274: Our Solution Provision

<p>After having asked the buyer a lot of questions about their current situation and where they want to be, we know if we can help them or not.  It isn’t a given that we can.  Only we will know if we have the right solution for them.  We could provide a wrong or partial solution. The client will not however get the outcomes they need.  Yes, we grab the dough in the short term, but our business reputation will get slammed and our trust quotient out in the marketplace will be eclipsed.  We must always keep in mind that a deal is a deal, but reputation and trust are permanent assets. </p> <p> </p> <p>If we cannot provide the right solution, then we should tell the client we cannot help them.  There is a cadence for us to follow when presenting the solution for the client’s problem. We go through five phases: we cover the facts, benefits, the application of the benefits, provide concrete evidence and then do a trial close.</p> <p> </p> <ol> <li>Facts: Salespeople often never get beyond this first level, explaining the facts, data, features and the spec associated with the solution. They get bogged down in the micro detail. Now these details are important because we have to provide the buyer with confidence that what we are saying will work.  These facts have to be provable and we need hard evidence to back them up. Often the buyer will pull us into the morass of the micro detail, because they are analytical personality types and love the numbers. However, we have to remember that the buyer is not buying the process. They are buying the outcome from the process. </li> </ol> <p> </p> <ol start="2"> <li>Benefits: Having explained the details of how the process works and the features of our solution, we need to describe the benefits. What does this feature provide in the way of results for the buyer?  What will be different and what will be better as a result of buying our solution?  A certain weight, colour, dimension, process etc., are just details.  They do not do anything by themselves, until they are linked to the o