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Where business and technology collide

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Are Your Solutions Sales Stalled? We’ve Been Expecting You.

Started by ChangeForge | Ken Stewart · 11 months ago

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3 comments

GregWalters
10 months ago

Very good.

But remember, sales people are lazy - we take the path of least resistance.

And "selling" somebody at the end of the lease has least resistance then creating "divergent demand"

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Max
10 months ago

Greg - are they lazy or just working smart versus working hard? As long as the comp plan pays the same for rolling an existing customer (lease renewals, etc) as it does for NEW business and 'solution' type sales the only thing the rep has to worry about is being on time for that Friday morning tee time. The first step is a tweak in the comp plan. Lower the juice for renewal business and increase it for 'solution' type sales.

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Darrell Amy
10 months ago

I couldn't agree more. Marc Miller, in his great book Selling is Dead, says that we need to transition our reps from creating concurrent demand (demand for more of what they already have) to creating divergent demand (demand for something new.)

The challenge with creating divergent demand is that it requires a different skill set. Existing reps have three options with concurrent demand: buy more, buy cheaper or buy better systems. They are also working inside the framework of an existing budget and formalized decision makers.

Solutions sales require divergent demand. There is no budget. There are no formalized decision makers. Thus, it is up to the rep to create top level relationships and uncover meaningful business problems. Until the problem is unearthed and the client agrees it is a problem, there is no solution sale.

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