Origins of Solution Selling
Frank Watts developed the sales process dubbed "solution selling" in 1975. Watts perfected his method at Wang Laboratories. He began teaching solution selling as an independent consultant in 1982. He presented his sales process as a one-day workshop to Xerox Corporation in 1982. By 1983 Electronics magazine would portray solution selling as "an unmistakable trend in the distribution of systems- related products". In a 1984 account Dick Heiser could look back to IBM's pre-1975 "solution sale" methodology.
Mike Bosworth founded Solution Selling in 1983, based on his experiences at Xerox Corporation (the Xerox SPIN (Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff) selling pilot project) and began licensing affiliates in 1988. With intellectual-property contributions from his affiliate network, Bosworth's methodology continued to evolve through the years. He sold the intellectual property in 1999 to one of his original affiliates, Keith Eades (CEO and founder of Sales Performance International).
Bosworth authored Solution Selling: Creating Buyers in Difficult Selling Markets (1994), and after leaving Solution Selling he co-authored CustomerCentric Selling (2003). Less than a year later, Eades authored an updated version of the solution-selling methodology released as The New Solution Selling: The Revolutionary Sales Process That is Changing the Way People Sell (2003) and also co-authored a follow-up guide The Solution Selling Fieldbook (2005).
While the term "solution selling" has become somewhat generic in the marketplace, the core brand of solution selling still carries distinct characteristics. Followers of "solution-selling" generally apply a consultative sales approach to all aspects of their sales process (or during a sales cycle) including:
- Prospecting
- Diagnosing customer needs
- Crafting a potential solution
- Establishing value
- Bargaining for access to decision-makers
- Positioning proof, ROI and the total solution
- Negotiating a win-win solution
- Following up to ensure customer success
The solution selling methodology has evolved as key components of professional selling evolve. As a result, solution selling has become more broadly defined — to include dimensions of "sales process", "competitive selling", "value selling" as well as "consultative selling" or "complex selling" which set the focus on the team's aspects of the sales.
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