The Buzz 1: Outcome selling is a framework that prioritizes a customer’s desired outcomes, rather than simply pushing the sale of your product. Outcomes are long-term gains that result from a product’s benefits. [blog.hubspot.com/sales/outcome-selling]

The Buzz 2: “Suppose you owned an airline and ordered an engine from Rolls-Royce or GE. What are you really looking for? A piece of machinery to meet a product need? Or a powerful, safe, and reliable means to deliver air passengers to their destinations? This question has been top-of-mind among manufacturers aiming to drive profitable growth, triggering a fundamental shift to the way a business operates that increasingly focuses on outcomes. For example, when Rolls Royce or GE provide a “power by the hour” engine solution, they are delivering an outcome and potentially more value to the customer.” [hbr.org/2016/06/manufacturing-companies-need-to-sell-outcomes-not-products]

As manufacturing companies shift from selling equipment to selling solutions and outcomes, their sales organizations, processes and technology need to shift accordingly.
Only when you achieve deeper collaboration between sales and engineering, as well as the integration of front and back-office functions, can sales teams excite and influence customer decision making.

We’ll ask Gustavo Millan at SAP, Henk Meeter at Echelon Solutions Group, and Vishal Chaturvedi at IBM for their insights on how manufacturing companies can shorten sales cycles, increase revenue and boost customer satisfaction, on From Selling Equipment to Selling Outcomes: Intelligent Technology.