Pump Up Your Sales
with Solution Selling
Mark Johns
Senior Business Development
Consultant
Solution Selling
Simple sale
Low-risk, low-level, one or two elements,
alternate choice close, yes or no answer
Solution Selling
Simple sale
Low-risk, low-level, one or two elements,
alternate choice close, yes or no answer
Complex sale
Higher-risk, higher-level, several to many
elements, multi-step, multi-close
Solution Selling
An offering, made up of different
components, which is proposed to resolve
some specific issue(s) that a customer or
prospect is experiencing.
Solution Selling
Solution selling is Question-based Selling
More questions = More caring & concerned*
More questions = More knowledgeable about their
jobs, market & products*
*Neil Rackham
Solution Selling
Steps in Solution Selling
1 - Prospecting
2 - Pre-call research
3 - Approach
4 - Meeting
5 - Presentation
6 - Follow-up
Solution Selling
Steps in Solution Selling
1 - Prospecting - Based on a profile
Solution Selling
Steps in Solution Selling
1 - Prospecting - Based on a profile
2 - Pre-call research - Various methods
Solution Selling
Steps in Solution Selling
1 - Prospecting - Based on a profile
2 - Pre-call research - Various methods
3 - Approach - Phone/mail/phone/mail/etc.
Solution Selling
Steps in Solution Selling
1 - Prospecting - Based on a profile
2 - Pre-call research - Various methods
3 - Approach - Phone/mail/phone/mail/etc.
4 - Meeting - CPIP questions
Solution Selling
Steps in Solution Selling
1 - Prospecting - Based on a profile
2 - Pre-call research - Various methods
3 - Approach - Phone/mail/phone/mail/etc.
4 - Meeting - CPIP questions
5 - Presentation - Offer solution(s)
Solution Selling
Steps in Solution Selling
1 - Prospecting - Based on a profile
2 - Pre-call research - Various methods
3 - Approach - Phone/mail/phone/mail/etc.
4 - Meeting - CPIP questions
5 - Presentation - Offer solution(s)
6 - Follow-up - Additional meetings/people/
proposals/closes
Solution Selling
Four types of questions
C
P
I
P
Solution Selling
Condition questions like:
• What are your (department goals) this year?
• How well do (sales & marketing) work together?
• How many (of your salespeople hit their quotas
last year)? How many (quit)?
• Donor retention is a major issue for many nonprofits right now. What are you doing to keep your
donors?
Solution Selling
Problem questions like:
• Are you satisfied with (the leads you’re getting
from your website)?
• Is (launching new products) a challenge for you?
In what ways?
• Are you happy with (your conversion rate)?
• How satisfied are you with (your current order
tracking system)?
Solution Selling
Impact questions like:
• What happens when a mailer goes out late?
• How do (late payments) concern you? Your boss?
• Does that create problems for (customer service
reps)? The (shipping department)? What
happens then?
• Do you (lose customers) when that happens?
Solution Selling
Payoff questions like:
• How would (higher open rates on your emails)
help?
• How would (reducing waste) affect your
department budget? By how much?
• Would (online ordering by the field staff) reduce
(stress and errors in orders)? How much would
that save?
• If we found a way to (turn more lookers into
buyers), would that be worth looking at?
Solution Selling
Response:
“Frankly, I don’t know whether we can do that…”
“I may have an idea for you…”
“There may be a better way to do that…”
“I’d like to give that some thought and see what we
can do to help.”
“Can we meet again next week? I’d like to work on
some possible solutions for you.”
Solution Selling
Next steps
- Gather information from buyer
- Talk with smart people
- Research AIA case studies & your website
- Present, refine, detail
- Write & present proposal
- Follow-up
Solution Selling
Solution Selling
Books:
The New Solution Selling, Keith Eades
Consultative Selling, Mack Hanan
Selling To Big Companies, Jill Konrath
Selling to VITO, Anthony Parinello
SPIN Selling, Neil Rackham
SPIN Selling Fieldbook, Neil Rackham
Solution Selling
Other resources:
Sales Collateral Kit for PIP/SG/SS
FSI seminars & webinars
Questions?