Research Paper on Solution Selling

Solution Selling to Gain Competitive Advantage Research Paper

Summary

Solution Selling is an approach to the workings of salespersons and organization, which stresses the importance of mutually finding buyers’ most critical problems (known as pain) and trying to resolve them with the seller’s capabilities. It therefore poses an alternative to traditional approaches to marketing and sales that usually focus on buyers’ needs and wants and sellers’ offerings. More importantly, the literature on Solution Selling prescribes a step-by-step process to communicating, developing mutual vision and sustaining relationships between companies and their clients, using the salesperson as an intermediary that supports buyers, provide consultation and aims directly to buyers’ most important considerations.  

1. The Nature of Solution Selling

One of the fundamental concepts in the field of marketing stipulates that marketers’ main task is to satisfy consumers’ wants and needs. Kotler and Keller define needs as “the basic human requirements,” running the gamut from food and air to education and entertainment. These basic needs underlie consumers’ wants, which are essentially “specific objects that might satisfy the need” (26). Essential as it is for marketers, this basic approach may often be less straightforward when consumers cannot define certain needs and/or when they are not aware of products and services that may satisfy them (and hence cannot consider whether they want them or not). This holds especially true for highly innovative products or services and for needs that may be well defined by the seller but are latent to the buyer (Bosworth, 34).

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The conventional scheme of needs and wants may be described as too generic because of the competitive nature of the sales process. Sellers compete not only with products and services that pose an alternative to their own, but also with sellers who aim to satisfy other needs and wants. Given the fact that buyers’ purchasing power and attention are limited, sellers have to work in two parallel directions: First they must create and/or enhance the priority given to the need by the buyer. Second, they should stress the advantages of their product over the competition to ensure that the buyer perceives their offer as the most beneficial solution to an acute problem or ‘pain.’

Solution selling can be described as a means to solve such discrepancies by reframing the relationship between buyers and sellers. Simply put, the method subscribes to the idea that instead of identifying needs and wants that can be satisfied with their products, marketers need to pay attention to what disturbs customers, thus positioning their products as a resolution to the problem. The solution selling literature converts this notion into selling techniques by using two leading constructs, namely customers’ problems (known as pains) and marketers’ solutions.

The next two chapters discuss these two domains and elaborate on the major techniques to implement them into substantial competitive advantages for marketers. They do so by bringing insights from the four components of the solution selling process, namely the philosophy, the map, the methodology and the sales management system that underlie successful salespersons’ (known as eagles) work (Eades, 5).

2. Pains and the Three Levels of Needs

As briefly argued above, the first major obstacle to sale is the prospective buyer’s subjective perception of the needs and wants that may underlie the decision to buy a specific product or service. The latter may be means to achieve a goal, to ease work, etc. However, both the seller’s offerings and the buyer’s prospective benefits from there may be utterly covert for the buyer. Bosworth defines three levels of needs, which help not only to understand the buyer’s preliminary attitude towards the offer, but also allow for a structural development of arousal. The three levels are (1)latent needs, (2)pain and (3) vision of a solution.

2.1. Latent Needs

Also known as ‘latent pain,’ this level represents absence of interest in the means in which a product or service can benefit the buyer. This mainly occurs due to a buyer’s ignorance of the prospective solution, or after a process of rationalization, in which the buyer examines the alternatives and concludes that none of them may be beneficial to solve a problem (e.g. due to poor perceived cost effectiveness). As a result, the need is suppressed and remains “in the mind of the seller, not the buyer” (Bosworth, 35-6). Alternatively, latent needs may result from low perceived urgency or due to inability to ‘put the finger’ on the problem (Eades and Kear, 127).

2.2. Pain or Undeveloped Needs

The second level in the scale is known as ‘pain’ or ‘undeveloped needs.’ Unlike the preceding level, customers in this stage are aware of a problem and are actively seeking a solution. The awareness to the problem creates a sense of discomfort (pain), which appears to motivate the customer to resolve the problem. If a plausible solution is not to be found, the need is likely to become latent (Bosworth, 37).

This level is also called the ‘undeveloped needs’ stage because although potential buyers may feel the need, they have yet to process it along with corresponding market offerings, thus do not have a vision of a solution. Thus, as argued by Graham, although they have already developed a preliminary intention to buy, buyers tend to pass the responsibility for finding a solution to the salesperson. If the latter is competent, she will go ahead to evoke the pain, seek for the customer’s direct request to solve the problem and position her product of service as the optimal solution. 

2.3. Vision of a Solution

This level is obviously the last step before a sell, but also a rather tricky one. By its essence, buyers that reach a clear vision are not really aware of a problem and the product or service as a plausible solution, but are also prone to collaborate with the salesperson during their decision-making process. In other words, they take back the responsibility that was previously delegated to the salesperson and reflect on the offer, its benefits, its costs and the ways to implement the purchase (Bosworth, 38).

There are, however, several things that salespersons must keep in mind when sensing that the buyer has entered this level. Because the buyer is again ‘in control’ at this level, it is vital to allow the customer to develop his or her own vision, not the seller’s: “Sharing a seller’s opinion or trying to impose that opinion on a buyer won’t work in most cases” (Bosworth and Holland, 152). In a competitive business environment, buyers who adopt the seller’s vision prematurely are highly likely to fail to implement the solution, switch to the competition or losing loyalty after the first purchase (Bosworth, 39). 

2.4. Diagnosing Pain

Assessing an individual buyer’s level of pain, the nature of pain and changes in it throughout the selling process requires a diagnostic process. Based on structural, discussion-like questioning, the diagnostic process underlies the seller’s strategy for this specific buyer. In addition, the exchange of ideas is by itself an important element of building and sharing a vision. Stressing the importance of diagnosis, Bosworth argues that

Diagnosis is key in gaining buyer loyalty when creating, participating, or reengineering the buyer's vision of a solution… Even if the vision is unaltered, by taking the buyer through the diagnosis process, you now "own" that buyer, whereas before you did not. Therefore, the diagnosis process is key for the buyer to buy into you personally, your sincerity, your expertise, and your experience. People want to buy from people who validate them, who understand their business, who see the world through their eyes, who share their vision, and who empower them to see themselves in control of their problem. Sellers must go through diagnosis and vision processing with their buyers.(38)

It follows that diagnosis contributes to the selling process in four major ways: First, it allows the salesperson to understand the reasons, the specific attributes and the level of the buyer’s pain. Second, it breaks it ice between the buyer and the salesperson, as the former invites the latter to participate in his or her thinking processes, priorities and the effects of the current situation on the buyer’s emotional state. Third, it is an opportunity for the salesperson to introduce him or herself as a professional, caring and empathic person, thereby warranting future claims regarding the product and service under question. Finally, it can be used as a means to create awareness to pains, create anxiety towards problems and arise a sense of urgency (Eades and Kear 157). 

Just as diagnostic processes vary among and within medical professions, different products and/or target groups require different approaches to diagnosis. Nevertheless, when planning and executing the structure of their diagnoses salespersons usually determine one or more domains they need to explore (i.e. kinds of diagnostic exploration), by asking questions from three types. These six components of diagnosis are, as suggested by Sullivan:

Kinds of diagnostic exploration:

1. Identify reasons for pain: Listing and elaborating the specific factor(s) that underlie the buyer’s pain. After identifying the main forces it is also worthwhile to assess the relative weight of each factor to the total pain. Ideally, the product or service will be able to target the most important reasons and/or indirectly affect them to a significant extent.
2. Determine impact of the pain: The pain and its components usually influence the organization, its work and the people in it in more than a few ways. This domain may require not only mapping of the effects, but also identification and prioritization of the main loci of impact needed to be eased. Moreover, it is also possible to quantify (although rather roughly) the monetary value of these loci in terms of e.g. decrease in efficiency/effectiveness, employee turnover, waste of time/resources and rate of innovation.
3. Visualize capabilities needed: This final phase is comparable with physicians’ attempt to set treatment guidelines after deciding upon the most probable pathology. It is based on prescribing/recommending the means in which the salesperson and the product/service can solve one or more of the reasons for pain. Despite the consultative nature of this domain, it is necessary to ensure the compliance of the suggested solutions to the buyer and the relevant reasons for pain. 

Types of questions:

1. Open-ended Questions: Questions such as “Why do you think this (=the problem/pain) is happening?” and “what do you usually do when…” allow the buyer to reflect and inform the salesperson about specific problematic phenomena. These questions characterize the early stages of the sales meeting and facilitate an open, deep and friendly discussion. The also help to indicate the buyer’s sense of priority concerning specific problems and introduce the salesperson to the narrative of the buyer’s organization and work.
2. Control Questions: Question that narrow the scope of the conversation but still allow the buyer to speak and reflect rather freely. For example, if the salesperson wants to know if the buyer is satisfied with her current server, he might want to ask specific question such as “how often does the server crashes?” or “is your server reliable?” (control questions) instead of “how do you find your current server?” (an open-ended question). Ideally, control questions direct the discussion towards the major capacities of the product or service under question.  
3. Confirming Questions: By using phrases such as “am I right?” and “do you agree that…” salespersons create a sense of agreement between them and the buyer. The aim of this rhetoric is to bring the buyer into agreeing with the salesperson’s suggestions without coercion. These questions, which typically appear in later stages of the meeting, also build a common narrative that facilitates a mutual vision of a solution. They can be also used to state the price in a rather mutual fashion, by asking questions such as "I think a good budget for this dinner would be about $45 a head. Is that anywhere near what you had in mind?" (Spence 18).

Combined together, the three domains of exploration and the three types of questions construct a matrix, known as the Nine Block model, which creates a diagnostic process that is rather easy to follow (see fig. 1). A typical sales meeting or call will include all the blocks of the model, usually moving from number one to nine.

3. Solutions

Together with pain, solution is the second major construct on which Solution Selling is based. The theory and practice of Solution Selling has obviously developed alternative definitions of solutions, just as it does in regard to pain. These definitions and their implications to organizations may vary among authors, but three elements are always at the heart of the concept of solution: “a mutually shared answer to a recognized problem, and the answer provides measurable improvement” (Eades 3).

As suggested by the latter definition, Solution Selling is not an innovative method to reposition traditional strategies, but rather a conceptual shift. This is to say that it does not simply changes the wording of concepts, but rather breaks down supply-side and demand-side considerations into their underlying components. Then, it reassembles them into the three dimensions suggested by Eades above, namely (1)recognized problem (2)mutual answer, and (3)measureable improvement. As a whole, the premise of Solution Selling entails not only the actual sell but also, and to a very wide extent, a process of mutual responsibility for the buyer’s successes through the seller’s capabilities. 

3.1. Recognizing and Emphasizing the Problem

A good diagnosis ends should lead to a definition of the main problems and pains. Sometimes it may occur that the salesperson will recognize problems that are vague to the buyer and/or try to reconsider the priorities of some of the pains, problems and reasons mentioned by the buyer. In order to do so while maintaining the mutual atmosphere of the diagnosis, the salesperson must develop a sense of pain in respect to the (previously ignored and/or unseen) problem. A handful of ways to develop latent and/or inexistent problems into pains have been previously suggested. They can be generally divided into two major groups, namely anxiety creation and provocative selling.

Anxiety creation is defined by Bosworth as a “’mini’ need development technique, in which

We want to see if we can take a specific latent pain from a buyer's "background" and bring it around to the “foreground." We want our buyer to go "ouch!" The specific latent need we are pursuing, naturally, is a perfect match for something we are selling! Instead of setting up a row of bowling pins, we are setting up a "spare," a single pin. (65)

The technique is based on confirming questions, which aim to specific pains that the product or service can resolve. This process of controlling is very likely to hit a weak spot, cause pain and prepare the grounds for a solution. The latter should be offered immediately, thereby giving immediate hope to the most recent pain the buyer can recall.

Anxiety creation is essential to develop latent pain. However, when the buyer is not aware of the problem, the salesperson should take an alternative approach. Sometimes regarded as a sales technique by its own right, provocative selling “focuses on finding a problem in the customer's blind spot that is in critical need of attention,” and is therefore appropriate when the buyer “isn't aware of the problem, but once informed, is eager to address it” (Dandridge 48).

Lay, Hewlin and Moore prescribe three steps to provoke hidden problems:

1. Identify a critical problem facing your customers: ‘Critical’ means that the targeted problem should be material and significant to the business operations. Hence, critical problems cannot be ignored once brought to the buyer’s attention.   
2. Formulate a proactive point of view: The presentation of the problem must enhance the buyer’s perception of it. It should therefore be interesting, provide the buyer new perspective and call for immediate action.
3. Lodge your provocation: The problem and its solution should be forwarded directly to the relevant decision-makers. It is also very important to create a sense of urgency.   

3.2 Establishing Mutual Answer to the Problem

By this stage both sides have agreed upon the problem(s) they intend to address, i.e. the pain(s) they intend to resolve. It is now that the buyer decides whether or not to cooperate with the salesperson towards the latter’s goals, namely to make a sell and to establish long-term relationship with the buyer. Such as relationship capitalizes on two main grounds, namely a good match between the solution and the problem it solve, and a high level of trust between the buyer and the seller. 

It is not uncommon for a product or service to evolve as a solution to an array of different problems. This proposition stems directly from the essence of Solution Selling – the withdrawal from product-focused selling to using the product or service as a means to assist the buyer. A good salesperson, who by now have led the buyer into interest in the pains that be resolved through the seller’s capacities, can determine an abundance of ways in which his or her solution delivers value. Just as a medical specialist, the salesperson can and should provide high-end consultancy concerning how the product or service in question (for example, an innovative online payment system) might help to solve problems from diverse sources, such as:

Enhancing customer revenues: e.g. shortening the time span between delivery and payment;  

Decrease customer risks: e.g. eliminating the option of defaulting receivables; and  

Reducing Customer Costs: e.g. halving credit card companies’ fees  

In addition to their prospective benefits, it is possible to indentify solution by their nature. Choos and Surdel distinguish three categories of solutions:

1. Prefabricated solutions: Changing the messaging and positioning of an offering without changing the basic offering.   
2. Bundled solutions: Offering a menu of existing services and/or products to address a customer’s specific need.
3. Customized solutions: Developing a completely new, customized (and usually more complicated) offering from scratch for a customer’s individual needs. (29) 

Nonetheless, offering a plausible and affordable solution is not sufficient nowadays, particularly in a competitive environment. The responsibility of building sustainable and long-term relationships with clients, a central task in the salesperson’s work, calls for a different kind of ability, namely to establish high level of trust.

During the diagnosis phase, when the salesperson tries to engage the buyer to cooperate and share his pains, the buyer also starts to ask questions, most often in her head. These questions aim to inquire the nature of the salesperson and through which the nature of the organization and its solutions. Solution Selling stipulates that these questions usually revolve around issues of trust and general (i.e. not sector-specific) professionalism, especially in the initial phases of the sales meeting or call.

Typical questions that the buyer might ask herself include:

• Does this salesperson understand my business issue and the reasons contributing to it? 
• Has this person thoroughly diagnosed my situation?
• Should I discuss the impact my issue has on other areas of my business?
• Do I agree with the capabilities suggested and the value presented?     (Keogh 62)  

A proactive approach is needed to provide answer to such question before they arise or at least before the buyer has any reason to doubt the salesperson. An established salesperson will try, as argued by Spence, to engage in proactive measurements such as:

Asking questions about the buyer as a person in order to establish mutual understanding and respect;

Earning trust by expressing interest in the buyer’s business, as well as by working to understand the challenges the buyer and the organization face.

Asking the buyer’s permission to tell him or her a story. When granted, a story about “how people much like your prospect have benefited by using your product” helps to give a personal dimension to the solution.

Price should be revealed as fast as possible, preferably by sharing the salesperson’s thoughts about it. This tactic helps to prevent building tension towards disclosing the price, hence clearing the issue from the table.

Risk reduction measures such as free trials and refunds are essential to convey the seller’s confidence in the solution. Or, as elegantly argued by Spence: “When prospects realize that selling a lemon will affect you more than it will hurt them, they'll be set to sign” (18).

3.3. Measuring Improvement

It is rather easy to understand that a solution is intangible and thus very weak and quite worthless if cannot be measured. The buyer is obviously interested much more in the ways in which the solution will make a positive change in the problematic areas than in the offer itself (e.g. the technical specifications of the product). By the same token, the salesperson would be like to know if and to what extent the solution was effective. This kind of information contributes to an array of post-sales activities, to building long-term relationship and to assist the salesperson with future buyers.

Furthermore, the ability to measure the effect of the purchase implies that the buyer has an opportunity to get feedback on her decisions, as well as to communicate to others the means in which the decision has actually helped to improve the organization. This feature is therefore an important feature of the solution and a consideration in the buyer’s decision-making process. The measurement technique, however, might be sometimes hard to design and implement. Therefore, the salesperson (and not the buyer) must integrate his or her professional skills with the findings of the diagnostic stage to offer a feasible measurement that sheds the best possible light on the offer.

4. Some Examples of Successful Implementation

Solution Selling is considered by many as the most popular and certainly indispensible current approach to sales (Dandridge 48). Its techniques, philosophy and teachings have been developed and improved over the years, and have brought about new fields of research and practice such as optimization methods for salespersons who pursue Solution Selling (see e.g. Choos and Surdel). It should therefore come with no surprise that evidences for this approach’s success (as well as some sporadic examples of failure) are abundant and cross industries, continents and firm sizes. Here are three representative examples:

In a recent review of healthcare technology marketing, O’Mara describes a shift of manufacturers from a focus on products and/or customers to a focus on comprehensive solutions. The typical nature of such solutions is an offer that include all the physician’s and/or the provider’s need to optimize their performance in regard to predefined clinical cases. Patients with high risk for heart attack, for example, can be monitored by an integrated system that combines mobile, home-based and clinical measurement tools, all of which ‘seat’ on the same IT platform. This elimination of steps towards monitoring patients’ status is considered by many as a new frontier in cardiology.

Microsoft is also very active in the promotion of Solution Selling. The software giant trains sales staff and intermediaries to listen to the customer’s needs and problems and offer corresponding solutions instead of its traditional top-down approach. Microsoft's UK managing director Alistair Baker confirmed this shift in a 2005 interview to MicroScope, saying that the company seeks to “work more closely with a particular type of reseller - those that are able to sell a solution, not just a product” (19). 

Even more comprehensive is IBM’s interpretation to Solution Selling. The company is actively involved in establishing, organizing and participating in so-called ‘solution networks,’ i.e. collaborations among sellers to offer clients with complete and customized solution packages. Networks such as the IBM-centered Support Net are considered by hardware sales professionals as one of the most promising development in the field (Zarley 37).      

5. Criticism on Solution Selling

Despite (or perhaps because) of its success, Solution Selling and the techniques derived from it received quite a lot of criticism throughout the years. Most of the criticism, as it seems, focuses on the overexploitation of the concept of ‘solution’ instead of traditional terms such as offers, products, etc., often with very little (if any) relevance to the original meaning of the term in the Solution Selling literature. Stating that the term Solution Selling simply “offends his ears,” author Robert Herjavec argues that

"Solutions" is such a vague and commonplace term, now that cars are personal transportation solutions and the iPad just another mobility solution. And "selling" takes us right back to the boxing ring; it's you trying to separate clients from their cash.     (Spence 18)

In areas such as financial services and insurance, which typically require the buyer to be rather sophisticated in order to understand the nature of the service, Solution Selling may arguably hinder sales. Koco agrees that this approach had helped to keep salespersons away from their traditional role as ‘product pushers.’ She indicated, however, that when companies pursue Solution Selling instead of offering clear-cut services, it is “difficult to determine just what the advisor, firm or company actually does or sells,” since

For the increasing number of consumers who research financial products before they but, the solutions hype is gibberish. Many of them wouldn’t know an insurance or financial solution from a fishing rod. (12)

Such dangers can and should be avoided, however. It is current and future marketers’ responsibility to use the powerful premise of Solution Selling in a comprehensive manner and to think about ways to keep clear from its pitfalls. Collaboration with customers, as it seems, will continue to dominate salespersons’ narrative in the future to some.  

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