Solution sales & account management
Customer understanding essential. Solution sales is all about being proactive at the customer interface and effective solution sales builds on understanding the customers’ business challenges and financial drivers. Solution sales is about identifying also the customers’ latent needs and developing a solution to these needs. This is often done in cooperation with the customer since most often the company’s solution portfolio includes elements and opportunities that customers are not aware of. Generally, the scope of the deals as well as hit-rate and win-rate remarkably increase when the value proposition of the “sales case” addresses the customer specific issues and values.
Cross-functional involvement. In Vectia’s experience solution sales is a cross-functional effort that cannot be executed by the sales and account management functions alone. Multiple roles, both front-line and back-line, need to be involved to understand the customer’s situation and the drivers of multiple decision-makers in order to develop a customer oriented value proposition, to define the exact solution and, finally, to win and execute the deal.
Systematic sales management. To be able to implement solution sales throughout the firm, perhaps on several continents, systematic sales management needs to be put in place. The decisions regarding customer and sales case selection as well as solutions to be offered need to be made systematically and consciously. The same applies for the allocation of critical resources to different sales cases. Solution sales development and implementation is an on-going activity, which can be accelerated through documented methods and tools, effective team work and hands-on training, and through job rotation as well as hiring from outside.
Effects on strategy. Solution sales has a very strategic role since it is the place where the firm’s solution strategy first hits the road. This is why investments in sales development often have a great impact and pay-back for the company as a whole. However, solution sales not only implements strategy – it can also effectively communicate emerging market trends and future customer needs. It thus has a strong influence on the strategic direction of the company.
Vectia helps companies in developing and implementing solution sales by
- Assessing strengths and gaps in the company’s solution sales approach
- Defining or enhancing the solution sales process and the sales management system
- Designing tools for solution sales efficiency and effectiveness
- Defining and mapping solution sales competences in the company
- Documenting the approach in presentations and handbooks
- Training and coaching
- Defining and implementing of CRM IT systems