New research finds it's outcomes-not solutions-that sell

We’ve observed that when prompted, B2B customers define their desired outcomes in widely different ways. Beyond the obvious financial metrics of revenue growth and profits, B2B customers value these leading indicators of future business performance:

• Delivering a better experience to buyers
• Fostering a more vibrant internal culture 
• Achieving efficiencies, or revamping the company’s reputation

This concept – that B2B companies are in business to make their customers more successful – requires salespeople to focus on their customers’ customers.

A New Role for Sales

An often-quoted B2B sales study from 2012 revealed that prospective customers complete nearly 60 percent of a typical purchasing decision – researching and ranking options, reviewing requirements, benchmarking pricing – before they even make contact with a supplier. Six years later, we know that two-thirds of today’s business buyers would prefer to research on their own and report that they are able to develop selection criteria or finalize a vendor list based solely on digital content.

In other words, today’s business buyer is a more engaged and active participant in the selling process. And sales reps are no longer the buyer’s primary source of influence. This shift means the job of marketing has become more important in guiding the buyer through the purchase journey, especially in the discovery phase. It also means that the role and the composition of the sales team needs to be reevaluated.

No one wants to buy your solution. Your customers don’t care about their value to your bottom line. They care about their business – their products, services, solutions and what they can do for their own customers. So an outcome-oriented, or customer-centric, sales team is concerned about how they can help their customers deliver better products, services, and solutions – better outcomes – for their own customers.

One way sales teams show customer centricity is by collaborating with customers even before the sales process begins to enable them to better understand their industry, the competitive dynamics they face, and ultimately to help them articulate quantitative and qualitative business objectives that are achievable and make good sense for their organization. As my co-authors and I conclude, “Companies that develop an outcomes-based approach will be able to collaborate more directly with their customers and take on shared responsibility for creating greater, and more sustainable, value. When their customers win, they will also win.”

Richard Ettenson is professor and Thelma H. Keickhefer Fellow of Global Marketing and Brand Strategy in the global business faculty at the Thunderbird School of Global Management. His areas of expertise include helping companies align their business, marketing, and brand strategies to create value for customers, employees and shareholders. He is also a senior partner in Type 2 Consulting, a NYC-based business strategy and brand consultancy.