The 10 characteristics of a true solution selling company
Most companies we speak to have ambitions to sell a true solution to their clients, but many are finding that transition hard to make. The days of making serious margin from box shifting are long gone, and everyone wants to move from selling a single product to selling a complex solution with a high percentage of services, bringing with it higher profitability, more influence and ‘stickiness’ in client relationships, a longer annuity stream and therefore a more secure future. This is a real ‘burning platform’ in the IT and Communications industry.
So where are you on this journey? Use these 10 points to find out…
- Do your clients see you as providing a business ‘solution’ with a focus on value …..OR…. are you seen as providing commodity ‘products’ with a focus on price? A simple white space analysis of your accounts and a review of your website and typical proposals will tell you. Are you talking about a narrow offering and technical functionality? How many clients are buying multiple propositions from you? How much focus is there on business benefit?
- Do you have strategic partnerships with proactive, thought leadership …..OR…. reactive supplier based relationships. At what stage do your clients involve you in the decision making? Is it early enough for you to influence the solution in the majority of cases? Do they value your advice and insight in helping them choose the way to go?
- Do you have a wider footprint and meaningful relationships at C level ….OR…. are you stuck mainly with procurement or operational contacts? In what percentage of your accounts do you have regular and meaningful board-to-board contact?
- Are your typical sales conversations with customers about business issues OR are conversations with customers mostly technology based? How fluent are your sales team in probing for and discussing business benefits? Can they truly justify their place at the top table? Do you have capable business focused pre-sales and strategic consultants who can help in shaping the requirement?
- Is your pipeline both short and longer term OR just short term. If your sales people are getting involved early enough in the decision making process they should be getting to know about major projects well in advance. Is your pipeline focused on this month/this quarter, or do you have a line of sight into future quarters?
- Is structured Account Planning an ingrained habit in your business, with written insightful account plans and collaborative review sessions, involving the whole virtual account team ….. OR ….. is account development ad-hoc, unplanned and opportunistic?
- Is there strong teamwork across the whole sales ecosystem, making best use of all resources ….. OR …. Are the sales team largely solo-operators? Is there even a ‘them and us’ mind-set between sales and delivery teams?
- Is your marketing team increasingly focused on providing ‘insights’ to initiate challenging customer interaction …. OR … is marketing focused mainly on tactical volume-based lead generation? Are your teams working together to capitalise on existing client relationships, gain introductions at senior level and come up with a relevant, tailored approach for each customer?
- Do your sales managers have a developmental sales management style, focusing on coaching and developing the right behaviour in the sales team and the right positioning in customer relationships …. OR…. Are they stuck in a more supervisory sales management style, focusing mainly on numbers and activity levels? Or worse, do they revert easily to taking over the sale, thus limiting the learning experiences for your sales people? We find that sales management support is the single biggest factor in making this transition successfully
- And lastly, is your commission structure and revenue recognition in line with longer term services led projects ….OR …. Are your commission structures and revenue recognition still structured to support product sales and short term projects. Are your sales team being incentivised to work in the right way? Without the right financial structures, any change in behaviour and attitude you manage to create will be short-lived.
How did you assess yourself? Does this sum up the challenges you are facing and the transition you would like to make? If so, you are not alone!
The Orbit team have a strong track record of taking organisations through this transition.
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