{"id":1587,"date":"2014-02-15T23:34:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-15T22:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/2014\/02\/15\/the-end-of-solution-sales-hbr\/"},"modified":"2014-02-15T23:34:00","modified_gmt":"2014-02-15T22:34:00","slug":"the-end-of-solution-sales-hbr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silta.es\/juantatay\/the-end-of-solution-sales-hbr\/","title":{"rendered":"The End of Solution Sales – HBR"},"content":{"rendered":"

The End of Solution Sales – Harvard Business Review<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00abThe hardest thing about B2B selling today is that customers don\u2019t need you the way they used to. In recent decades sales reps have become adept at discovering customers\u2019 needs and selling them \u201csolutions\u201d\u2014generally, complex combinations of products and services. This worked because customers didn\u2019t know how to solve their own problems, even though they often had a good understanding of what their problems were. But now, owing to increasingly sophisticated procurement teams and purchasing consultants armed with troves of data, companies can readily define solutions for themselves.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

In fact, a recent Corporate Executive Board study of more than 1,400 B2B customers found that those customers completed, on average, nearly 60% of a typical purchasing decision\u2014researching solutions, ranking options, setting requirements, benchmarking pricing, and so on\u2014before even having a conversation with a supplier. In this world the celebrated \u201csolution sales rep\u201d can be more of an annoyance than an asset. Customers in an array of industries, from IT to insurance to business process outsourcing, are often way ahead of the salespeople who are \u201chelping\u201d them.<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
But the news is not all bad. Although traditional reps are at a distinct disadvantage in this environment, a select group of high performers are flourishing. These superior reps have abandoned much of the conventional wisdom taught in sales organizations. They:<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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