While researching the solution selling topic, I came across a couple of interesting articles announcing the death of solution selling and one of them even announcing the birth of the new kid on the jargon block called ´Insight Selling´. You can check them out for yourself (the HBR one will require a subscription) here and here.
Here is a gist of the HBR article since you probably won´t have access: The authors argue that the now outdated ´solution selling´ depends on the client having a problem which they don´t know how to solve, which is then the opportunity for the vendor to come in and solve. Apparently, most of the big companies today are far ahead in the maturity curve when it comes to what and how they want to buy which makes life difficult if not impossible for solution sellers. In the audio interview with one of the authors at HBR, there is even a ridiculous comparison between solution selling and a visit to a car dealer which is very different today compared to what it was a couple of decades ago, armed as the customer is with the information from the internet and so on.
The two minor issues I have with this point of view are
a) Many big companies (especially those in Europe) are hardly mature in sourcing or even in clearly defining their problems and they are nowhere close to asking vendors to take ownership for outcomes. This means solution selling is on very fertile ground on many many such client situations even today and
b) Comparing a complex B2B sale to buying a car from a dealer is pure nonsense. I don´t want to waste time dismantling the author´s argument here but you can do that yourself easily. This means that solution selling adds or should add much more value than any car dealer ever added to a car sale.
The major issue I have is that the new concept introduced by the HBR authors (Insight Selling) has also been around for ever and it is no different from solution selling. A solution addresses whatever problem or goal the client has and invariably incorporates innovative insights about the client´s business. Putting it another way, Solution Selling already includes Insight Selling and any good solution must incorporate insights about the client´s business.
We really don´t need to throw the Solution Selling baby away with the bathwater - especially since most people in sales are seeing it for the first time even as you read this today in 2014!
Here is a gist of the HBR article since you probably won´t have access: The authors argue that the now outdated ´solution selling´ depends on the client having a problem which they don´t know how to solve, which is then the opportunity for the vendor to come in and solve. Apparently, most of the big companies today are far ahead in the maturity curve when it comes to what and how they want to buy which makes life difficult if not impossible for solution sellers. In the audio interview with one of the authors at HBR, there is even a ridiculous comparison between solution selling and a visit to a car dealer which is very different today compared to what it was a couple of decades ago, armed as the customer is with the information from the internet and so on.
The two minor issues I have with this point of view are
a) Many big companies (especially those in Europe) are hardly mature in sourcing or even in clearly defining their problems and they are nowhere close to asking vendors to take ownership for outcomes. This means solution selling is on very fertile ground on many many such client situations even today and
b) Comparing a complex B2B sale to buying a car from a dealer is pure nonsense. I don´t want to waste time dismantling the author´s argument here but you can do that yourself easily. This means that solution selling adds or should add much more value than any car dealer ever added to a car sale.
The major issue I have is that the new concept introduced by the HBR authors (Insight Selling) has also been around for ever and it is no different from solution selling. A solution addresses whatever problem or goal the client has and invariably incorporates innovative insights about the client´s business. Putting it another way, Solution Selling already includes Insight Selling and any good solution must incorporate insights about the client´s business.
We really don´t need to throw the Solution Selling baby away with the bathwater - especially since most people in sales are seeing it for the first time even as you read this today in 2014!
