20 Attributes of a World-Class Solutions Marketing Organization

20 Attributes of a World-Class Solutions Marketing Organization:

As most B2B marketers are aware, it’s getting harder out there for their Sales colleagues. The economy may be showing some signs of life, but a key feature of long recessions is that the efficiency-oriented behaviors learned therein are usually retained, to some degree, even when good times return again.

In the coming months and years, it’s clear that B2B marketers are going to have to lean heavy on the solutions lever for maintaining margins and increasing customer satisfaction. But selling solutions requires very different organizational capabilities than traditional B2B sales, and many companies struggle to get reps and marketers to adapt a solutions posture in the marketplace.

At MLC, we’ve been on this case for awhile, and we have an entire topic center devoted to solutions-oriented Marketing functions. But we’ve also taken a special look at the necessary elements of a solutions-selling powerhouse, and we found that the best of the best had a lot in common: in fact, they each did 20 key things well. Those 20 things can be loosely grouped into four categories:

Customer understanding. How well does the organization segment its customers, prioritize among the segments, discover new customer and segment needs, generate insights, and capture data throughout the customer lifecycle?

Solutions design. How well does the organization innovate new solutions offers and select elements of solutions deals? Does the organization craft deals that are sustainable and profitable in the long-term? How precise is solutions deal pricing, and how well does the organization maintain operational advantage over the competition?

Solutions execution. How well does the organization match up customers to offers? How well are salespeople trained, incented, and does the sales process have customer need discovery built in? Do marcom materials clearly communicate customer pain points, as well as the benefit of the solution?

Achieving solutions authority. Is the broader business adapted to the solutions environment? Does solution sales have cross-functional and broad-based buy-in and collaboration?

MLC members, to judge how your organization stacks up, check out our “Elements of a World-Class Solutions Marketing Organization“. Print it out, score yourself, and use our Solutions Selling topic center to discover ways to improve.