The term outside-in selling is widely used in sales education and training. But what does this method actually involve? There are many definitions of this, but mostly it comes down to ‘putting the customer first’ and ‘listening to the customer’. You can do that in different ways. In this blog, you will read more about how best to use outside-in to improve commercial results.
Henri Ford once said: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Steve Jobs said that he did not have to listen to his customers, because he knew what they needed. Both are ‘reasonably’ successful entrepreneurs, who apparently did not think outside-in, or did they?
Anticipate the implicit needs of customers
Outside-in is NOT asking the customer what they want and then delivering it (‘you ask, we deliver’). Outside-in does mean: analysing the (implicit) need of the customer and translating it into a solution. The difference is that the customer says: “I would like a faster horse”, but in fact wants to move faster. What Ford and Jobs had in common is that their solutions anticipated the implicit needs of their potential customers very well. So in fact they did sell in the outside-in way.
The opposite of outside-in is inside-out: with this method, the seller positions the products and services offered with all their advantages or Unique Selling Points (USPs). In this situation, the customer must determine the value of the solution. The disadvantage of this is that the solution will of course never fully correspond to what the customer had in mind, and the customer may raise objections.
In effect, the seller lays all the cards on the table and then has to wait for the customer’s reaction. The seller has lost control, in other words.
New sales training: take control with the right questions
With outside-in, the selling party can take control by asking questions. You can achieve this with the right sales training. What is the context (business, market, strategy, plans for the coming year), what is an organisation up against, what challenges and risks are there and what is their impact? Whether you ask open or closed questions is completely irrelevant. What is important is that you ask the right questions.
The answers will help you reach a common conclusion. Together, you stand at the cradle of the solution that removes objections. The advantage of this is that your customer will have a strong sense of ownership of this vision.
Generic Unique Selling Points (USPs) don’t have any value in outside-in. It’s Unique Buying Reasons (UBRs) that count. In other words: what is the specific value of the solution for this customer?
Change management: swap the sales cycle for the buying cycle
This proactive way of working means that you are involved earlier in the decision process and therefore involved in more steps before the customer decides to buy. With outside-in, you actually go through the entire buying cycle, from needs assessment to the order. This therefore goes beyond the sales cycle, which mainly concerns the sales conversation and the use of questioning techniques.
Traditional sales skills such as presenting yourself well, dealing with objections and deal planning still have value. But outside-in also requires other, new skills. In short: change management is important. For salespeople to master these skills, it is important to work on development and improvement every day. This is possible, for example, with a sales training course or a personal effectiveness training course.
Do you want to know more about how to make effective sales with outside-in? Then get in touch with us!