A solution is a mutually shared answer to a recognized customer problem. In many selling situations, a solution is more encompassing than a specific product. It often provides measurable results such as greater productivity, increased profits, or less employee turnover. Selling a solution, versus selling a specific product, usually requires a greater effort to define and diagnose the customer’s problem.3 Think of solution selling as a process by which the salesperson uncovers and clarifies a customer’s problem, works with the customer to create a vision of how things could be better, and then develops a plan for implementing the vision.4

Most salespeople have adopted a broad definition of the term product. It is broadly interpreted to encompass information, services, ideas, tangible products, or some combination of these that satisfy the customer’s needs with the right solution.5 Let’s look at the sales process at two firms:

• Trilogy, an Austin, Texas–based company, creates configuration software for large manufacturers such as Boeing and Hewlett-Packard. These two companies sell products with a great many variants. Boeing, for example, can use a wide range of components to assemble a plane that matches the customer’s highly specific preferences. With the aid of Trilogy software, Boeing sales representatives, using a laptop computer, can translate a customer’s specific needs into a workable specification.6

• Sunflower Travel Corporation, based in Wichita, Kansas, creates specialized vacation packages for individuals and groups. A package might include airline tickets, hotel reservations, and accommodations on a cruise line. The sales staff at Sunflower have the knowledge to plan a highly customized trip.7

From the customer’s point of view, salespeople employed by Trilogy and Sunflower are selling primarily information and expertise. The problem-solving ability these salespeople provide the customer is viewed as the product. When you sell a complex product, it is knowledge and expertise that create value.

A recent Corporate Executive Board study of more than 1,400 B2B customers found that those customers completed much of their decision making—such as researching solutions, ranking options, setting requirements, benchmarking pricing, and so on—before even having a conversation with a supplier.8 With our information-rich, Internet-driven marketplace, often salespeople will have to be more insightful into unrecognized needs the customer may not have considered, and sell solutions to these needs. If they don’t, they likely will find themselves in a price war with their competitors. Salespeople in this environment will have to master the use of what are called “implication” or “pain” questions to help customers discover their unrealized needs. These questions will be discussed in detail later in Chapter 11.