Prospecting Solution Sales – Part 1 of 2

Ask any owner or manager in the typical document imaging company and they will tell you that they spend enormous amount of time and money developing the concept of ‘solution selling’ within their sales teams.  From hired consultants to expensive courseware, they look for ways to change the make up of their sales staff from the stereotypical used-car salesperson (like Herb Tarlek on WKRP in Cincinnati), to a consultative sales professional.  This is a 2-part series about how you can develop solution selling prospecting skills within your organization.

Before we get into the details, you should realize upfront that the value of solution selling does not discount the validity of other strategies.  Similarly, do not subscribe to the ideal that solution selling is the only way to be successful in the document output industry.  Rather, you should value solution selling because it is a defined process that can be duplicated by virtually any salesperson, new or experienced, to achieve results.  By definition, as a process it can be implemented across all levels of a sales organization and utilized by management as a tool to measure results, leading ultimately to a more professional, polished, and customer-driven sales organization.

Part 1 – Selective Targeting

Above all else, the process for prospecting is the most important aspect of a solution sale.  Who you prospect, and the manner in which you do it, will determine what the sales cycle, revenue total, and profit will be possible in an account.  This is an area of sales skill that is often talked about, but rarely taught.  It is a bit like golfers who go to the range every day to practice hitting with their driver, yet only practice putting occasionally.  The hardest shots aren’t the long drives where you have an open field in which to play, but the short chip shots, where you have to have pin-point accuracy in order to sink the ball.

One of the reasons for this is that most golfers approach the game like it is played, from the tee to the hole.  In many respects they should do the opposite.  View the game backwards, from the hole to the tee, in order to have better results.  Similarly, sales people should focus the majority of their efforts on prospecting, and targeting the right accounts, rather than spending time on the close.  If you prospect the wrong accounts or start the sales process with the wrong approach, you will predetermine the value the customer places on you and your service even before the sale process has begun.  Consider again Herb Tarlek from WKRP in Cincinnati, and his list of customers.  Companies like “Shady Hills Rest Home and Gone With the Wind Estates” don’t inspire visions of great businesses that are looking for a valued, trusted partnership.

Above all else, the process for prospecting is the most important aspect of a solution sale.  Who you prospect, and the manner in which you do it, will determine what the sales cycle, revenue total, and profit will be possible in an account.

Spend time to research the organizations you seek to do business with, and then develop a strategy to compete for their business.  The more you know about your prospects, the better you are able to communicate with them  on a level that they will understand and appreciate.  Use the customer’s website, scour news articles, look for industry associations, and then consider their competitors.  Depending on the company size, look at competitors or similar organizations in other cities, and then relate this research to the customer during your conversations.

In researching accounts, you have to be willing to reject customers and be very selective in the companies you decide to target.  We have all heard that adage that, “sales is a numbers game”, and that is still very true in solution selling.  This is why it is especially important that during your selection process you weed out the companies that will be price-focused or not value a consultative approach.  Because the consultative approach to selling is a time consuming process, you can’t afford to waste time on accounts that will ultimately decide on factors out of your control, such as price or product features.

In the same respect, many sales people make the mistake that after doing the work to weed through their prospect lists, they can reduce their activity (cold calls, mailers, telemarketing, etc.) because they have a refined list of potential clients.  The reality: sales is, and always will be, a ‘numbers game’ that is subject to the law of averages.  The more people you see, the greater potential for sales.  The selection process is hard work, but it does not mean that you can reduce your typical daily sales activities.

Further, as you select and target accounts, it is essential that you have a system to organize this information over time.  Given the use of long-term contracts in the industry, it is a matter of survival to track the timing of contracts, important morsels of information about the customer, and key data about your contacts.  (The system for organizing this information is outside the scope of this series, but will be the subject of future articles).  Having a system in place not only will help to develop the prospect into a customer, but also for sales management to measure the effectiveness of their sales staff.  Likewise, as you begin to develop relationships with your prospects, and then consult with them on their needs, the system you use to organize your data will be essential to your success.

Stay tuned for the second part in this series and learn how to create trust with your prospects – July 15.

Jeff Pitney is a long time veteran of the document imaging industry and has worked in both sales and sales management capacities for manufacturers and independent dealers alike. Jeff also runs Pitney Application Design, building websites and custom integrations for web-based solutions.