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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 Ranjay Gulati (2)

Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 8:58 AM

8:58AM

Why is customer-centric marketing still more talk than action?

Michael Shrage’s recent Harvard Business Review post, Great Customers Inspire Great Innovations, got me thinking:

Why, amid so much evidence of the power of customer-centric business, are so many companies still mired in inside-out operations? Why do we hear so much talk but see so little action?

Shrage’s post reminds us that behind most great innovations lie customers and clients that made those innovations possible.

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Customer-centricity for catalyzing solutions success

We're thrilled that Tom Sadtler, a veteran marketer with deep experience in solutions marketing at HP, CA, and other industry leaders, has joined the fold at Solutions Insights as one of our trusted associates. Tom is particularly interested in organizational change for solutions, and agreed to follow Steve's recent post on organizational models with some suggestions on how companies can actually get moving on the necessary transformation.

Here are Tom's thoughts:

Most B2B IT companies these days understand the benefits of selling integrated solutions: improved customer satisfaction and the potential to sell bigger offerings with higher revenue and margin.

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