As the name might suggest, Solutionists are skilled in problem solving. They tend to be activated right in the middle of a sale. Using their abilities in resourcefulness and innovation, they find creative sales solutions that optimise the effectiveness of their team.
Solutionists are invaluable to the sales cycle; saving time and money for the business are natural side effects of their skills. However, they are most active during solution refinement. At this stage, they are engaged in finding practical solutions that genuinely work for the customer. This can be achieved by innovating something brand new, or customising an established product to suit specific needs. Either way, Solutionists are on-hand to create solutions that create meaningful impact for both you and your clients.
Let us walk you through the third of five roles that make up our Alchemy of Sales model:
Problem Solving
Solutionists are natural problem solvers. Their ability to take insights from the Detective about the client’s context and alchemise them with industry-specific knowledge helps them craft bespoke sales solutions that make a difference.
Their creative fixes expertly answer high priority problems in an innovative, yet practical way for the client, always putting their needs first. While they have the ability to create original ideas, they are also skilled at enhancing those with the resources available. Sometimes they might even create an amalgamation of old and new solutions to generate a creative response. Finding these vital sales solutions to real world problems is what makes them so important during the middle phase of a customer journey.
Resourcefulness
While new ideas can be useful, Solutionists are champions of resourcefulness. This means their ideas can often involve established products and services. Using a little imagination and out-of-the-box thinking, they can find fresh ways to reinvigorate existing concepts to suit specific customer needs.
Research1 has shown that a competitive sales environment can spark more creative selling behaviours, such as resourcefulness, rather than a collaborative environment. Fostering resourcefulness can help save your business time and money in the long-run. This is refined as your salespeople develop the skills to re-purpose their previous work to implement new solutions quickly. Furthermore, Solutionists are experts at leveraging other resources to optimise their solutions.
Solution Innovation
Finally, Solutionists are innovative thinkers. Studies2 have shown that innovative sales professionals boost the overall selling experience for the client, which in turn enhances performance. Nurturing innovation supports your business in a variety of ways, including your commercial success.
The main focus of the Solutionist is always creating impact for the client while delivering value for their sales team. They action this with their innovative solution finding. They like to balance proven processes with innovative new ideas to deliver on both promises and are skilled at finding unexpected links between ideas to generate new solutions.
Solutionists are drivers of innovation and problem solving that answers the real-life challenges of your clients. By nurturing their resourcefulness and creativity, you enable their characteristics to shine at key stages of a sale. Their innate ability to craft new and refreshing ideas that deliver impact to your customers and create success for your organisation is what makes them so important after the scoping stage of a sale is complete.
Boost Your Sales Solutions With Alchemist
Refining your team’s sales skills is a must in modern business. Now more than ever your people need to wear many hats as they navigate varying opportunities. It’s vital that they are equipped with the knowledge to do so. Using our Alchemy of Sales framework, your talent can learn practical skills that help to fulfill a variety of roles, ensuring your process is enhanced at every step.
Speak to one of our team today to find out how building Solutionist skills can transform your performance.
1Kalra et al (2021)