Quiz: What Do Customers Want to Buy?

SCENARIO: You've been asked to summarize your ideas and offerings to a group of customer decision-makers. Your presentation starts with an exciting and interesting statistic, then brilliantly summarizes the customer's current situation. So far so good!

You must now create the pivotal slide that introduces the section of the presentation where you'll talk about what you're selling.

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Did you pick "OUR SOLUTION"?

That's the wrong answer, according to Lee Levitt, program director of sales advisory services at the market research firm IDC. At the recent Sales 2.0 Conference, he explained that buyers indicated that they don't think of what they buy as solutions. "Solution marketing is a dumb idea," he explains. "Buyers don't buy solutions... they buy things [i.e. products and services] that solve their problems."

In other words, the term "solution" has the right meaning, but (and this is an important distinction) the term itself doesn't communicate the concept to the audience very well.

In addition, the term "solution" carries negative connotations. A "solution" implies that the customer has a problem, but that's not always the case. Sometimes customers have unfulfilled opportunities -- and buy things in order to fulfill them. For example, if your offering could help a successful customer make even more money, it's not really a "problem" that needs to be solved.

Similarly, the "solution" term is also offensive to many successful people. In my experience, most successful people do not see the world as being filled with "problems" that need to be solved. Quite the contrary. Truly successful people seldom, if ever, think about work as a series of "problems." Instead, they think about doing enjoyable things that make them happy and make them money.

If you did pick "OUR SOLUTION", though, don't feel bad, because there is a worse selection: "OUR OFFERING". That is truly an awful choice. While the term "offering" is useful when talking shop with other sales pros (e.g. in this blog), to the rest of the world, an "offering" is something you drop into a wicker box at your local church.

The answers "OUR PRODUCT" and "OUR SERVICE" are also weak because they're static and limited. They imply that you've got some "one-size-fits-all" commodity that you're now going to pitch. In fact, you may have picked "OUR SOLUTION" or "OUR OFFERING" simply in order to avoid that implication. That was good thinking on your part, but not thinking like the customer.

IMHO, the best answer is "OUR PLAN." I think this works for two reasons.

First, "OUR PLAN" implies that whatever comes after was specifically customized for this customer and this customer alone. It also allows you to include products, services, solutions, and whatever else you might want to include in the deal.

Second, unlike all the other answers, the "OUR" in this case implies joint ownership. When you say "our product," for example, the "our" refers only to your firm. By contrast, when you say "our plan", you can make it clear that the "our" refers to everybody involved -- both your firm and your customer.

That second point is important because customers in the B2B world are looking to you, not to solve problems, but to take over a segment of their business. ALL B2B selling is a form of outsourcing, with the sales rep acting as the outsourcing manager.

Therefore, I think that "OUR PLAN" is the strongest way to move the conversation into where you want it go -- hiring you and your firm, rather than just buying something.

READERS: Please don't hesitate to chime on this one. I realize I've taken a counter-intuitive position, so some additional "real world" experience would be appreciated.