Customer Centric Selling
I recently received an email regarding the article on Solution Selling, asking me to comment on Customer Centric Selling. First, Customer Centric Selling is just the most recent and renamed version of Solution Selling, so there’s not a lot to talk about. Solution Selling was coined by Michael Bosworth in his book of the same name. He later sold his stake in the Solution Selling company he founded and subsequently repackaged “Solution Selling” into “Customer Centric Selling” (now CCS because I am tired of typing the entire thing). While I lambasted the lack of definition for Solution Selling in a previous article, CCS as a name at least contains some semantic logic. If you consider the 3 words, and acknowledge there are just two parties to a sales transaction, the seller and the buyer,;then CCS merely means that in selling you should focus on the buyer. No great revelation there. I guess the reason we need to be reminded of this is because “sales people” are too self centered and egotistical to focus on the customer. Wise advice and such reminders are always welcome and helpful, although they shouldn’t be necessary.
Other than reminding sales people to focus on the customer, CCS is just the newest revision of Solution Selling. It contains some minor refinements and additional tips, but nothing truly new. I find the book CCS incomplete regarding managing the entire sales process. The book lacks useful information on prospecting, which is the most important aspect of sales. The most successful sales people are great prospectors.
CCS assumes that “asking questions” is prospecting. While asking questions is very important and powerful in determining a buyer’s needs, pains and goals; you just can’t start pummelling an executive with questions. It’s disrespectful. You first need to present a clear and concise value proposition that is meaningful to the executiive and addresses something urgent on the executive’s radar screen. If you do not have a compelling value proposition for the target executive that can make a substantial positive impact on his P&L or Balance Sheet, or some other item on the radar screen, you will be delegated down.
The other weakness in CCS is the lack of meaningful help in lead and account qualification. Understand that a sales person basically sells their time. They cannot afford to waste time selling to people who aren’t going to buy. Solution selling is about selling a vision of a better future against the current state of the present. The future is unknown and risky, but there is always tomorrow to make a decision. The present is known, and they know how to deal with it. Unless something really bad is going to happen if they don’t consumate the sale, then the sale is unlikely to close anytime soon. One of my favorite qualifying questions is “What will happen if you don’t do this project”? If the answer isn’t something really bad, such as “I will get fired”, “I will go to jail” or something similarily catastrophic; the sale is likely to take a nauseatingly long to close, if ever.
Also, don’t fall into the ROI trap. ROI’s don’t sell. They are a gate to get through after the decision has been made. The ugly fact is that a company typically has 8 times more investments opportunities with acceptable ROI’s then they are capable of or desire to implement. It is not for a lack of capital, but organizational bandwidth, alignment with strategy or the executive just doesn’t care. Business investment doesn’t work like investment portfolio’s or MBA Corporate Finance. Addressing an urgent need and avoiding a painful consequence is more important than ROI.
Customer Centric and Solution Selling are power and important sales techniques. I personally use, manage and teach them. But because they are incomplete, I caution organizations adopting them to make sure they fill in the gaps regarding prospecting and qualifying. To fill in the those gaps, I recommend “Value Forward Selling” by Paul DiModica. www.digitalhatch.com
Thank you for your comments and I look forward to your response.