Solution Selling FAQ's

A. As Solution Selling® is defined as a selling process, anybody who either supports the selling activity or is responsible for its’ successful outcome would benefit. Typically this means Sales people and their Management team, and support teams from Marketing, Finance, Professional Services and even Development.

To give you some idea of the likely outcome for different attendees, we have included a summary of the difference Solution Selling® makes:

• Sales people now understand they must look for the win / win if they are to consistently meet their goals.
• Marketing people see they must support the selling cycle by getting executives who aren’t looking to buy but should be, to start looking.
• Professional Services people understand they can support the sales cycle by planning the implementation early, helping reduce risk and then delivering the value the customer was expecting. And they must keep a look out for new opportunities.
• Development staff are now enthusiastic about developing products that help solve customer problems with demonstrable value.
• Finance people now have confidence in the forecasts they receive.
• Legal staff realise they must make their company easy to do business with.
• CEOs are happy that even in difficult economic times, revenue and profit growth targets can be met.
• Shareholders see reliable profit forecasts and a growing return on their investment.

A. Selling is a skilful profession and Solution Selling® introduces new tools and techniques that require skill in use and execution. Therefore much of the learning takes place through practice, often in the form of a role-play. Coaches assist with the learning process by giving individual advice and feedback to participants; coaches are essential to ensure maximum skills transfer. A qualified coach is one who has been trained in Solution Selling® and has some experience of its use in real life. The quality standard to which Selling Sciences must adhere is one coach per three attendees (the Workshop Manager and the Instructor are counted as coaches for this calculation).

A. It is probably true that there is never a perfect time to take people away from their selling activities and into a workshop. However, having made the decision that improvements are necessary, our task is to make sure the attendees don’t just gain additional knowledge, but have confidence using newfound skills after the workshop. To achieve this requires an experiential learning environment where salespeople can practice and be coached in the correct use of these skills and techniques. And this takes us four or five days of an intense workshop.