Top Sales Manager Blog

If you think the world’s CEOs and top sales managers don’t know squat about being solutions-centric than product-centric, which is why they’re struggling keep their heads above water, you’re dead wrong. The principle of adopting a solution-centric business model has been around some time. Everybody is doing it. But even so, why are we still having the same problems?

It’s easy to say, “We are changing our business tactics from product-centric to solution-centric. Starting tomorrow, we are going to sell not products to our customers, but solutions.” From the perspective of a sales person, it sounds about right, but it really isn’t. Focusing to be solution-centric merely at the point-of-sale means nothing if the company still retains its product-centric DNA.

What the average sales manager imposes are “pseudo solutions”, temporary fixes disguised as long-term solutions.

Here are some examples of pseudo solutions:

• Simply replacing the words “product and “service” with the term “solution”
• Offering products with accompanying services and calling it a “total solution”
• Altering a product/service and calling it a “tailored solution”, when it is more or less still the same product
• Identifying an operation of function as a problem when it isn’t – for example, telecom management “solution”

Analyze the list closely. None of the methods even come close to providing the customer with a real solution. Even worse, they don’t have any material impact on the sales team’s potential to sell.

What CEOs and top sales managers must realize is that there is more to selling than just your sales people. According to Primary Intelligence, Aberdeen, Sirius Decisions and CSO Insights, “sales effectiveness” is reliant on several factors and not just on the talents of your sales reps.

For example,

1. Sales organization – Sales organization is crucial to sustain long-term revenue growth, according to several studies and C-level surveys.

2. Sales and marketing integration – The sales and marketing team should work as a tight unit. This approach is proven to have a great impact on your sales, if done right.

As a top sales manager, you need to realize that sales training is still important and should be one of the company’s top priorities. But it isn’t everything. The ability to sustain “sales effectiveness” is a result of several different factors that affect the sales environment. You need to have a structured framework in place to be able to make swift and critical decisions where gaps in the sales environment show up when least expected.

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Share your thoughts on pseudo solutions and the product-centric business model by leaving a comment below.

Filed under: Leading by ralphburns