The Evolution of Selling

The evolution of selling Marked by four major breakthroughs

The first major breakthrough (1910) The separation of selling and account management functions Original Model New Model Customer acquisition Account mgmt. Customer acquisition Account mgmt. The Challenger Sale, 2011, Mathew Dixon and Brent Adamson

The second major breakthrough (1925) The introduction of selling techniques Introduced selling techniques Features and benefits Objection handling Closing Open and closed ended questioning Important because.. Makes selling a learnable skill Gives rise to sales training discipline The Challenger Sale, 2011, Mathew Dixon and Brent Adamson

Edward Strong’s selling model had several limitations Emphasis on communicating features and benefits (i.e. demonstrating capability) Limited emphasis on uncovering customers’ unmet needs Result: Sales reps talking at customers rather than with them Negative perception of sales people as pushy

The Third Major Breakthrough (1970s) Birth of solution selling h emphasis on investigative techniques Opening Investigating Demonstrating capability Validating Closing 2. Investigating Sales flow The Challenger Sale, 2011, Mathew Dixon and Brent Adamson

Driven by two major insights Customers value what they say & their conclusions more than what they are told Customers value what they ask for more than what is freely offered Opening Investigating Demonstrating capability Validating Closing Failure to close is often due to incomplete investigating

Common allocation of rep selling time in 1970s ? ? Reps naturally gravitated to demonstrating the capabilities of their products because this was the step of the sales call where they felt most in control

More optimal allocation of time Increased focus on uncovering needs Solution selling required reps to engage in a dialogue with their customers in order to uncover needs that their products and services are better able to address. And while this seemed more logical, it was also more stressful as it required reps to hand control of the conversation over to customers and adapt seemlessly to any direction that the conversation went

“Investigating” Objectives Help customers articulate the problems that they face Help customers quantify the size and scope of their problems and opportunities Help customers draw their own insights and conclusions

SPIN* selling approach was created Example Situation questions Problem questions Implication questions Need-payoff questions How many customers do you serve on an average day? What is the biggest challenge you face in fulfilling customer orders? What happens when customer orders aren’t fulfilled properly? If you could fulfill 10% more customer orders each day, would you consider making a small change? Source: Huthwaite Consultants

The solution selling model has several limitations Assumes customers know what their unmet needs are Assumes that customers are willing to pay a premium for solutions to problems that they have already identified Assumes customers have time and desire to educate us Assumes purchasing departments will grant customers access to the solutions that are generated Requires reps and their home office support teams to be able to tailor solutions to customers’ needs in a timely manner

Solution selling report card Majority of sales rep interactions with customers remain social or service calls with no solution presented Reps continue to spend disproportionate amount of time demonstrating capability of existing products and services Few reps able to uncover needs that customers haven’t already uncovered themselves More than 40 years after its introduction, the benefits of solution selling remain elusive.

It also results in search for better selling model Lack of progress results in de-emphasis on selling skills and h emphasis on other disciplines

Summary First major breakthrough is selling came in 1910 with the separation of the sales and account management functions Edward strong introduced the concept of teachable selling techniques in 1925 but this model resulted in an emphasis on push selling Solution selling emerged in the 1970s based on the insight that sales reps that engage in a two-way dialog with customers are better able to understand their needs and tailor their offerings accordingly The failure of solution selling to create sustainable advantage has resulted in the search for a more effective model