Solution Selling: Make It Your Own By Making Mistakes.

I remember my early days in sales. Ahhhh the glory days……………………………..Not so much!

When I started my first business in the mid 2000’s I was a finance major from University of Missouri that had never sold ANYTHING. I had not read the sales books. I had no sales training. I really had not spent much time around salespeople. Needless to say, I had a STRONG foundation deeply rooted in the DNA of sales. Again, not so much!

In the early days, I am embarrassed to admit what I am about to share, I had some unorthodox sales and networking habits. Here are some examples of what I did in the absence of knowing any better. I literally was looking in the phonebook for leads and finding law firms, insurance companies, etc. to call on!! I didn’t have a contact or know anything about the company. Research, what is that? I was calling anyone and everyone while asking "can you connect me with the person that would make such and such decision." I would later use these and the terrible tactics that follow as a blueprint for what NOT to do as well as motivation for new reps that I employed to show them even though I am great at this now I was once worse than you could ever be!

 My “ CRM” was the task feature in Outlook. I would literally open a new one, type the company name and info at the top, and then manually write in the date and activity I had just completed. Then save it for a few days or a week later, whatever was appropriate for the next activity. It was a laborious process to say the least.....and that is being kind. Having never used or even heard of a CRM back then led to this borderline idiotic time drain of a plan.

My next "stroke of genius" was going to almost every networking event I could find! I would go to any Chamber of Commerce meeting, local meetings for attorneys, accountants, insurance brokers and the like. You name it I was there. I ended up talking to a lot of other salespeople, roofing contractors (no offense to roofing contractors; my point here is they were not my target audience), and even someone who put up new siding on old houses. I literally had no plan, no sense of an agenda or even pre-determined goals while I was there. Basically it was "just make yourself go" and meet as many people as you can and splash cards all over the place. It worked like a charm! (I hope the facetiousness of this is starting to set in). What I had working for me was drive, energy, and passion.  What I lacked was structure and a plan.

In retrospect I realize that I wasted some time and did not take the optimal route to get to where I was going. However, you often hear the quote about the journey being better than the destination or something to that effect. Well, it was years later I realized that perhaps this journey was worth it? Maybe, just maybe, these many acts in futility and wasted hours of “hustling without a cause” were worth it? Let me explain.

By doing so much of this junk I still learned along the way. I always tried to improve and not make the same mistake twice. There is no better way to learn than to do something the wrong way or simply to fail. I did a lot of that. In Malcolm Gladwell’s 1993 book Outliers he famously says that “anyone can master a skill with 10,000 hours of practice.” Perhaps my misguided activities somehow helped me along the path to being a master networker and solution selling guru? I think so. You see, by doing it my own way, failing so many times, but committing to the process and improving along the way I accidentally developed my own methodology for networking, selling and even running a business. That is what made it unique, it is what made it work, and ultimately that is the reason it works for me today. I don' want to suggest I developed a methodology to all of these disciplines 100% on my own. Rather, I learned on my own initially but was able to synthesize personal experience, books I read, training I completed, advice I was given by mentors and peers, and craft all of this into my own version of successful habits.

Now almost 15 years later I can honestly tell you that the fundamentals of “solution selling” still work and are important. Most people agree the general idea of solution selling is:

“The salesperson diagnoses prospect’s needs, then recommends the right products and/or services to fill those needs.”

When Is Solution Selling Used?

Solution selling is ideal for industries with highly customized products and/or packages

From there the typical way to get started is:

1.     Identify Common Pain Points

2.     Develop Your Questions

3.     Practice Selling Value

The most universal steps to follow are………….

Solution Selling Sales Process

1.  Prospect: Look for a buyer with a problem their product solves
2. Qualify: Understand the decision-making unit (DMU)
3. Discovery: Diagnose the buyer’s needs
4. Add value: Develop a customer champion; gain access to key decision makers
5. Present: Share a custom solution; demonstrate its ROI
6. Close: Come to a mutually beneficial agreement

The prospect might not know he has a problem or opportunity, let alone what it looks like, how urgent or important it is, and how he should address it. That makes the salesperson an important resource; not only can she help her prospect understand his situation, she can also help him react to it. I didn’t want to expand too much on the above because these are all easy resource to find online, read in a book, or take a course on.

What I did want to drive home is where I started at the beginning of this article. Whether you are a newbie sales rep or a seasoned sales professional/manager the thing to remember is you must always be learning and improving AND it is my belief that the exact methodology used is not as important as the commitment to a process, discipline to follow it, and passion for improvement. If you are mindful of that and continuously adding new tools to your “sales arsenal”, then you will succeed! 

Let me know in the comments below if you agree or disagree. My basic premise is that “It is not mission critical WHICH methodology of the 14 below you choose. It IS CRITICAL THAT YOU CHOOSE ONE and make it your own. I have read a majority of the books below and completed a variety of courses. I then synthesized that information into a hybrid of the various methods that speak to me and play to my strengths. Having a system and process that is rote in your repertoire is critical.

Written by Grant Sadowski:

CEO, entrepreneur & happy husband, soon to be father, dog lover, musician (kind of), avid runner and open to new ideas and relationships.

Direct Message me on LinkedIn, email me: [email protected], or call anytime to discuss – 573.268.1264

Great resource for identifying top 14 sales methodologies and how to select which one is right for you: https://www.saleshacker.com/sales-methodology-blueprint/

1. The Challenger Sale
2. Command of the Sale
3. Conceptual Selling
4. Consultative Selling
5. Customer-Centric Selling
6. Inbound Selling
7. MEDDIC
8. NEAT Selling
9. SNAP Selling
10. Solution Selling
11. SPIN Selling
12. Target Account Selling
13. The Sandler Selling Method
14. Value Selling