Alternative Selling Together with Sincerity.
The mantra of selling solutions has taken enterprise software by storm and nowhere is this more prevalent than CRM. Honestly, it seems like the more challenging and difficult it's to sell into specific sectors of CRM, the more solution selling has been invoked. All this newfound religion of selling solutions is truly transforming some companies away from being purely product-centric to being problem-centered on their customers'broken business processes first. Probably the most positive part of solution selling pervading the best-of-breed CRM community is it is starting to make a difference.
These best of breed vendors who are walking IT Ally solutions talk likewise have generated a side benefit no one is truly speaing frankly about as it pertains to solutions selling, and that benefit is integrity. Amazing as it sounds I don't think enough companies really stop and take into account the long-term implications for their integrity of giving themselves the label to be a "solutions seller" without earning it. In reality it's only as simple for a business to claim they're "customer focused" as being enlightened at solution selling without having to be either.
What's unsettling and troublesome is that so many CRM vendors, in trouble with thinning pipelines on the one hand and competitors from the SaaS world nipping at their heels including Salesforce.com at the low-end and mid-range of the marketplace on another, jump to solutions selling without considering how to construct integrity in the process. The underside line is that solution selling for the troubled CRM vendors of today can be like the "Hail Mary" long pass in football often thrown within the last seconds of a half or game, hoping someone on their team can come down with a signed deal ultimately zone. One of the numerous difficulties with seeing solution selling whilst the "quick fix" to major problems is so it results in just that way to prospects and clients alike. The proof comes in the execution, not in landing the deal.
The businesses getting the most effective results from solution selling are doing these tasks not only to have them done, but with plenty of focus and effort behind them to produce their solutions trustworthy, and at the heart of solution selling with integrity may be the earning of trust:
o Populate roadmaps with products you can WebEx today showing integration. A sure sign a business is solution selling with integrity is when they have reality-based roadmaps. Every application, whether licensed or hosted, can he demonstrated on WebEx and the systems integrated with may also be seen anywhere in the world, anytime, by way of a simple WebEx window. That's impressive, it's solution selling and it's making many companies practicing this worth trust. Finally, prospects say to themselves, a vendor who "gets it" and shows me what is shipping. Never to belabor the idea, but you've to respect Steve Job's quote "Real artists ship", reminding his staff that delivering working products on time is as important as innovation and killer designs.