| I recently had a brief conversation with a friend while playing golf in the twilight league at our club. Dave is a 10-year veteran sales exec at Cisco. He briefly mentioned that he is being asked by senior management to do “more” than he had to do when he first joined the company. I was curious about what he meant by that, so we scheduled some time to meet to get into the specifics.What Dave meant by “more” was that he was being challenged to get out of IT and establish relationships directly with the business executives. So in addition to the traditional vertical sale, from the technical people through IT management up to the chief information officer (CIO), he is now being asked to meet directly with the business executives. Meeting with the business stakeholders gives the sales exec the ability to understand how technology can affect the profitability of the organization.In today’s IT selling environment, this is even more critical, because business stakeholders have the option of seeking IT solutions from other providers. For example, the internal charge-back cost to the business unit might be significantly higher than outsourcing the application to a cloud-based provider. If the sales exec is exclusively focused in traditional IT vertical selling, he will not have visibility in these options.It stands to reason that if you understand how the company makes money, then you can translate technology sales to a business solution. Please see my blog titled “Follow the Money.”
This new concept is called outcome-based selling.
I did a bit of research to come up with a definition of this latest approach to selling. Below I copied and pasted the definition from a well-known sales consulting and training company.
Outcome-Based Selling
Outcome-Based Selling is an approach designed to identify, and then incorporate a prospect’s needs, dreams and fears into a solution that benefits both the buyer and seller.
This philosophy employs a question-centered selling approach to uncover buyers’ key motivation to make a positive and productive change in their current situation by using the product being sold. Outcome-Based Selling employs strategies designed to build rapport, and ultimately empower the buyer with the ability to make good decisions about their own, their family’s or their company’s future.
Outcome-Based Selling focuses on positive techniques, and succeeds by positioning the product being sold as a means to a buyer’s particular (and/or personal) end, rather than as an end in it.
Perhaps I am missing something, and I certainly welcome feedback on this topic, but it seems to me that any professional sales exec worth their salt should always be focused on the outcome their solution provides. At the end of the day that is all that matters. It takes more effort to understand your clients’ business issues and challenges. But it separates you from the competition and positions you as a valued and strategic business partner, not simply a sales rep. The only way to gain this business knowledge is to do more listening than talking (see previous blog).
Aren’t outcomes all that really matter? That was the first thing I was taught when I started selling back in 1976. My manager asked me, “When you buy a drill, what are actually purchasing?” I was confused by the question. He said, “You are actually purchasing the hole that the drill makes!” Yes, you are purchasing the outcome.
In terms of technology sales, in the 1990s when EMC had the highest-performing data storage in the industry, we would analyze the customers’ data and then predict the increased performance EMC storage would provide. We had systems engineers do the analysis of the clients’ data. We would then attach a performance addendum to the contract that would state if we don’t meet or exceed the predicted performance improvement, the customer could return the equipment with no further obligation. We sold a lot of data storage with this strategy. But if we did not translate the performance improvement to legitimate business value, then shame on us. We called this business impact. And the only way to demonstrate business impact is to understand the clients’ business.
In the 1990s we helped our customers understand how our storage systems would affect the profitability of their business. Now, in 2015, we talk about “Outcome-Based Selling.”
Perhaps 20 years from now sales training consultants will come up with a new buzzword in an attempt to sell more services.
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