Solution selling focuses on identifying a customer’s needs and problems, then customizing and promoting a product as a solution. It was developed in the 1970s by Frank Watts and promoted by Mike Bosworth in the 1980s. Companies use surveys and feedback to tailor products to customer needs, and prospecting to generate sales. Customer service and follow-up are important for long-term brand equity and loyalty. However, solution selling has been criticized for being an umbrella term for product placement and having a negligible effect on poor performers.
Solution selling is a theory of sales. Instead of direct product promotions, solution selling promotes the focus of resources on a customer’s needs and problems. Once the problem is identified, the product can be customized and advertised as a solution to it. The theory is based on the idea of solutions for solving products rather than being something desired. The overall goal of sales, to make a profit, hasn’t changed.
The idea of selling solutions was first developed by Frank Watts in the 1970s. He didn’t try it in a corporate scenario until the early 80’s when he worked with Xerox. In 1983, a former Xerox worker, Mike Bosworth, started a company to promote the idea. Like many theories of sales and business management, it is promoted and sold in different forms such as books and training courses.
In addition to selling in this format, solution selling has been used by various companies since the mid-1980s to tailor their selling strategies. Prior to this, products were advertised for their functions in hopes that a customer would self-identify the problem the product would solve. Instead of this, solution selling has required a number of newer methods to deliver both the problem and the solution.
The first state of selling solutions is to look into the customer’s needs. That means surveys and feedback from existing customers. By understanding what customers want, the company is able to better tailor its products to deliver true solutions that drive direct results.
While need diagnosis works for individual or family products, prospecting is used to generate more sales with high-powered companies and individuals. The idea of prospecting works in tandem with the idea of prospecting for precious minerals. The prospector makes contact with well-targeted contacts just as a prospector would target specific rivers and mountains.
Customer service and follow-up, as well as establishing product value, are important parts of developing long-term brand equity and customer loyalty. This is the aftermarket version of troubleshooting. The company looks at not just changing problems, but how to change its product to provide an even better solution.
Solution selling has been criticized as an umbrella term for product placement. Such criticisms have been raised because a number of companies advertise their products as solutions without going through the many stages of good customer service and relationship. Bosworth also said that the training programs he devised with the program primarily improved a company’s top sales staff and had a negligible effect on the worst performers. This led him and others to the conclusion that good sales are mostly intuition.
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