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Solution Selection: do we know how buyers choose one solution over another?

Guest post by: Sharon Drew Morgen

Article Overview: Your solution matches the buyer's need perfectly. You like them, they like you, you've had coffee/a meal/a powerful meeting or two. They talk about implementation and how they need to add your other product next year. And then they buy from someone else. Or not at all.

Solution Selection: do we know how buyers choose one solution over another?

Your solution matches the buyer's need perfectly. You like them, they like you, you've had coffee/a meal/a powerful meeting or two. They talk about implementation and how they need to add your other product next year. And then they buy from someone else. Or not at all. What happened? Are they stupid? Did they lie to you? Are they making an emotional decision?

Not stupid. Didn't lie. No emtional decision making. Maybe the need shifted, or the two new members of the Buying Decision Team added buying criteria, or they were able to get a partial solution from a current vendor.

But most likely, it just took them quite a while to recognize all of the folks who needed to be on the Buying Decision Team and once they were all on board, the criteria for choosing a solution shifted.

Whatever the truth is, we'll never know how buyers choose one solution over another so long as we're using the sales model alone. Without adding some Buying Facilitation® components, sellers have a tough time becoming part of the change management process that buyers must manage to not only implement the solution, but actually define their criteria for selection.

BUYING CRITERIA

Here are some criteria buyers will need to figure out as they move through their solution selection process:

• have all people who will touch the solution defined their criteria for what they achieve from a new solution?
• do they know how they will implement the solution and ensure the new and old will work together?
• how will they prioritize the timing and resource for bringing in a new solution?
• how will a new solution effect their job description, their relationships, their daily responsibilities and activies?

Generally, when we meet a prospect, they haven't figured out all of the above because all of the right people aren't on board yet to lend their voices to what a solution would need to be for their jobs. Until they do, they can't buy - regardless of how well our solution matches the need they discuss with us.

The choice of the actual solution is the very last thing the buyer does: until or unless there is appropriate buy-in and everyone who touches the new solution knows how to implement, and all change management criteria have been met, and everyone on the Buying Decision Team has similar buying criteria, they won't buy - regardless of how friendly you are, or how well your solution meshes with their need.

Think about making a purchase yourself. Well before you hand over your money, you've had to make internal decisions. Do you need X right now? Do you need to do Y first? How will your family be involved? How will your behaviors change - and how much change are you willing to take on? Do you wait until a new version comes out? Do you need to have a handover or integration or learning curve between the old and new... and how will that get done? When do you have the time to research, change, discuss? Who do you want to get ideas/input from?

It's not about the solution - until it is.

How do you plan on helping your prospects think through all of the issues they'll need to manage prior to being able to use your solution? How will you enter the conversation once you realize that a prospect's need and your solution are the last things you discuss?

Buying Facilitation® will help you enter the conversation to help buyers uncover their approach to being excellent. After all, if they have no road map to thinking it all through, it will end up being a long, messy process that will seriously bias the timing of the purchase. But you can help guide them through all of the ins and outs of making the necessary decisions and getting the right people on board.

Yes, it's a different skill and focus than just using sales alone. But would you rather sell? or have someone buy?

Related Articles
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  Two Types of Decisions: Buy-IN, and BuyING
  We Can’t Understand Customers
  The Differences Between the Solution Sale and the Buying Decision: Let’s Go to a Wedding
  You think know your buyer. You don’t.
  Selling with Integrity
  Wait until the Buying Decision Team is in place to visit or pitch
  You have a buying process problem, not a selling problem
  How Much Time Do Sales People Waste?
  Your Prospects Aren't in Pain
  The Basis of Sales Has Remained Stagnant
  3 Simple Reasons that Will Help You Sell More
  Forecasting Closed Sales: How You Will Know When a Buyer Will Close
  Who’s in the meeting – and who’s not?
  Selling In A Gloomy Economy
  9 Sales Steps That Influence a Buying Decision
  "My Job is to Start a Conversation"
  The Definition Game: name that concept
  Classifying Buyer Pain
  When Do Buyers Buy?

Article Tags: buying decisions, sales, solution selection



Related Forum Posts
Re: Google's April 2012 Update - As far as I understand, Google's main search mission is to deliver The Best Solution Possible, when you type in a query. This means that they kind of _cant_ teach people how to "game the system" and rank themselves. The way I see it, by the time Google's done evolving their algorithm, the only way to get to the top is going to be "Be A Fantastic Solution Provider... across the board... for your niche/keyword."
I LOVE being able to choose the clients I take on... - As I offer a service to businesses I've found there is nothing more enjoyable then meeting a client, discussing how you can improve their business (in terms of generating leads), creating the solution and then seeing them receive more targeted leads everyday because of the solution you've setup, which they previously had no access to. Often clients like I've described above are so happy with you and the way you conduct your business that they will often refer you to other businesses they know of and will always come back to you when they want to extend their own business again. If you can afford to pick and choose the clients you take on, I highly recommend choosing the businesses that will trust you and listen to your advice. It's not worth taking on a business that is critical of absolutely everything that you tell and offer them.
Re: Publicity re-desingers? - Thanks a lot for that very kind welcome GT, I’ll be sure to check the site to get a good answer to that and many other questions I have come up with. I’m afraid I don’t quite get what you mean with outsourcing, I believe you mean leaving the whole thing to someone else, if you do, that may not be the best solution for me, I like to oversee everything about the publicity, I was checking on some Logos companies but I haven’t found quite what I’m looking for, since I prefer to have somebody asking me all the time if that is what I want, and with big logo companies it seems they do it all on their own and then ask you to choose. PD: thanks for the quick response
OpenAds vs. Adify? - Today I learned about an open source solution called OpenAds where you don't have to give up the 20% that Adify takes. Has anyone hear about OpenAds or used it? Does it compare to Adify? Is there a better solution out there compared to both of these?
Re: How to promote business online? - Yes sir. You have won the prize. That is the purpose. It's free and doesn't cost a subscription to use. Both buyers and sellers need to be officially companies before they can register a profile. Here in a day or so I'm going to upload my final changes. I just wanted to throw it out there and get some advice. The more the merrier. Justin Sinsel CEO ConsumerBranch [quote="Jason Fonceca":o3lhmvns]If I understand, ConsumerBranch is a giant middleman/marketplace for buyers+sellers, yes?[/quote:o3lhmvns]


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