How To Sell Complex Solutions

When you follow the conventional sales process in a complex sale, you run head-first into a series of traps. They are as follows:

#1: The Assumption Trap How many times have you said to yourself, "My customers just don't get it." The reality behind that frustration is not too difficult to figure out: Customers don't "get it" for one of two reasons: Either you are overestimating the value your solutions bring to the customer, or you are overestimating the customer's ability to comprehend that value.

Assuming the solution actually has value, the flawed logic behind the complaint is that the salespeople are, in essence, blaming customers for being unprepared to buy their solutions. They are implying that customers should somehow be ready to effectively analyze and evaluate custom programs they may buy once a year or less.

Even more illogically, they may think their customers should have a high-quality decision process in place capable of evaluating leading-edge solutions that they may have never considered before, or which may be appearing in the marketplace for the first time.

The best salespeople walk into an opportunity with much higher levels of experience than their customers. They know the products, services and programs they are bringing to market inside and out. In addition, they spend most of their time with customers. They see an entire industry, come into contact with a full range of operational practices and often become experts in their customers' businesses.

In fact, the advanced perspective and comprehension of sales professionals experienced in the complex sale should stand in vivid contrast to that of their potential customers.

#2: The Presentation Trap

Sales organizations devote tremendous amounts of time and resources to creating compelling presentations and proposals. The irony is that most of this effort is lost on customers.

Conventional salespeople hate to hear that; after all, the presentation is the key weapon in their sales arsenal. "Wait a minute," they protest. "Our presentations are aimed at educating customers. They will not buy what they don't understand." That much is true. And, admittedly, a presentation can lift the customer's level of comprehension. But it is one of the least effective methods for doing so for three reasons:

A presentation, even one that includes advanced multimedia elements, is, in its essence, a lecture. The salesperson teaches by telling. The big problem with this method is that hardly anyone remembers what they hear. The generally accepted rule of thumb among learning experts is that more than half of even the most sophisticated presentation is lost.

A typical sales presentation rarely devotes more than 10 percent to 20 percent of its focus to the customer and its current situation. Generally, 80 percent to 90 percent of a typical sales presentation is devoted to describing the salesperson's company and its solutions. While customers may be greatly impressed with the offering being presented, they still lack a compelling understanding of how it applies to their situations and why they should buy it.

Your competitors are following the exact same strategy"they are busy presenting as well. Your customers have meetings set up with you and one, two or even more of your competitors. In each meeting, a sales team is presenting the best side of their solutions. Your team is telling the customer that he needs the solutions that only your company offers, while each of your competitors is making the same argument about its solution.

#3: The Adversarial Trap

When salespeople start "overcoming objections" (often raised during the presentation), they are, by definition, placing themselves in conflict with their customers. At best, this sets the stage for polite disagreements and respectful differences of opinion. At worst, it turns the sales process into a battle in which the seller must somehow conquer the buyer to win the sale.

This conflict is exacerbated by the frustration that results from the miscommunication engendered by the conventional process. Salespeople are presenting professionally packaged data complete with executive summaries that their prospective customers find either unintelligible or unconnected to their situations. Confused and with no sound basis upon which to evaluate the information, customers respond negatively. Conventional salespeople, who are overestimating their customers' level of comprehension, interpret this as an objection to be overcome and swing into action. "No," they say. "You don't get it. You do need our solution and here's why..." Now the salespeople are arguing with their customers. What happens next? If the customers don't shut down the presentation altogether, they may offer a second negative response. Another round of verbal sparring ensues. Now the sale is in doubt, yet the salespeople know the customers need the solution, so they escalate their efforts. The downward spiral accelerates. The sale has turned into a battle"a battle in which customers will always have the final say.

These three traps are the fundamental problems facing salespeople who try to impose a traditional sales process on complex problems and solutions. Quite often, each trap segues neatly into the next. The result is a confused and disheartened customer who ends up going with a competitor's solution because it's cheaper"after all, when he doesn't understand his problem or your solution, all he can do is fall back on the common denominator of price. And the unpleasant experience deepens the schism between sales professional and customer.

The preceding problems are what manufacturing quality guru W. Edwards Deming defined as systemic problems. We can't solve them by disciplining individual salespeople who step over some arbitrary line. Instead, it is the process itself that causes the problem. The only effective and enduring way to resolve these problems is to set aside the conflicting elements of the conventional selling process. You must adopt a whole, new paradigm, one based on positioning yourself as a valued and trusted adviser who manages quality decisions"one that takes into account the complex new world in which we live and work.

This article was excerpted from the book Mastering the Complex Sale, by Jeff Thull, CEO and president of Prime Resource Group, a Minneapolis-based management consultancy.