Solution Selling - 10 pitfalls & 10 top tips to making it a reality in your organisation

The Harvard Business Review recently published an article arguing that despite four decades of espousing the "consultative" or "solution" sales approach, many businesses have failed to master this method. This article explores the key points from the HBR piece and offers some practical tips for enhancing solution selling strategies.

This really struck a cord with me as I too have found organisations have been struggling with this issue for decades.

This article therefore captures what I've observed in organisations trying to make this shift, and the key lessons from dozens of projects I've been involved with to successfully implement this new way of working.

The Shortcomings of Traditional Sales Models

The traditional sales approach involves pitching a product or service and soliciting a commitment to purchase. This method often falls short as it does not adequately address the customer's specific circumstances, needs, and objectives.

By contrast, a consultative approach involves understanding the customer's situation and designing solutions tailored to their unique requirements. This practice, also known as solution selling, is the key to converting products and services into solutions.

This type of selling has become vital as markets evolve, especially in sectors such as IoT, projected to surpass $1 trillion by 2024. To succeed in this vast market, a well-trained consultative sales organisation is critical.

Challenges in Adopting Consultative Selling

So why is it that businesses struggle to transition to a consultative selling approach? I see the following common reasons across organisations I work with:

1. Consultative selling is harder than it appears: Many sales leaders still equate sales success with personality and drive, which is an oversimplification. Consultative/solution selling requires a strategic sales process that necessitates strategic thinking and disciplined interaction with customers. It cannot be mastered in a few training sessions and requires deliberate practice with coaching and feedback.
2. Sales experience is not central to corporate strategy: Many businesses overlook the importance of the sales experience in their corporate strategy. How you sell a product or service can be just as crucial as what you're selling, particularly when competitors offer similar products. Thus, the sales experience itself should become a competitive advantage.
3. Compensation plans discourage solution selling: It's common for compensation plans to drive short-term thinking and transactional selling. This pushes sales teams to focus on simpler opportunities rather than taking the time to develop the required relationships to really understand the strategic needs of the customer and to creatively respond with an appropriate solution. It is also common for sales teams to simply have a sales target that can be achieved in whatever deals the salesperson can secure. These issues combined make it hard for sales teams to see the value or invest the time needed to work on more complex solutions.
4. Lack of confidence with product knowledge: Sales teams are being asked to sell products they do not really understand, which ultimately puts them on the back foot in front of customers. They are therefore less willing to ask questions that risk exposing their lack of understanding, and therefore they stick to what they know.
5. Sales management and leadership don't support consultative selling: Commonly, sales management focuses on late-stage opportunities in the pipeline, whereas consultative sales require attention in the early stages. Additionally, pressuring reps to close deals within a specified timeframe undermines the consultative selling process.
6. Not making the most of technology: Many organisations struggle to effectively integrate and utilise technology, like CRM tools and data analytics, to support their solution selling efforts. This can hinder the sales team's ability to track customer interactions, anticipate customer needs, and make data-driven decisions.
7. Not prioritising customer success: The focus on making a sale often overshadows the need for ensuring customer success. A lack of proactive support for helping customers achieve their objectives with the solution can lead to reduced customer satisfaction and loyalty.
8. Sales and Marketing teams not aligned: In some organisation's, sales and marketing teams operate in silos, leading to inconsistent messaging and missed opportunities for lead generation and nurturing.
9. The sales process is too rigid: Organisations sometimes struggle to adapt their sales process to each customer's unique buying journey. Rigid sales processes can fail to meet the individual needs and preferences of customers, affecting the success of the solution selling approach.

Top Tips to Enhance Solution Selling

Based on these insights, here are some top tips for businesses looking to adopt or improve their solution selling approach:

1. Implement a robust training program: Start by creating a comprehensive training program that not only teaches the principles of consultative selling and the related products, and ensure there's time for consistent practice so salespeople and managers develop the skills and confidence. Remember, it's not just about transferring knowledge, it's about creating realistic simulations that test people in the same way as real customer interactions.
2. Customise the sales process: Make your sales process flexible enough to adapt to each customer's unique buying journey. This could involve changing the steps of the process, the pace at which it proceeds, or the types of communication used, depending on each customer's needs and preferences.
3. Incorporate sales experience into your strategy: Consider the customer's sales experience as part of your strategy. This shift in mindset can turn your sales team into a competitive advantage, as they provide value to the customer through tailored solutions.
4. Strengthen Presales and Sales Collaboration: Ensure your presales teams are closely aligned with your sales teams. Presales professionals play a critical role in understanding the technical needs of the customer and crafting the right solution. When these teams work together seamlessly, they can more effectively guide the customer through their buying journey and present a compelling, personalised solution that meets their needs. Regular communication, shared goals, and mutual respect between these teams can significantly improve the effectiveness of your solution selling strategy.
5. Reevaluate management practices: Reconsider your sales management practices. Focus on the early stages of the sales process, where the real action for consultative sales lies.
6. Review your compensation plan: Compensation plans must align to the solutions the organisation wants to sell more of. Consider how realistic short-term sales targets are in deals that are often more complex and have a longer sales cycle, and management should also avoid putting undue pressure on reps to close deals within a specific timeframe.
7. Create a culture of coaching: Ensure that sales coaching becomes an integral part of your organisation's culture. This coaching should provide precise feedback and guidance for improvement, helping reps to master consultative selling.
8. Leverage technology: Embrace technological tools that can enhance your solution selling efforts. Use CRM systems to track customer interactions and identify opportunities for tailored solutions. Apply data analytics to understand customer behaviour and make informed decisions.
9. Emphasise customer success: Develop a dedicated customer success team to proactively support customers in achieving their objectives with your solution. This can enhance customer satisfaction, loyalty, and lifetime value.
10. Align Sales and Marketing Teams: Encourage closer collaboration between your sales and marketing teams. This can ensure a consistent message across all customer touch-points and generate more qualified leads that are likely to appreciate the value of tailored solutions.

In conclusion, the path to a successful consultative sales organisation requires a strategic approach from leadership, an investment in proper training, and an appreciation of the value of the sales experience as part of the business strategy. Only by addressing these areas can a business truly leverage the potential of solution selling.