A number of years ago a term came along
that has now become a ubiquitous buzzword
in the world of selling, which is solution selling.
I cannot tell you how many people say,
oh yeah I use solution selling.
Or my focus is to be a solution sales person.
But the reality is that solution selling
is actually a very specific art form.
And without using a couple of key steps,
you're really not doing what we call solution selling.
It's really just as they say, putting lipstick on a pig,
taking what people have been doing for many years
and then calling it something else.
In this video I'm going to show you seven solution
selling tips for the new world.
Check it out.
(dramatic sound)
Number One- Lead with insight.
Your prospects are weary, they are busy.
They don't have time to just waste their time
with any salesperson.
What they want is someone who can demonstrate insight,
who shows that they bring value to their business
or to their life.
That's why we need to lead our interactions with insight.
Of course, the goal is to get them talking
and to get them chatting.
But in order to get there we need to lead
with more than just something like,
hey I'd love to learn more about your business
so that way we can talk about what we do,
blah, blah, blah, right?
Your prospect is immediately turned off by that.
We must lead with insight in order to get to a solution
selling conversation.
Number Two- Know as much as you can about them before.
So many salespeople go into selling situations
completely blind.
It reminds me of the horses they used to see in the city
just walking down the street, right?
And they have those blinders on that are keeping them
from seeing all this stuff that's really going on.
That's how most salespeople sell.
They walk into a selling situation and there's so much data
or research, or information they could get on the prospect
before the meeting or before the conversation.
But they never take the time to really understand
what's going on as much as they possibly can
from the outside view.
Because the more you can come in with that information,
demonstrating that you know exactly who they are,
what they're dealing with, what's going on in their world,
the more likely they are to open up and to start talking.
Number Three- Get them talking ASAP.
Once you've demonstrated insight, you've shown them
that you know who they are.
Now it's time to switch gears
and go from you doing the talking to getting them talking.
And this is really that critical transition
in any selling situation where you've got to break down
that wall and then get them talking.
And once they start talking, you've got to dig, dig, dig
to really understand what's going on in their world.
Number Four- Don't be quick to solve.
This is really undoing most of what we've been taught
our entire lives, right?
Think of when you were in kindergarten,
and the teacher said, "What's one plus one?"
Of course the precocious kid puts up their hand
and says, "Two."
That kid gets a gold star.
The quicker they could answer the question,
the quicker they got the gold star.
And that was what we learned all throughout education
and even well into our careers.
Yet in sales the person who was quick to answer
is actually missing out on so much valuable information
coming from the prospect.
Don't be quick to solve.
Don't be quick to answer, instead dig deeper,
get as deep as you can before you get into that solve
or presentation mode.
Most salespeople are presenting way too early.
So don't be quick to solve.
Number Five- Dig very, very, very deep.
I've already talked about this a bit
because it's so important.
Great salespeople can go so much deeper in the conversation.
So the prospect says, "Oh yeah, we've been dealing
"with this challenge."
Most salespeople say, "Oh well, we can help you with this,
"that, and this and that."
But a great sales person says,
"Hmm, help me understand what you mean by that challenge."
Or tell me more, unpack that for me.
The deeper you go, the more layers of the onion
that you can pull back to get to the core issue,
the more likely you are to demonstrate
that you are the right person to solve their challenges.
Number Six- Spontaneous questions are everything.
I already just gave you a hint when I was talking about
digging deeply about spontaneous questions.
Spontaneous questions are just little questions
that aren't built into your scripts necessarily,
but are just quick things that are basically unpacking
what they've said, getting to that center of the onion.
And so the prospect starts telling you something
and you say, "Hmm, interesting.
"Help me understand why you say that."
Or tell me a little bit more about that.
Or what do you think is going on there?
Just going deeper and deeper,
just like a psychiatrist or a doctor trying to get
to the core issue.
Number Seven- Close for next steps not the sale.
Bottom and average performing salespeople
are going for the sale.
They're trying to get some really just like definitive close
at the end of the conversation.
But top performers, particularly in larger transaction size
sales aren't necessarily going for the close of the sale.
Instead they're just closing for next steps.
Great salespeople will know that if you're keeping the sales
on track with clear next steps, you're going to hold
that sale together.
Today's sales are much more complex.
There are more decision makers.
There are more people involved in that conversation.
So instead of trying to go for some Kung Fu close
at the end, instead what you want to do
is just make sure you're holding everything together
with clear and scheduled next steps.
That's how we keep things on track,
rather than going for some hardcore close
which then tends to cause the prospect to say,
"Well, you know what?
"Let me get back to you in a couple of weeks."
And now the sale has already fallen off track.
So there are seven solution selling tips for the new world.
And if you enjoyed this video then I have an awesome
free training on the data-driven approach
to closing more sales in today's marketplace.
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