Solution Selling

Solution  Selling

1) START AT THE BEGINNING

Before you can identify a PROBLEM you must take the time to learn about the prospect and the types of problems they face in their daily business operations. Ask your prospect open-ended questions focused on how they use the types of products or services you offer. Know your strengths as a potential supplier and know what you bring to the table that is UNIQUE as contrasted with your competitors.

2) BE A PROBLEM-SOLVER

The information gathering process may require multiple meetings over a period of time. Here you are beginning to establish yourself as someone that truly has the prospect's INTERESTS in mind, not just someone with a desire to sell something and move on. After you have a good understanding of problems and opportunities for improvement you can begin to offer potential SOLUTIONS to your prospect. The solution selling process is all about gaining a series of agreements using a step-by-step process. Successful solution selling requires the salesperson to navigate through the following steps before closing the sale.

3) WHAT IS THE PROBLEM OR UNMET NEED?

Is it only a matter of time before this need results in lost revenues, profits or productivity? Or is it something that would be good to resolve but realistically will not impact operations to any significant degree? If it's the latter, there may never be a compelling REASON to make a change -- therefore is it worth the effort from you to sell a solution if the odds are against the prospect taking action? It's best to face this early in the selling process before you INVEST significant time and effort. Once a problem has been uncovered, you want to gain agreement from your prospect that there is indeed a gap here that could be filled with your offering.

4) HOW CRITICAL IS THIS PROBLEM?

On the other hand, perhaps your competitor has had a recent history of erratic quality in their product or service -- one that could cause disruption in daily work flow and subsequent lost revenue to your prospect, which might place their customer relationships at risk. This can spell big OPPORTUNITY for you as an alternative supplier. Framing the potential business consequences of the problem and gaining agreement from your prospect from a "what if" perspective sets the stage for a sense of URGENCY to take action on your proposal and also provides guidance on the true monetary worth of your solution. At this point, if your contact has agreed there is a problem in need of a solution, he or she has a personal stake in advancing your proposal. Now in the next step, we focus on the decision process.

5)  WHO HAS AUTHORITY TO TAKE ACTION?

Can your contact act on his or her own? Does your proposal require the involvement and acceptance of others? Will others also have to SIGN OFF on the proposal before the sale is closed? It is critical at this point to define how the buying decision is made and who is involved. Now is the time to bring those additional decision makers into the selling PROCESS if they are not already involved. Be prepared to address objections and different viewpoints. Your original contact should be actively involved in promoting your solution at this stage.

6) GAIN THE FINAL AGREEMENT

By this point, you have raised the visibility of this unmet need and involved EVERYONE that touches it from a decision-making standpoint. You have an internal advocate for your proposed solution. And more importantly, by following this process you have established your CREDENTIALS as someone interested in solving problems and adding value beyond simply providing a product or service. Now you might have to amend your proposal to address new concerns or perspectives, but your professional approach and desire to solve a real problem significantly increase the odds of closing the sale.

Sales & Marketing: Please, please, don’t create development plans.

Sales & Marketing: Please, please, don’t create development plans.: Formal development plans are, like annual performance reviews, largely a corporate construct.  You should know what each of your employe...

Please, please, don’t create development plans.

Formal development plans are, like annual performance reviews, largely a corporate construct. 

You should know what each of your employees hopes to achieve: Skills and experience they want to gain, career paths they hope to take, etc.

So talk about it--informally. Then assign projects that fit. Provide training that fits. Create opportunities that fit.

Then give feedback on the spot. "Develop" is a verb. To develop requires action.

"Development" is a noun that sits in a file cabinet.

Annual performance reviews are a waste of time.

Years ago my review was late so I mentioned it to my boss. He said, "I'll get to it... but you should know you won't hear anything new. You've already heard everything I will say, good or bad. If anything on your review comes as a surprise to you I haven't done my job."

He was right. The best feedback isn't scheduled. The best feedback happens on the spot when it makes the most impact, either as praise and encouragement or as training and suggestions for improvement. 

Waiting for a scheduled review is the lazy way out.

Your job is to coach and mentor and develop--every day.

Source: Inc.

Eight essential selling skills

1. Researching Prospects

Chances are your prospect knows plenty about you, your firm and your competition. In order to add real value, you'll need to know even more about the prospect, the prospect's business and the prospect's own customers.

2. Planning Meetings

Every contact with a prospect or customer should end in some kind of commitment from the customer—an agreement to do something that will move the process forward. This is only possible if you plan carefully to make it happen.

3. Creating Rapport

The first decision that every buyer makes is: "Do I want to do business with this person?" To create that all-important instant connection, you've got be curious, personable and really care about the people you're trying to help.

4. Asking Questions

If you can't satisfy a customer's real needs, you can't make a sale. And if you don't ask the right questions–or if you ask them the wrong way–you'll never know what the customers really need, and therefore will never be able to help.

5. Listening Actively

This is even more important than asking the right questions. When customers are talking, it's not enough to keep your mouth closed. You've also got to keep your mind open to discover ways to truly be of service.

6. Presenting Solutions

This means creating and describing a specific solution to previously agreed-upon needs. Note: It is the exact opposite of a sales pitch, which is a one-size-fits-all way to say "all I care about is making a sale."

7. Asking for Commitment

All of the above is completely pointless if the activity doesn't eventually result in some sales. If you don't ask for the business at some point, it's not going to happen. So learn how to ask.

8. Building Relationships

Your short-term goal is to walk "arm in arm" with the customer as they arrive at the best possible solution. Your long-term goal is to become part of that customer's essential business network ... and vice versa.

How to unmotivate

Recall your worst day at work, when events of the day left you frustrated, unmotivated by the job, and brimming with disdain for your boss and your organization. That day is probably unforgettable. But do you know exactly how your boss was able to make it so horrible for you? This article will provide you insight into the precise levers you can use to re-create that sort of memorable experience for your own underlings.

The key factor you can use to make employees miserable on the job is to simply keep them from making progress in meaningful work.

People want to make a valuable contribution, and feel great when they make progress toward doing so. Knowing this progress principle is the first step to knowing how to destroy an employee’s work life. Many leaders, from team managers to CEOs, are already surprisingly expert at smothering employee engagement. In fact, on one-third of the time, employees are either unhappy at work, demotivated by the work, or both.

Step 1: Never allow pride of accomplishment.
When analyzing the events occurring on people’s very worst days at the office, one thing stands out: setbacks. Setbacks are any instances where employees feel stalled in their most important work or unable to make any meaningful contribution. So, at every turn, stymie employees’ desire to make a difference. An example is a head of product development, who routinely moves people on and off projects like chess pieces in a game for which only he has the rules.

The next step follows organically from the first.

Step 2: Miss no opportunity to block progress on employees’ projects.
Every day, you’ll see dozens of ways to inhibit substantial forward movement on your subordinates’ most important efforts. Goal-setting is a great place to start. Give conflicting goals, change them as frequently as possible, and allow people no autonomy in meeting them. If you get this formula just right, the destructive effects on motivation and performance can be truly dramatic.

Step 3: Give yourself some credit.
You’re probably already doing many of these things, and don’t even realize it. That’s okay. In fact, unawareness is one of the trademarks of managers who are most effective at destroying employees’ work lives. They generally think their employees are doing just fine – or that “bad morale” is due to the employees’ unfortunate personalities or poor work ethics. Rarely will they give themselves credit for how much their own words and actions make it impossible for people to get a sense of accomplishment. You may be better at this than you think!

Step 4: Kill the messengers.
Finally, if you do get wind of problems in the trenches, deny, deny, deny. And if possible, strike back. Here’s a great example. In an open Q&A with one company’s chief operating officer, an employee asked about the morale problem and got this answer: “There is no morale problem in this company. And, for anybody who thinks there is, we have a nice big bus waiting outside to take you wherever you want to look for work.”

A good quote to keep in your back pocket.




Source: Washington Post

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