Critical Platforms: Custom Solutions - Building the Path to Profitable Growth
Consider the following business realities:
- The profitability of almost any product or service line inevitably decays over time
- For the average company, anywhere between 30% and 50% of its customers contribute positively to gross margin but negatively to profits
- Every customer wants to pay less for more value
So, no matter how good you are at making or doing something today, it won't be good enough for very long.
"We have to stop selling 'product' and start selling 'solutions'!"
How does a company create a culture of "solution building" as opposed to "product selling"? Olin Business School now offers Customer Solutions. This program links together the following topical areas:
- The strategy and implementation of "Solution Selling"
- Becoming a "Trusted Advisor" as a way to discover your client's key business problems
- Managing your customers for profitability and growth
This platform is designed to help conceptualization of what "solutions" means in the context of your clients and your company; how to become more credible, reliable and intimate with your clients; and how to strategically manage your clients and customers to drive the profitability and growth of your organization.
Customer Solutions uses case studies, facilitated discussions, exercises, frameworks and functional tools to deliver its messages. The table below provides a snapshot of this platform.
Customer Solutions
| Module |
Topical Coverage |
| Cultivating Trust |
- Understanding "trust" and "customer intimacy"
- Building trust in the customer relationship
- Leveraging trust to understand customer problems
|
| Building the Customer Solution |
- Understanding the meaning of "solution"
- Using internal resources to build solutions
- Solutions as a path to growth
|
| Solution Selling and Customer Management |
- Using customer solutions as new growth platforms to drive future revenue growth and build account profitability
- Understanding the link between the buying process and the selling process
- Building account profitability through customer solutions
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