Pursuing the Essence of Solution Selling Tactics (May 2017 - Ver.1)

Let me summarize and share the current result of pursuing the essence of solution selling tactics, many of which must be common in other industries in solution selling styles.

Here on this post, I refer to the word "tactics" because the elements below are probably the most effective in shorter terms, and I reckon that there must be other elements for longer terms, that is for "strategies". Now let's see the four elements of the tactics by the images below.

Solution Selling Tactics (May 2017 - Ver.1)

1.Team Builder

The aspect of "Team Builder" is quite important in that the word "Team Builder" means that you need to build up a team which includes not only your co-workers and bosses but also your clients. It is essential to regard your clients as your team members who struggle to the same goals, and try to cooperate with them as if they were your real bosses.

Of course you need to understand skills, experiences, values and motivations of each of the team members including your clients so that you all can work for the same goals without stress. And you should be in the center of the team.

2.Issues Coodinator

In many of the business inquiries cases, your clients do present their issues, which some of you blindly follow in earnest. It's easy, and makes you feel you're doing a right thing in efforts. But things are not that simple. You'd better reconfigure your clients' issues (and sometimes add or delete issues) in your own point of view for the reasons below.

1. You need to understand your clients more by uttering your recognition with your own words to confirm whether it is the same as your clients' one.
2. You need to be reliable to your clients by broadening your clients' mind with your newly-reconfigured issues.
3. You need to be superior to your competitors in expected values by making your clients see that your competitors do not care about such newly-reconfigurated but important issues.

3.Expectations Controller

All the proper businesses aim at customer satisfaction. And the most important point is that your customer gets satisfied only when the outcome exceeds the expectation. Then what you truly should do is to set the expectations in an appropriate level which you as a service provider can go beyond slightly.

But you must be careful. If you raise the expectations too much, you might dive into hard work trying to provide expected values, most of which ends up being a failure and making your suppliers tired, too. And if you lower the expectations too much, you can't work with your clients. You need to consider how you set control expectations.

4.Risk Taker

Usual companies have standard operations for standard deliverables, and you in such a company are expected to follow standard rules for them. The point is that if you only work inside the rules, you cannot have a customer-oriented mind, which is extremely critical in solution selling. If you stand by your clients' side and discuss issues with your clients, you sometimes need to deviate from the rules. Then what is important is to think of the meaning of deviating from the rules in your organization.

In usual companies, deviating fro standard rules is regarded as involving risks. If you believe that you can provide great values to your clients by deviating fro the rules, what you have to do is to have your organization make a decision to take the risk to provide the great values to your clients because you yourself do not have an authority to make that decision under the rule but possibly your organization, or rather your bosses, have the authority.

Companies set standard rules to give right authorities to right persons. It's not a "ban". If you alone do not have the authority, someone else around you have the authority. Consultation works in such a way.

How I interpret this

I believe that customer-oriented mind is the most important in the field of solution selling businesses so that I create and manage big deals, and four elements above are necessary so that I keep being customer-oriented. I wrote this article while guessing that there remains a lot to revise. I hope that soon I can't help but update this idea with my evolved idea in the near future.

I would like to work with you someday somewhere if you like this way of thinking.