Solution Selling - The Tactic That's Too Effective

I got 99 problems but a big bag of free money would help solve a bunch of them

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Alright, show of hands and be honest... how many of you reading this have ever gone to your local mall and enjoyed a little "Retail Therapy"? Maybe you're celebrating and want to treat-yo-self! Maybe you had a rough week and wanted to bring something home to cheer yourself up. Or maybe you're at the end of a day long unsuccessful journey to find that special something and you refuse to return home empty handed. If you find that any of these apply to you, don't worry. 90% of people are right there with you.

But if you're the person selling those fancy shoes or that shiny barbeque, you can't rely on these wayfaring mall wanderers to make a profit. Almost everyone makes these kinds of impulse buys, but not everyone will impulse buy the same thing. And at the end of the day, not everything is "Retail Therapy" friendly (seriously, no one is going "I'm bummed out but buying this bottle of laundry detergent will make my day better"). You need a target audience that you can reliably satisfy and, if your product or service is good enough, depend on to return for more later. The best way to achieve this is through Solution Selling, and it's amazingly common despite it sounding super technical.

So what even is Solution Selling? Why is it so effective and versatile? And how can it be taken too far or abused?

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Genius in simplicity

If you have ever purchased anything, you have engaged in and experienced solution selling. For those of you wanting a definition, I've saved you the trouble of a google search, but for anyone else wanting a simple and clean summary, it boils down to this:

Find what problem your customer has, create a solution to the problem, and sell the solution.

Ok, so maybe it wouldn't have taken a rocket scientist to figure that out. What makes it special though is that it was "discovered" as a concept only about 40 years ago, but people have been unknowingly engaging in it for centuries. In fact, it's actually harder to find an example of something that isn't solution selling (we'll get to that later).

So by now, I'm assuming at least a couple of you have already reached the point where you're thinking to yourself "Uhhh, yeah... that's kind of how selling stuff works". And yes, I understand, it seems like an obvious statement to make. That is a testament to how widespread the concept has become, and as you'll see, the rabbit hole goes a fair bit deeper once you look.

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For business or for personal

If you've ever been in a business setting that involved customer service, sales, or retail, you may have either been in a meeting or taken some form of training that involved one of those extremely dry flowcharts or step-by step processes. It was probably loaded with buzzwords and spelled out things that seem obvious to the point of being a joke. "Step One: Identify: Identify the needs of your customer and why the-" no, stop it. You want me to talk to the customer, great, why am I even here? And if anyone got those flashbacks and know exactly what I'm talking about, you'll know just how mundane it was. Congratulations, you were being taught how to solution sell.

For businesses, solution selling is the bread and butter of how many of them operate. Want to sell marketing services to a client? Meet with them and discuss with the client what you offer and what they need. Bundle what you need and sell them the bundle that includes everything required to satisfy the client. Selling raw material? Find out what the client manufactures and sell them what material they need to make that item. Maybe you have a new material that's extra durable and you can sell it at a markup on the basis it'll last longer. Awesome!

That's all solution selling, but it's also low hanging fruit. Let's get personal.

As I've mentioned before, it's common (to the point that it's pretty much everywhere), but here it shows just how versatile it can be. Once you apply the concept of solution selling to one thing, you start to see it creep in everywhere. Say you bought a new pair of shoes. What was the problem? Your old shoes were outdated and worn out, so you needed new ones. The solution? Hey, look at these new awesome shoes! How about a new cell phone plan? You have a problem; You're trying to pay less, or you need more data, or you want more calling minutes. The solution is to offer a wicked good plan that checks all the boxes.

Problem: I'm hungry now. Solution: We're selling you a meal at our restaurant.

Problem: I'll be hungry later. Solution: We're selling groceries of all kinds.

Problem: I'll be hungry later and don't want to cook. Solution: We deliver.

It's everywhere and it's versatile.

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Isn't that literally everything though?

So now you're left wondering if there's anything that isn't solution selling. If every sale can be nitpicked down to that level, can we get around it? Yes, we can, but there's only a couple ways to do it. You've been introduced to one already. The retail therapy style "Impulse Buy" involves you purchasing for the sake of it, but as we've mentioned, it's unreliable. The other method that gets around the solution selling model is something you've probably heard of and probably learned to hate.

The Cold Call

Yes, the dreaded Cold Call. That unsolicited salesperson on the other end of the phone asking if you're interested in buying a screen door for your apartment you've been renting. Or maybe you're in the market for a lawn care service as a condo owner. And I know you're excited to check out the new car dealership a couple counties over. Let's be honest...

Cold Calls Suck.

But why do they suck? Other than the part that they can be extremely annoying, they are not nearly as effective as solution selling because they don't stick to the core tenants that make solution selling so good. You're attempting to sell something to a person who doesn't require your services, taking a dice roll on whether you can convince them to make the buy. On top of that, it typically comes off as impersonal and not catered to their specific needs.

And how often do you see it anymore? Probably not often, because it's not very effective.

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All of this just works

So solution selling is good enough that it has pretty much been used intuitively for centuries, been adopted across pretty much every industry, and eliminated the need for any other selling strategy. End of story right? Not so fast...

There is a dark side to solution selling that is driven by the need to constantly maintain growth. Because the model is so effective and can be applied to pretty much anything, it can be used to spur additional sales on a whim with enough strategy. It's a tactic too effective for its own good, and with the seemingly increasing reliance on perpetual growth in business these days, it has the potential to be weaponized against the customers it serves.

But isn't having my problem solved a good thing?

When I was a kid, we had a big deep freeze style freezer that we kept in the basement. This thing was an absolute unit and it did its job well. It sat there, kept stuff cold, and didn't ever need to be replaced. And I'm serious about that last part. I ended up selling it to a friend in pretty much mint condition and it's still going strong in his basement. That freezer is decades old now, and it has been serviced exactly zero times.

Awesome! Why do I care??

Well, let's look again. I've had a freezer that lasted DECADES and doesn't seem like it's slowing down any time soon. Now let's consider our solution selling model. Your solution of "Here's a freezer to keep your food cold" kind of isn't needed if my problem of "My freezer broke" never happens. Why would I go buy a new freezer if my old one still works? Kind of stunts your ability to sell me a new product doesn't it?

So how do you sustainably sell freezers in this situation? You can sell to people who don't have one, but that limits your customer base. Wouldn't it be better to find a way to get people who have one to buy in too? The game then becomes that you need to solve their problem, but not so well that they don't need to come back. You have to manufacture a problem.

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They don't build 'em like they used to

That sounds like a conspiracy theory I know, but the unfortunate truth behind solution selling is that it is so effective that you are pretty much guaranteed to successfully sell a product or service if you can continue to manufacture problems. Seems like new appliances need to be replaced fairly frequently these days compared to the ones of old that could pretty much survive a nuclear blast right? Maybe a part in your car stopped working... two months after the service warranty expired. And that computer you're using? That's from 2019 and not nearly strong enough to compete with the new one anymore. You don't want that!

This is a very real thing and it's called planned obsolescence. It is quite literally the idea that a good or service is designed to break or become useless, bringing you right back to having a problem that can be sold back to you at a profit. So how do you spike growth and keep people coming back? You manufacture a problem and sell the solution to the problem you created. It's so far from the best interest of the customer you'd need a pair of binoculars to see it. And it's bloody effective.

If sales weren't pretty much a given under the solution selling model, designing products to essentially be worse would be bad for business. As it is, it makes no business sense. And yet we see that there are instances of it happening in subtle ways all the time and, in some cases, with very high profile companies. Because the benefit of having someone come back in a few years upset and needing their problem solved is better for business than having a 100% satisfied customer for decades. It leads to the abuse of the practice, where the line between anti-consumer and borderline acceptable becomes very blurry.

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So I'm just going to get ripped off from now on?

It's not all doom and gloom. Yes, solution selling has the potential to be used in this way, but keep in mind that this is a centuries old practice in general. You have been and will continue to be sold things based on any problems you have. Being aware of what is in front of you and doing due diligence to ensure what you purchase is of good quality is still the best way to give yourself the upper hand against these sorts of tactics. Keep in mind that ultimately solution selling works to help you and is becoming increasingly good at doing so.

On the company side, it's likely best to keep in mind that you are competing against other companies for that same sale. Quality will still need to be brought to the table to remain relevant going forward. If you build it good, they will come.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go buy a lightbulb to replace the one that just burned out in the kitchen. Seems like I just replaced it...

~IR

Have you experienced the dark side of solution selling? Have you noticed anything I mentioned in this article to be true? Or maybe you just have a comment to add? Check out the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn page and let everyone know. Don't forget to follow or like the page for updates! And share this article if you feel others should give it a read!

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