Solution selling can help you stand out from the competition, especially in complex or crowded markets where customers have many options and high expectations. By showing genuine interest and understanding of your customers' pain points, goals, and motivations, you can create rapport and loyalty, and position yourself as a trusted advisor and partner. Solution selling can also help you increase your sales performance, as you can tailor your pitch and proposal to match the customer's specific needs and budget, and demonstrate the value and return on investment of your solution. Additionally, solution selling can help you create long-term relationships and repeat business, as you can provide ongoing support, feedback, and upselling opportunities to your customers.
There are numerous benefits of solution selling, the most important one for me is, "solutionists are ever wealthy and relevant" Creating solutions to problems in an environment that creative-problem solving and strategic thinking is paramount, this increases solutionist's value and network.
7 key benefits of solution selling: You elevate the conversation You focus on your value You differentiate your business You build deeper engagement You become a trusted advisor You make more money You secure the future of your dealership Challenges: Competing with competitors Lack of time for selling Not getting a response from the prospect Prospects reluctance during the negotiation Inability to handle criticism or rejection Sales training Incapability to track deals Lack of time for prospecting Inability to answer prospect’s questions
Key benefits of solution selling include 1. Deeper understanding of clients/customers 2. More products or workflow selling improvements 3. Create Customer Loyalty 4. More money 5. Generate KOL's 6. Helps in product development 7. Secure future business 8. Value addition
Solution selling is can also be ongoing, ie maintenance, upgrades, complete system upgrades or redesign in the future. Cements your capabilities as a viable contributor to your customer’s or partners business. It’s a part of life for them.
Solution Selling earns trust of the customer and partners. It gives you huge sense of achievements. Although sales cycle can be long and at times challenging, as there are multiple moving parts in the solutions.
Solution selling is not without its challenges, however. It requires a high level of skill, knowledge, and creativity from the salesperson, as well as a deep understanding of the customer's industry, market, and environment. Solution selling also takes more time and effort than product selling, as you need to conduct thorough research, analysis, and discovery before presenting your solution. Moreover, solution selling can be risky, as you may face more objections, competition, and uncertainty from the customer, and you may need to collaborate with multiple stakeholders and decision-makers to close the deal.
Clear understandings of challenges in the business processes of the customer is key, be ready to spend time and efforts to dig into it.
While solution selling has a lot of benefits -their challenges can be unseen at times. Misunderstood goals / business cases, misalignment on expectations, not seeing or conveying the 360 view of a solution, missing out important stakeholders / resources to implement the solution, off-chart expectations on time to value and costs can be missed while selling solutions. These, when set incorrectly, reduces the value of the solution sold leading to wobbly implementation cycles and customer sentiments
To apply solution selling effectively, you need to follow a systematic and structured sales process that guides you through the different stages of the customer journey. Qualifying your prospects, discovering their needs, presenting your solution, handling objections, and closing the deal are all key steps for success. You can use various criteria and tools, such as BANT and SPIN, to assess prospects and uncover customer needs. You can also use FAB or SOCO to craft your message, and LAER or FEEL to address objections. Additionally, trial closes, urgency triggers, or alternative closes can be used to test the customer's readiness and overcome any hesitation. Solution selling is a powerful sales approach that requires skill, effort, and patience; however, by applying the steps outlined in this article, you can improve your solution selling skills and achieve better results.