EMC has one of the best, if not the best, sales and service organizations in the industry. The company's sales representatives do a very good job of understanding a customer's business and how EMC can provide solutions, not merely products." Report by Salomon Smith Barney.

"Winners go way beyond conventional team selling...choosing sometimes to leverage a part of their resources. Traditional sales tools (sales strategy planner, pipeline management, CRM solutions) are being supplemented or replaced with tools from marketing, such as value propositions." Neil Rackham.

"Training is the key to getting salespeople to rethink the process of interacting with their client." Vincent Alonzo, Editor in Chief at Incentive.

POSITION PAPER ON ENTERPRISE RESOURCE SELLING
Part 1: Solution Selling Overview

The Drivers for Solution Selling

 Today, businesses are faced with an increasing number of well-qualified competitors, substantial customer consolidation of the number of suppliers, and ever more challenging procurement procedures. Tomorrow's winners, therefore, must demonstrate more effective means of determining the true problems and opportunities and the best cutting edge solution for their clients. They also must apply team-based collaboration with customers to demonstrate the capacity for a seamless working relationship. What occurs during the solution selling cycle must serve as a model of a prospective partnership during implementation and delivery of added value.

Roughly the top third of prospects and customers, according to a Pricewaterhouse Coopers survey, have the potential to deliver 90% of the profitability for an entire customer portfolio. These accounts deserve and require a sales effort that is more than consultative.

Solution Selling is designed for sales to your most important customers (the top third). It should be used with any high ticket, complex sale in which multiple customer decision makers will influence the decision regarding which resource to select. It should also be used whenever multiple internal team resources are necessary to determine the best customer solution.

The sales team plays a pivotal role

As a sales representative, you are on the front line (the firing line) in bringing the right products and services to customers. As a sales professional, you need expertise in the products and services as well as a keen understanding of the customer's needs. Whether your focus is technical or on managing account relationships, you are a critical part of Creating Client Value. 

Creating client value

By solution selling, you are creating client value. In doing so, you provide the basis for expanding your business by:

• Defining and demonstrating a broad understanding of the customer opportunity.

• Designing a vision of the customer's true needs and potentials.

• Delivering a detailed project plans outlining solution requirements.

• Confirming the solution's clear superiority with all key decision makers.

Solution sales is the process of learning about what a customer needs, developing an expert "hypothesis," and helping the customer meet those needs. Today, sales is based on a mutually beneficial partnership.  As professional solution-sales representatives, you are critical to that partnership. By creating customer value, you and your firm become strategically important to your customer.

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FACT SHEETS / CLIENT STATEMENTS