We Are All Selling Solutions Now – But What Are You Really Selling?

Have you noticed how every B2B organisation is now selling solutions?  Not just products or services, packages or commodities but lots of solutions.  The problem with this is a devaluation of language, which generates customer cynicism which encourages the search for a newer ‘higher currency’ term.  What price super-solution in a few years time?

This isn’t necessary, because not everybody wants to buy a solution in the true business sense of the term. By having a very clear idea of what you are selling in relation to what you are not selling, clearer decisions can be made about your offer and relative market position.

Product: A stand alone tangible item that meets some kind of practical or emotional need or want. A car.

Commodity: A tangible substance that has little emotional motivation to purchase, that is perceived to be similar to others in the same commodity group.  This commodity is then used with something else that adds value to the whole. Petrol.

Service: An intangible offer that meets some kind of practical or emotional need or want. A car wash.

Important Note: Products and services can become commoditised if the purchaser believes there is no material difference between different ones.  Price will often then become the differentiating factor. Nails (product) DVD rental (service).

Package or Bundle: Where several products and or services are put together into something that can be positioned differently.  Usually one of the selling points is that because several components are being assembled and bought at the same time, there is a price discount compared to the unbundled, separate component prices.  The customer can disaggregate the package if they so choose. The package holiday.

Important Note: Packages can also become commodities or struggle because their value as a package can be challenged. The package holiday.

Solution: A uniquely assembled set of interoperable components (products and services) that meet a highly specialised customer requirement.  Two tests of a solution over a package; it cannot be disaggregated, and rather than a discount being offered for buying the ’total solution’, a price premium can be charged.  If you build each solution from scratch you will need huge resources to move at any pace or volume.  Configuring them from a ‘Lego box’ of components interwoven with existing service capabilities means many ‘unique’ solutions can be quickly designed and sold.  An outsourced function

Problems arise when organisations sell packages as solutions.  The customer sees them for what they are and asks for a discounts or simply cherry picks the bits they want.

If you are clear how the market perceives its requirements and you are clear about what you are selling, profitable business can be done in all of the above categories.  Moving to solution selling to avoid painful facts about your fast commoditising product/service, or to ‘sex up’ your package by calling it a solution, is rather like putting lipstick on a pig – ridiculously obvious to the person you’re trying to convince otherwise.

If you would like to talk about how SalesPathways can help you define your market position, current offering and then devise a compelling strategy to exploit the resulting opportunities please contact:

Lynn Joy

tel: +44 (0)1789 734 400
email: lynnj@salespathways.com

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