The Art of Selling ERP Solutions: How Sales Directors Can Lead Digital Transformation.

In 2022, John Smith wrote an article in Businessweek entitled "The Art of Selling ERP Solutions to Retail Companies." Smith analyzes how ERP solutions can be a valuable tool for retail companies looking to improve efficiency and reduce costs. He argues that instead of simply selling ERP implementations to retailers, solution providers should adopt a solution-based approach that addresses the specific needs of each retail company, with e-commerce functionalities and appropriate social media channels for the sector.

While it is widely agreed that understanding the specific needs, opportunities, and challenges of our clients and the industry they operate in is crucial to closing a sale. It is also common practice to know the key business processes of our target customer, their current pain points, company goals, and growth opportunities. This starting point, which many of us undertake, allows us to adapt our approach and present a solution that specifically addresses the needs of the target customer, as well as shorten the sales cycle for each opportunity.

When we distribute leads to our sales team based on each team member's profile, the next step is to work with them to conduct thorough research on the prospective client and their market. This includes understanding their business needs and the market challenges they face, as well as the products and services they offer, the market segments they serve, their competitors, and most importantly, identifying improvement opportunities and areas where we know our ERP proposal adds value.

In the old school, it was common to refer to books like Neil Rackham's "Spin Selling" (2011), where the focus is on the SPIN sales technique (Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need/Payoff), which became a popular reference among account executives for selling high-cost solutions such as ERP. This book remains relevant because it provides a step-by-step guide on how to use the SPIN technique to identify customer needs and sell solutions that meet those needs.

This is where the art of sales comes into play, as referred to by John Smith, moving from simply offering a technological transformation service to a business transformation as a service; being able to sell a solution to the specific problems of the company. This means understanding the company's challenges and goals and demonstrating how an ERP platform can help our client address those challenges and achieve their objectives.

At this point, it is worth remembering the book "The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation" by Brent Adamson and Matthew Dixon, published in 2011, which focuses on the role of the seller in selling complex solutions such as ERP solutions. Adamson and Dixon argue that the best sellers are those who challenge customer assumptions and offer them a new and valuable perspective to achieve their goals.

Putting theory into practice, and at the speed at which one quarter passes to the next, we must work with our sales executives so that the team achieves and exceeds the sales target for the quarter, giving them tools to be able to demonstrate the long-term value of their proposal. Understanding that the initial cost of implementing an ERP SaaS can be high, they must be able to convince the customer that improved efficiency and productivity in the long term can justify the initial investment. Presenting a clear and convincing picture of how the proposed ERP solution will generate a significant return on investment for the company in the medium and long term.

Without intending to romanticize and in order to stop leaving sales as a simple act of identifying decision-makers, internal allies, a good entrance, luck, charisma, and empathy with the customer, let's strengthen our commercial strategy. "Back to Basics," we must start by answering the classic questions: how much do you know about the sector you are targeting? Who are the main players? What growth expectations does it have and in which sectors? Have you analyzed the performance of your client in their sector, their market share (local, regional, or national), and their medium to long-term growth expectations? What are the success stories in digital transformation that are most compatible with your client's conditions? What do we know about our prospect previous experiences in implementing technological and digital transformation solutions? Will we continue to leave the collection of this information to what the client tells us in the first interview? In a global world that is transitioning through the information age, we are obligated to process the largest amount of information to build, with the appropriate tools, the proposal that adds value to our clients, and thus ensure the sale.