Companies are transforming rapidly to become more agile, teams are becoming more diverse, customers are switching between online shopping, catalog sales and real stores, occasionally getting lost in multichannel – in short, the world of sales is changing more rapidly than ever before. One of the most important trends in B2B is the shift from product/service sales to “solution selling” or “value-oriented selling”. Customers expect more and, provided the salesperson of their choice has the right qualifications, they now also get more.
Value Oriented Selling. What does that mean?
Up to now, sales talks in B2B business have very often revolved around three aspects: Product features (or service content), availability and conditions. Occasionally, a more or less successful presentation of the company and its USP’s, especially when new customers are being introduced[1] round off the presentation phase. Accordingly, the salesperson’s knowledge was and is geared precisely to this.
These are often employees who were recruited from the technical departments, brought in excellent product knowledge, occasionally also acquired commercial knowledge and then received their rhetorical fine-tuning in training courses. This is the case in many industries, such as automotive, mechanical engineering, the tool trade or medical technology.
Customers in the B2B sector are now using a very professional mix of options for their procurement. What can be standardized, especially for commodities[2] is handled electronically as far as possible, making processes even “leaner”, more convenient and also faster. Advice and service are provided from the back office. In the tool trade, issuing systems are now in use that automatically contact the supplier for repeat orders and initiate order/delivery processes. The use of self-learning, AI[3]-based systems is foreseeable and makes perfect sense in some areas of application.
If personal meetings actually take place between sales representatives and customers, the expectations on site are simply different, namely higher. The salesperson no longer fills out an order pad and conditions are often already negotiated and fixed for a longer period of time. If customers invest time in discussions, the result simply has to be more than what can be achieved online or over the phone without intervention.
The expectation in concrete terms: the customer wants to be understood in their world, in their goals and plans, in their motivation and in their particular individuality and – ideally – to be taken further. They want to be able to experience and benefit from more extensive added value than before. Value Oriented Selling means creating added value together with the customer that is geared towards the company’s goals. Solution Selling means working with the customer to develop and solve tasks in this context for the future. Both can go far beyond solving purely technical, immediate issues.
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What will be different?
Above all, the content of the conversation is changing, or rather expanding. In addition to the previous content (products, technical features, etc.), there are now aspects relating to the market and business management. From process optimization, cost reductions, new logistics channels to new product developments or general changes to the business model – the range of topics is as open and as individual as the individuality of companies and customers.
In the sales meeting, the content of the needs analysis, among other things, will change significantly. In order to be able to outline a successful perspective for cooperation together with the customer, additional, more far-reaching content must be brought to the table. “How does your company differ from your competitors on the market?” “What are the most strategically important projects in your company at the moment?” “Where do you currently see the biggest hurdles in achieving your goals?” add important content to the needs analysis.
Upskilling
For many sales employees, this is where new, They still have to deal with unfamiliar topics. Concentrated knowledge acquisition, practical training and practice are the order of the day. The understanding of one’s own role is further developed and work objectives are expanded. Content from business management and market knowledge embeds product and service knowledge in an understanding of added value. In more theoretical terms, the salesperson (together with the customer) also looks at everything from a meta-level and not just from an application perspective.
In future, the use of business networks such as XING or LinkedIn for preliminary information will be standard when preparing for customer appointments. Valuable information for the acquisition and consulting process can be accessed here and made available at the same time – with your own profile. Many people are still unfamiliar with how to use them in practice and are often unaware of the specific, really valuable benefits of business networking systems.
In terms of methodology, the focus is on a slightly different way of conducting discussions, with particular emphasis on needs analysis and outlining perspectives as special training content. This also includes the ability to skillfully use typical tools from idea and concept development, from the use of flipcharts and mind mapping to the use of moderation methods.
Opportunity and conclusion
Upskilling sales work offers great new opportunities to inspire customers and expand customer relationships. On the sales side, it is not about replacing what has been learned so far, but about expanding qualifications for a better understanding of the customer. Specialists are increasingly becoming generalists, product experts are becoming customer experts with more influence on the cooperation between business partners. Long-serving employees in particular can apply all their maturity and experience from many customer meetings and projects and use it for mutual success.
by Karl Heinz Lorenz, trainer at Lorenz-Seminare
[1] USP=Unique Selling Proposition
[2] Commodity=commercial goods; interchangeable standard goods that can be obtained from many suppliers in comparable quality
[3] AI=artificial intelligence
[4] Meta level: superordinate level, level; level that is behind, that is the actual starting point for something