Transcript Manning_11e_06

CHAPTER
6
Creating Product
Solutions
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
Learning Objectives
• Explain the importance of developing a
product strategy
• Describe product configuration
• Identify reasons why salespeople and
customers benefit from thorough product
knowledge
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6-2
Learning Objectives
• Discuss the most important kinds of
product and company information that
salespeople use in creating product
solutions
• Describe how knowledge of competition
improves personal selling
• List major sources of product information
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Product Strategy Defined
“The product strategy is a well-conceived
plan that emphasizes becoming a product
expert, selling benefits, and configuring
value-added solutions.”
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Strategic/Consultative
Selling Model
FIGURE
6.1
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Selling Solutions
• Are mutually shared answers to
recognized customer problems
• Are more encompassing
than specific products
• Provide measurable
results
• Require a greater
effort to define and
diagnose the
customer’s problems
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Tailoring the Product Strategy
The product strategy should be tailored to
the customer’s buying needs:
Transactional Buyers
Consultative
Strategic Alliance
Standard or generic
items
Hidden features
High cost importance
Understand their own
product needs
Differentiated choices
Limited substitutability
Product can be easily
substituted
Customizable
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BUSCH
See the
Website
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Explosion of Product Options
• Domestic and global markets overflowing
• More than 30,000 consumer products are
turned out each year
• The good news is: buyers have a choice
• The bad news is: with more choices, buying
process is more complicated
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Product Configuration
• Product selection process is often referred
to as “product configuration”
• Product configuration software
• Develops customized product solutions
quickly and accurately
• Incorporates customer selection criteria
• Identifies options, pricing, delivery schedules
• Can integrate with Customer Relationship
Management applications
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Written Proposals
• Many clients ask for written proposals and
some provide detailed guidelines
• Most written proposals include:
•
•
•
•
•
Budget and overview
Objective
Strategy
Schedule
Rationale
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Becoming a Product Expert
• Product development and quality
improvement processes
• Performance data and specifications
• Maintenance and service contracts
• Price and delivery
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Product Development and
Quality Improvement
Development
• Be familiar with
product history
• Know stages of
product testing
• Link key features
and customer
needs
Quality
• Quality control
involves measuring
against standards
• Extensive salesforce training is key
element of quality
control
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Performance Data and
Specifications
• Most clients are interested in product
performance and specifications
• Salespeople must be prepared to answer
performance-related questions
• Data often critical when customer
compares various products
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6-14
Sea Ray Boats: Maintaining high levels of quality
See the
Website
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6-15
Maintenance and Service
Contracts
• Provide service-related information in
proposal and/or at the time of sale
• Understand customer’s service and
maintenance requirements
• Customized service agreements add value
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Price and Delivery
• Clients expect salespeople to be wellversed in price and delivery policies
• Giving salespeople price and delivery
decision power yields strong position
• Price objections often common barrier to
closing the sale
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Quantifying the Solution
• Process of determining if proposal adds
value
• Conduct a cost-benefit analysis using costs
and anticipated savings
• See Table 6.1 for an example (next slide)
• Calculate a return on investment
• Key decision makers respond favorably to ROI
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Cost-Benefit Analysis
TABLE
6.1
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Know Your Company
• Salespeople sell their company as much or
more than they sell a product
• Organizational culture is a collection of
beliefs, behaviors, and work patterns
common to a firm’s employees
• Many prospects use
a firm’s past performance
as index for current
products/services
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6-20
GEAR for Sports
See the
Website
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UPS, Inc.
“The strategies
change and the
purpose changes,
but the values
never change.”
Michael L. Eskew,
chairman and CEO,
UPS, Inc.
See the
Website
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Know Your Competition
• Acquiring knowledge of the competition is
an important step
• Knowing strengths and weaknesses of
competing products allows you to
emphasize your benefits
• Prospects do raise questions about
competition—be prepared to answer
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Your Attitude Toward
Your Competition
•
•
•
•
Avoid referring to the competition during
sales presentations
Never discuss the competition unless
you have your facts straight
Never criticize the competition
Be prepared to add value
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Be an Industry Expert
• Salespeople need to become an expert in
the industry they represent
• Need to move beyond product specialist to
business analyst
• Knowledge of industry must be both
current and detailed
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Industry Expertise:
It’s Never Too Early
• Process often starts in college experience
• Read trade journals
• Regularly attend industry
seminars and conventions
• Become active in industry
associations
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Sources of Product Information
•
•
•
•
•
•
Product literature, catalogs, web-based
sources
Plant tours
Internal sales and sales support team
Customers
The product itself
Trade and technical publications
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Benefits Not Features
“I don’t think that we understood our real
goal when we first started Federal
Express. We thought that we were selling
the transportation of goods; in fact, we
were selling peace of mind.”
— Frederick Smith, founder of FedEx
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Features and Benefits
• A feature is data, facts, or characteristics of
your product or service
• A benefit is whatever provides the
customer with a personal advantage
or gain
• General benefits
• Specific benefits
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Adding Value with a Feature:
Benefit Strategy
• Successful sales presentations translate
product features into benefits that meet a
specific need
• Only when a product feature is converted
into a buyer benefit does it make an
impact
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Adding Value with a Feature:
Benefit Strategy
• Distinguish between features and benefits
• Use bridge statements
• Statements that connect features to benefits
• Identify features and benefits
• Avoid information overload
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Key Concept
Discussion Questions
• Explain the importance of developing a
product strategy
• Describe product configuration
• Identify why salespeople and customers
benefit from thorough product knowledge
• Discuss the most important kinds of
product and company information needed
to create product solutions
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
6-32
6-32
Key Concept
Discussion Questions
• Describe how knowledge of competition
improves personal selling
• List major sources of product information
• Explain how to add value with a featurebenefit strategy
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.
Publishing as Prentice Hall
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