Preface

Solution Selling is the industry standard for sales execution process. Used by more than 500,000 sales professionals worldwide, Solution Selling provides the foundation of process and practices that can make “eagles” out of average sales performers.

Solution Selling has evolved to keep pace with the latest economic trends, business conditions, and the rapidly changing world of selling. In general, the pace of decision making in customers’ buying cycles has accelerated, driven by improved communications and global competition. Since the original Solution Selling book was first published, the world has seen the introduction of the Internet, the World Wide Web, advanced multichannel sales strategies, greatly improved telecommunications and computing productivity tools, and emerging international markets.

Especially since the onset of the global recession, the behaviors required for sales professionals’ success have changed. The New Solution Selling incorporates these changes while never losing the essential models that make the Solution Selling sales execution process work. The New Solution Selling contains the following important enhancements:

• Strengthened process orientation: The New Solution Selling emphasizes the value of a repeatable, integrated sales execution process. In particular, this book integrates pipeline milestones throughout each phase of the selling process. The result is sales behavior that is more consistent, that is coachable, and which produces improved sales results and higher-quality forecasts.

• Tighter process integration: The New Solution Selling contains new sales tools and job aids that help both salespeople and managers to propel the sales process forward. The integration and dependencies of the entire Solution Selling process have been streamlined and enhanced, eliminating any redundant or unnecessary step, depending on the complexity of the sales opportunity.

• Improved precall planning: In today’s economy, no sales call can be taken for granted. The New Solution Selling includes new content for improving precall planning and research with supporting job aids (for example, Account Profiles, Initial Pain Chains, Key Players List, and quantifiable Value Propositions).

• Improved focus on value: The New Solution Selling includes models for communicating the consistent and convincing concept of value in each step of the selling process. Specifically, the Solution Selling Value Cycle job aids provide practical tools for identifying and expressing quantifiable and measurable value to the customer—an essential differentiator in today’s sales environment.

• New tools for managing active opportunities: The original Solution Selling book emphasized the value of finding latent sales opportunities; The New Solution Selling retains this important concept, but also includes new job aids for competing effectively in active opportunities that are highly competitive. The new job aids include Opportunity Assessment and Competitive Strategy selection.

• Linking sales to implementation/customer service: The New Solution Selling includes enhancements to the Evaluation Plan sales tool to incorporate the implementation of the solution adopted by the customer, thus providing a smooth transition between the close of the sale and the delivery of the solution’s value.

• Improved scalability: The New Solution Selling provides an excellent process for managing sophisticated sales campaigns as well as simpler sales transactions. The New Solution Selling has been tailored for midmarket and small-business opportunities, as well as for integrated telemarketing and telesales processes, with great success. For example, the 9 Block Vision Processing Model has been simplified for less complicated sales. All other job aids contained in The New Solution Selling are designed with scalability in mind, making The New Solution Selling much more relevant and adaptable to multiple sales situations.

• Improved linkage to sales management process: The New Solution Selling is completely integrated with the supporting Solution Selling Sales Management program. This enables field sales managers to effectively assess and coach their sales teams, using the common framework of Solution Selling principles.

Solution Selling has revolutionized the world of selling for salespeople. The New Solution Selling takes the process to the next level and makes the process relevant to everyone that engages with customers.