1. The Evolution of Selling

2. The evolution of selling Marked by four major breakthroughs

3. The first major breakthrough (1910) The separation of selling and account management functions
Original Model
New Model
Customer acquisition
Account mgmt.
Customer acquisition
Account mgmt.
The Challenger Sale, 2011, Mathew Dixon and Brent Adamson

4. The second major breakthrough (1925) The introduction of selling techniques
Introduced selling techniques
Features and benefits
Objection handling
Closing
Open and closed ended questioning
Important because..
Makes selling a learnable skill
Gives rise to sales training discipline
The Challenger Sale, 2011, Mathew Dixon and Brent Adamson

5. Edward Strong’s selling model had several limitations
Emphasis on communicating features and benefits (i.e. demonstrating capability)
Limited emphasis on uncovering customers’ unmet needs
Result:
Sales reps talking at customers rather than with them
Negative perception of sales people as pushy

6. The Third Major Breakthrough (1970s) Birth of solution selling h emphasis on investigative techniques
Opening
Investigating
Demonstrating capability
Validating
Closing
2. Investigating
Sales flow
The Challenger Sale, 2011, Mathew Dixon and Brent Adamson

7. Driven by two major insights
Customers value what they say & their conclusions more than what they are told
Customers value what they ask for more than what is freely offered
Opening
Investigating
Demonstrating capability
Validating
Closing
Failure to close is often due to incomplete investigating

8. Common allocation of rep selling time in 1970s? ?
Reps naturally gravitated to demonstrating the capabilities of their products because this was the step of the sales call where they felt most in control

9. More optimal allocation of time Increased focus on uncovering needs
Solution selling required reps to engage in a dialogue with their customers in order to uncover needs that their products and services are better able to address. And while this seemed more logical, it was also more stressful as it required reps to hand control of the conversation over to customers and adapt seemlessly to any direction that the conversation went

10. “Investigating” Objectives
Help customers articulate the problems that they face
Help customers quantify the size and scope of their problems and opportunities
Help customers draw their own insights and conclusions

11. SPIN* selling approach was created
Example
Situation questions
Problem questions
Implication questions
Need-payoff questions
How many customers do you serve on an average day?
What is the biggest challenge you face in fulfilling customer orders?
What happens when customer orders aren’t fulfilled properly?
If you could fulfill 10% more customer orders each day, would you consider making a small change?
Source: Huthwaite Consultants

12. The solution selling model has several limitations
Assumes customers know what their unmet needs are
Assumes that customers are willing to pay a premium for solutions to problems that they have already identified
Assumes customers have time and desire to educate us
Assumes purchasing departments will grant customers access to the solutions that are generated
Requires reps and their home office support teams to be able to tailor solutions to customers’ needs in a timely manner

13. Solution selling report card
Majority of sales rep interactions with customers remain social or service calls with no solution presented
Reps continue to spend disproportionate amount of time demonstrating capability of existing products and services
Few reps able to uncover needs that customers haven’t already uncovered themselves
More than 40 years after its introduction, the benefits of solution selling remain elusive.

14. It also results in search for better selling model
Lack of progress results in de-emphasis on selling skills and h emphasis on other disciplines

15. Summary
First major breakthrough is selling came in 1910 with the separation of the sales and account management functions
Edward strong introduced the concept of teachable selling techniques in 1925 but this model resulted in an emphasis on push selling
Solution selling emerged in the 1970s based on the insight that sales reps that engage in a two-way dialog with customers are better able to understand their needs and tailor their offerings accordingly
The failure of solution selling to create sustainable advantage has resulted in the search for a more effective model