Expert Video

Steve Hurley interviews Nina Hargus, VP of Global Services at EMC Corporation on some of the difficulties in enabling the channel to sell solutions

Defining a "Solution"

"Solutions" is one of those slippery words that can mean anything and everything. In the context of B2B companies, however, the term has taken on a specific meaning.  A council of leading solutions marketing professionals, sponsored by ITSMA, developed the following definition:

"A solution is a combination of products, services, and intellectual property focused on a specific business problem that drives measurable business value."

While we like and agree with this definition, we believe that it's missing s few important elements, so here is our definition:

"A combination of products, services, and intellectual property focused on a specific business problem or opportunity that drives measurable business value and can be significantly standardized. The solutions components can be from either the vendor and one or more partners, and the solutions implementer can be the vendor, the partner, the customer itself, or a combination of the three."

It's a bit longer, and doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but we nevertheless have found that it clicks with both buyers and sellers given its emphasis on solving specific business problems with measurable business value.  Also, the value is determined by the amount of the solution that is delivered by each of the parties involved in creating the solution. Understood as such, the word "solution" can get beyond the hype and provide important direction to business strategy and operations.

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Entries in marketing mix (2)

Thursday, May 2, 2013 at 2:19 PM
2:19PM

Solutions Marketing: Revisiting the Debate over the 4 P’s 

As we all know, the foundation of marketing since the 1950’s has been described as the 4 P’s.  The concept of the 4 P’s – which stands for Product, Price, Place, and Promotion – has endured for over a half-decade, and continues to be the basis for many marketing plans and strategies.  Professor Neil Borden, the Harvard Business School Professor who came up with this nifty framework, and then Phillip Kotler in his seminal marketing textbook, Principles of Marketing in 1967, have influenced millions of successful marketers.

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Sunday, February 6, 2011 at 4:36 PM
4:36PM

Solutions Marketing: The four P's are OVER

Virtually every marketing student on the planet can recite the 4 P’s: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Since the early 1960's when Harvard Business School professor Neil Borden first described them as key elements of the marketing mix, the 4 P's have held their ground as the foundational pillars of 50 years of marketing planning.

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