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Marketers Refocusing Sales Support for Solutions Selling
As IT companies continue to shift their orientation toward selling high-end solutions, sales support has emerged as a major stumbling block. Marketers have tended simply to blame their sales forces, arguing that if sales would just "get with the program," everything would be fine. As the solutions shift has continued, though, many marketing leaders are taking on more responsibility to help solve the problem rather than sit back and point fingers.
Salespeople themselves, according to ITSMA research, point to three major challenges in selling solutions:
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Articulating the value of the solutions. Solutions are generally more complex than services and products alone. Moreover, to be compelled to buy, customers need to understand the business value.
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Working within a solutions sales team. Solutions usually require cross-organizational collaboration. Combining all the resources that are needed to understand and address customer issues can result in much larger teams than salespeople are accustomed to.
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Having the right tools and support. Due to the inherent nature of most solutions—complex issues addressed, a combination of products and services, a focus on core business problems, etc.—salespeople need new and different tools.
Marketing can and should play a major role in addressing all three of these challenges. Lets look at each of these critical problem areas and how marketing can help to overcome them.
| Articulating the value of solutions |
Working within a solutions team |
Having the right tools and support |
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Provide better training in how to create and use value propositions.
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Ensure that all marketing activities focus on buyer value instead of solution features.
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Conduct research to better understand customer wants and needs, and use the results to create focused solutions offerings.
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Take the lessons learned from customer needs studies and design value proposition training for the sales force.
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Develop value proposition templates that allow the sales force to create highly tailored messages for each selling situation.
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Ensure that solutions descriptions are written in value formats and are easily accessible to salespeople.
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Create virtual teaming structures.
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Provide skills and information in how to do collaborative selling.
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Assist in identifying who should be involved in the selling process.
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Support or create account planning processes and activities.
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Change the incentive plans to promote sharing and collaboration.
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Provide testimonials around the financial benefits of involving others in the selling process.
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Identify and share best practices within the company in how to leverage solutions teams.
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Create tools, such as financially-based calculators and more targeted references that demonstrate potential bottom-line value to customers.
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Develop issues-focused and value-oriented collateral that is highly integrated, and support a longer solutions sales cycle.
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Assume that more customer education is required, and develop tools/activities appropriately.
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Develop tools that support sales activities in every relationship stage: awareness, interest, confidence, and loyalty.
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Make it easy for the sales force to identify the right tool/activity for each potential solution and relationship stage.
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Consider building a "solutions generator" that would construct a solution based on a specific customer profile and business issues for each selling situation.
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The emerging era of solutions has put a new twist on the old problem of marketing and sales collaboration. Both sides are recognizing that they can’t do it alone. The lengthy and complicated sales cycle for multifaceted solutions relies more and more on cross-functional support and teamwork. Marketers that invest in addressing the value challenge head-on, supporting more effective team selling, and creating an integrated portfolio of support tools are three steps ahead of the game in building the internal cooperation required for successful solutions selling.
ITSMA’s recent briefing, The Role of Marketing in Selling Solutions, outlines the three main levers that marketing has to improve solutions selling: tools, systems, and skills. The briefing is available without charge to ITSMA members (password required) and for sales to others. Details at http://www.itsma.com/research/abstracts/olb071503.htm.‘
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ITSMA specializes in helping companies market and sell services and solutions more effectively. We work with the world's leading technology, communications, and professional services providers to generate increased demand, strengthen customer relationships, and improve brand differentiation. ITSMA annual program clients include business leaders such as AT&T, Cisco, Deloitte, EMC, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, and Tata Consultancy Services, among others. Our comprehensive research, consulting, and training on topics including ITSMA Account-Based Marketing℠, Brand Positioning, and Solutions Development provide the insight and experience companies need to improve business results. ITSMA is based near Boston, and has offices in London and Tokyo. Learn more at www.itsma.com.
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