it (not just a target to sell more). We must also acknowledge that we need support to close those bigger deals as the B2B buying cycle gets longer, more complex and more unpredictable. Finally, we need marketing that understands the market, finds opportunities, generates quality leads and supports conversion. Isn’t it time you fed the goat?
If you would like to discuss solution selling and how marketing supports your change, simply call 01565 632206. Alternatively, drop us an email at sales@think-beyond.co.uk or ask us to call you back.
[1] Forbes article – Insight selling is the new solution selling