Overcoming
A shift from selling products to selling solutions is a common strategy for companies looking to boost their bottom line. Over the past two decades, I’ve worked with many companies trying to implement this approach, bundling products and services to form a solution to their customers’ needs as a way to sell more and sell at a higher margin.
What many leaders overlook is the impact this change in their business model will have on the sales organization. A technology company can’t sell data center solutions the same way they sold computer hardware and services. Sales professionals are no longer simply pitching products and services, but rather selling real (and more complicated) solutions.
In my experience, there are three critical factors that contribute to the frequent failure of these transformative efforts, as the sales organization attempts to adopt a consultative sales approach to successfully sell newly created solutions:
1. The sales organization is not connected to the go-to-market strategy. When companies announce they are going to sell solutions, a tremendous effort is required to build, acquire, or improve the capabilities of the business so they actually have a top notch offering to sell. But selling solutions doesn’t simply require the company to sell different things; it requires the sales team to sell differently. Having a great suite of products or services is necessary, but it is often table stakes in the ultra-competitive environment most sellers face. The sales process and the sales experience that you design and deliver must also provide value to the customer. That means your sales team has to share insights that help customers see problems they hadn’t recognized, opportunities they hadn’t considered, even solutions they hadn’t anticipated. The sales organization bears the responsibility for executing the go-to-market strategy in every sales call– by ensuring they are connecting with the right kind of client, discussing business outcomes with managers at the right decision-making level at prospective companies, and highlighting how the capabilities you’ve invested millions of dollars in will solve the customer’s issues. It’s no longer enough to declare the strategy and tell the sales team to “get out there and sell as much as you can!” For the sales organization to successfully bring your solutions to customers, there has to be a deep understanding of the strategy and the role the sales organization plays in bringing that strategy to life.
2. Management practices don’t support the solution sales process. When a sales team is working with new strategies to engage with customers in a more consultative fashion, they need to be managed differently. A sales team moving from high volume transactions to more sophisticated solutions will need to be managed with a different set of metrics, milestones and hiring practices, along with an increased focus on professional development and coaching. This is particularly true where it comes to the value delivered during the sales process– a key component of a solution-focused approach. Instead of tracking traditional measures of success, such as number of calls, meetings or quotes, make room for more meaningful leading indicators. Track progress in areas such as pipeline stage advances, engagement with bona fide decision makers, or other call outcomes like a site visit that you find consistently predictive of success. These value-focused metrics allow sales leadership to be qualitatively involved in supporting reps to move deals through the pipeline faster. It also helps drive a critical change from inspecting sales performance (which does little to boost results), to actually improving sales performance.
3. Consultative selling is much harder than anyone thinks. The degree of difficulty is taken for granted. A few years ago, the WSJ ran a story called “Why It’s So Hard to Fill Sales Jobs.” The article highlighted how most people underestimate the complexity and sophistication involved in selling solutions today. It suggested that ‘there’s a huge stereotype that sales isn’t really a career—that either anyone can do it or you’re born to it.’It’s as ridiculous as saying someone is a natural-born accountant, but it reflects how companies often think about sales. Selling successfully today requires a blend of strong business acumen and mastery of sophisticated communication techniques, employing very specific strategies that are often challenging to execute. Just as you wouldn’t expect a mid-level accountant to complete a weeklong course and become a competent CFO, sales professionals won’t become proficient in selling solutions with only a few days of training. Too many organizations that claim to want a sales force with expertise in selling solutions under-invest in building the capability. Developing a strong sales organization capable of delivering value in the sales process requires a strategic and sustained leadership effort.
There are many other factors that can contribute to success in becoming a solution sales organization, from recruiting and training, to redesigning the job of sales management and how CRM technology is deployed. While it’s in vogue to have sales enablement activity on many fronts, the key is to make sure the sales function is always connected to an organizational strategy and doesn’t get diluted. Finally, be careful not to take a staccato approach to implementing these strategies, with multiple one-off, disjointed efforts. When it works, it’s frequently because the C-Suite leads a strategic, united effort across the organization.
