Be sure to register for my free training on, "Why Prospects Push Back on Price, Give 'Think-It-Overs,' and Ghost in Sales Until They Meet a Sales Superstar Who Is Following These 7 Simple Keys" [ Ссылка ]
1. Lead with insight.
Your prospects are weary. They’re busy. They don't have time to waste with a random salesperson. What they want is to talk to someone who can demonstrate insight, someone who shows that they can bring value to their business or to their life. This is central to solution selling.
That's why, as salespeople, we need to lead our sales interactions with insight. Of course, the goal is to get prospects talking. But in order to get there, we need to lead with more than just something like, "Hey, I'd love to learn more about your business so that we can talk about how my company can help you..." Your prospect is immediately turned off by that.
You must lead with insight in order to reach a truly solution-selling conversation.
2. Know as much as you can about them before.
Many salespeople go into selling situations completely blind. This approach always reminds me of the horses that used to take people for rides in the city, just walking down the street with blinders on to keep them from panicking. That's how most salespeople sell. They walk into a selling situation with blinders on.
There’s no reason to do this anymore. Today, salespeople have access to so much data, research, and information on prospects before that first meeting or conversation. If you’re truly doing solution selling, then you must know as much as you can about prospects before you ever talk to them.
3. Get them talking ASAP.
Once you've demonstrated insight and shown that you know who they are, it's time to switch gears and get them talking instead of you. This is a critical transition in any selling situation, but it’s a pillar of solution selling. You’ve got to break down that wall and get them talking.
4. Don’t be quick to solve.
This solution selling tip runs counter to what most salespeople have been taught their entire lives. Think of when you were in kindergarten and the teacher asked the class, "What's one plus one?" Of course, the precocious kid in class would put up their hand right away and say, "Two." That kid would get a gold star. The quicker they could answer the question, the quicker they got the gold star—and that was the lesson we learned all throughout school, and even well into our careers.
Yet in sales, the salesperson who is quick to answer actually misses out on so much valuable information coming from the prospect. Don't be quick to solve. Don't be quick to answer. Instead, dig deeper. Get as deep as you can before you go into presentation mode. Most salespeople are presenting way too early. So don't be quick to solve.
5. Dig very, very, very deep.
I've already mentioned the idea of “digging very deep” a couple of times, but it’s so important to solution selling that it deserves its own point altogether. Great salespeople dig so much deeper in the conversation than average- and low-performers do. When a prospect says something like, "We’ve been dealing with this challenge..." most salespeople reply, "We can help you with that!” But a great salesperson says, "Help me understand what you mean by that..." or "Tell me more…” or “Unpack that for me..." The deeper you go, the more layers of the onion you can peel back to get to the core issue—and the better you can demonstrate that you’re the right person to solve their challenges.
6. Spontaneous questions are everything.
Spontaneous questions are just little questions (or prompting phrases) that aren't necessarily built into your scripts. They help you organically get the prospect to open up more about what’s going on in their world right now. I already gave a few examples of spontaneous questions in the previous tip: “Tell me more…” and “Help me understand what you mean by that…” and “Unpack that for me…” are all great examples.
7. Close for next steps, not the sale.
Low- and average-performing salespeople go for the sale. They try to get a definitive close at the end of every conversation. But top performers—particularly with larger transaction size sales—don’t necessarily go for the close of the sale. Instead, they're just closing for next steps.
Great salespeople know that if you're keeping sales on track with clear next steps, then you're going to hold those sales together. In today’s world of selling, sales are much more complex than they used to be. There are more decision makers. There are more people involved in each sales conversation. So instead of trying to go for some fancy close at the end of the conversation, just make sure you're holding everything together with clear and scheduled next steps.
