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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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Recent Engagements

  • > Assisted a large IT solutions company to strengthen its messaging to the market
  • > Rebranded a non-profit organization in the economic development sector so that it reflects its new mission and services areas, including the development of real solutions
  • > Helped a large telecommunications firm redesign its customer reference program to integrate it across the company and ensure greater value to marketing, sales, and participating customers
  • > Built a much stronger key account planning program for a large systems integrator
  • > Trained the sales force of a large semi-conductor company on how to articulate the value of their solutions 
  • > Redesigned a marketing metrics system for a large software company to better understand their success in selling solutions
  • > Broke down the silos between Business Units of a large professional services company to allow for better communications and resources-sharing to be able to develop solutions

 

For more examples of our work:

Services: Sales Acceleration

Shortening the Sales Cycle for High-Value Solutions


The Challenge

Let’s face it – selling solutions is hard. The offers are often complex and expensive, which means:

  • More time and effort educating customers
  • Reaching higher up in the customer organization
  • Managing a longer and more expansive sales cycle

 The challenge is compounded by the fact that integrated solutions typically involve a team selling approach, often with partners, instead of an individual sale person landing deals alone.

What tends to happen in this environment is not surprising; sales people fall back into their comfort zone and do what they know best: selling discrete, lower value products and services.

Our Approach

Many sales and marketing leaders assume that the answer is more training. While important, the impact of solutions sales training is limited without a more systematic approach to better enabling the entire solutions sales process.

Accelerating solutions sales requires: 

  • Correctly diagnosing the problems; too often the sales force is the whipping boy for poorly designed solution sets or weak marketing initiatives
  • Aligning sales incentives, compensation, and metrics with the offerings and overall business objectives
  • Strengthening sales enablement systems, processes, and tools to ensure that sellers work in the right ways at the right time with the right customer contacts
  • Integrating tightly-focused training with continuous coaching and support; given the complexity of most solutions portfolios and the unique characteristics within many customer environments, being able to access the right information and counsel at the right time becomes critical to selling process

At Solutions Insights, we help companies accelerate solutions sales with a set of best-practice tools and programs developed with industry leaders over the last ten years, including:
  • Sales Support Optimization: Orienting and optimizing sales support tools, processes, and organization for the challenges of selling high-value solutions
  • Key Account Innovation: Bringing together the combined insights and capabilities of key account leaders, marketing, and solutions experts to create new strategies and offerings for your most important accounts
  • Advanced Training and Coaching: Organizing detailed solutions- and client-focused training and just-in-time coaching that pick up where generic skills and process training leave off

To find out more about how we can help you ensure that your solutions are sold by a motivated and effective sales team, click here >>

Client Examples

  • For a large telecom and networking company, worked with sales leadership to align selling methods, messages, and content with a suite of new solutions
  • For a global telecom firm, developed new methodology and then led a series of planning and coaching programs with top regional sales, marketing, and business development staffs to develop innovative new approaches to key accounts
  • For a large IT hardware and software company, developed a new training module on how to sell complex solutions, and trained global sales teams on the new approach 

Want to Learn More? 

Contact Matt Leary at mleary@solutionsinsights.com or +1-401-635-2148

 

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Learn more about our Sales Acceleration Marketing Frameworks.