Definition: Concept Selling

Concept selling refers to raising awareness of the benefits or USPs (Unique Selling Points) of
a company’s products and services after understanding the requirements of the target
customers. Such a method of selling is bound to gain the prospects’ attention as the
salesperson or marketing campaign is communicating an idea that they can relate to and
identify with. For example, life insurance agents often sell their products by creating a concept
or story around them. The salesperson has to go through a few steps before the final sale is
made. These involve educating the prospects about the concept, convincing them about the
benefits of the product, explaining its features, defining the return on investment involved
and finally selling.
A type of marketing that uses the idea that consumers left to their own devices are unlikely
to purchase a particular product. The concept selling approach is often advanced by a
business as a justification for being especially aggressive in their marketing campaigns to
promote sales.
Such a method is usually beneficial in the marketing of innovative and new products. Here,
its role is to educate the prospective customers and using product benefits and USPs to create
a need. It involves the selling of benefits more than selling the features as a part of providing
solutions to customers. The risk in concept selling is that the prospect’s image of their
problem or unsatisfied need may not match what the product offers. However, this method
proves to be beneficial in the end as it is a sure-shot method of getting repeat purchases.

You are providing a product or service that a prospect needs. How you do it, and how you get
to that conclusion is the art of selling. The selling process consists of lots of questions geared
towards getting the prospect to make a decision that your product or service is the one that
best suits their needs. But you cant find that out without discovering what the person wants,
why he wants it, and how bad he needs it. You have to find out the thing that is causing the
trouble, and find out how difficult that trouble is making things for him/her.

The whole philosophy of concept selling is to reach a new level of prospective customer,
whom may not have been aware of the benefits of your products and services, prior to our
telephone call engagement with them. These kinds of prospects are in abundance within your
target industries, yet they are often unaware of how beneficial your products and services
could be for their operation.

Problem identification

The question here is whether concept selling is an expenditure or investment. The obvious
answer is it is an investment. As it frames the customer into a story or situation where he/she
can relate to it. And the thinking will encourage out of future forecast/fear/insecurity.
A conceptual sell is out the front windshield. This is where you could be going, this is how you
get there. Plus it solves the problems that are in the car and the ones that are in the rearview
mirror as well. Where you can go equals growth, and as mentioned, everybody is looking for
growth. Although this shift to concept selling would have likely been a natural evolution —
because of how fast mobile has taken over, how fast social has permeated all aspects of
people’s lives, and how quickly the big data wave is coming at folks — companies now have
to react and adapt faster than ever before.

There’s a Peter Drucker principle that’s been out there for years. He’s widely considered the
best thought leader in business transformation, and I’m a big fan. He said that you have to
make internal changes as fast or faster than external forces — customers, competitors,
industry — are moving for you to gain growth.

If you’re not accounting for that in terms of how you enable your sales teams from a mobile,
social, and big data perspective, then the expectations of your customers, the pressures of
partners, and your internal requirements for growth are not going to be met. You simply
won’t be able to move fast enough.

You need to move the customer to the center of everything you do, because at the end of the
day that is what the customer company is about and where you will find growth. You can only
get to this place, and engage your customers conceptually, by choosing the best enabling
technology on the planet for the foundation. You shouldn’t compromise.

Chapter 2

Concept selling process

Step 1-Definition: Concept Testing

It is the stage in the new product development cycle, where the concept of the product is
discussed with its potential buyers highlighting the benefits the product will provide.
Qualitative and quantitative analysis helps in knowing what the customers think about the
product. This is done to validate that the product concept meets the needs of the potential
customers. It is also used to test an advertisement concept, before it is actually made.

Advantage: if the product does not click with the customers then it can be tweaked to cater
to the requirements. If the company realises that the audience is not at all interested in the
product, the idea can be rejected, before investing a lot of capital in production and launch.

Challenge: It becomes difficult to convey the exact benefits of a product that the consumers
have not heard about.

Step 2- Concept Optimization

Concept optimization is a process which involves using of customer feedback – gathered by a
qualitative research setting — as a means of narrowing and optimizing marketing concepts in
an iterative fashion. The aim is to find out a surplus of benefit-based marketing concepts and
the subsequently test them in written form prior to investing significantly for complete
development or implementation activities. This process shall be used for a plethora of
strategic purposes, ranging from messaging to positioning to new product development.

Customer need areas are utilized to provide a platform required for developing statements,
which are written in order to express the core benefit in minutely different ways. These
concepts are then presented to customers – one by one – to identify overall appeal and then
probe specific areas of interest. After all the individual concepts are explored, these concepts
are then compared with each other, to identify which among them is preferred the most and
the reasons for it. This information is very important for refining and narrowing the entire list
of ideas which we have for subsequent future development.

(Source-https://www.mbaskool.com/business-concepts/marketing-and-strategy-
terms/11790-concept-optimization.html)

Step 3- Concept Statement

A concept statement is a small description of the entire business plan presented graphically
or in words which is typically used to present to a client or a partner for approval or getting
investment. This encompasses all the important points and the scope of the business which
provides a comprehensive understanding of the plan to the audience.

a. Business description: A short description of what the business is about and how this
company is planning to enter in this business. A differentiating point from the existing players
in the market should ideally come in this section to create an interest for the clients and
investors. For example if the business plan is to set up a restaurant then the ‘business
description’ rather than stating “to set up a restaurant in Mumbai” will be “to set up a mid-
size Italian restaurant in Andheri, Mumbai”

b. Core Product: This section talks about the product or service which the company is
planning to offer and how it is different from the existing products or services currently
available in the market. So for the restaurant example it will be include “providing authentic
Italian food which is currently not offered in Andheri, employing genuine Italian cooks”

c. Market: This is the section in which the intended market for the product is mentioned. It is
narrowed down after doing an extensive market research and based on the findings the target
market is selected. This is usually a very specific segment of the market. For the restaurant it
will be “targeting people with disposable income of more than 40000 and who work in MNCs,
, use of social media to promote the restaurant, any specific campaigns required.

Step 3- Concept Test (quality and quantity)

Before the introduction of the product in the market, the product idea is tested by the
consumers. They are shown the description about the products, its values and attributes and
benefits through various computer models ,customer research, mock-up etc. and their
responses towards he products are evaluated. The advertising professionals use both
qualitative and quantitative methods to carry out the process of concept testing.

• Qualitative: consumer surveys, market research

• Quantitative: field surveys, focus groups, personal interviews. These are mainly conducted
by first presenting the product in visual or verbal form and then conducting interviews or
discussions to know the intent of the customer in buying the product.

Concept Testing can be applied to each of the below mentioned scenarios:

• Concept Presentation: Before the introduction of the product in the market

• For modifying or upgrading the product

• For decision making in pricing ,promotion of the product

• Needs Assessment-In determining the consumer expectations regarding the product and
henceforth modifying the product thereafter

Step 4- Concept Selling

Concept selling refers to raising awareness of the benefits or USPs (Unique Selling Points) of
a company’s products and services after understanding the requirements of the target
customers. Such a method of selling is bound to gain the prospects’ attention as the
salesperson or marketing campaign is communicating an idea that they can relate to and
identify with. For example, life insurance agents often sell their products by creating a concept
or story around them.

Chapter 3

3.1Win With Conceptual Selling

Listening

The Conceptual Selling methodology places considerable emphasis on listening. In the old
days, salespeople mainly learned to talk, not to listen—it was about that all-important pitch
and how well it “got over.”

In Conceptual Selling, the salesperson begins by listening to the prospect in order to fully
understand the prospect’s concept of their problems and issues. The salesperson then relates
the product or service directly to that concept.

Reasons to Buy

Why is listening such a critical component of Conceptual Selling? Because the prospect’s
concept of the issues their company are facing translate to reasons to buy your product or
service.

This can require some “unlearning” on the part of salespeople steeped in glibly listing out the
benefits as they understand them. The point is that, of course, their understanding of
benefits isn’t what counts: it’s the prospect’s understanding that means everything.

Asking Questions

Of course, the salesperson is never going to obtain this information without asking the right
questions. Hence Conceptual Selling is designed around asking intelligent questions.

The questions fall into three stages: getting information, giving information, and getting a
commitment.

Additionally, the questions fall into five categories:

 Confirmation questions reaffirm information.

 New information questions clarify the prospect’s concept of the product or service
and explore what they’d like to achieve.

 Attitude questions seek to understand a prospect on a personal level and discover

their connection to the project.

 Commitment questions inquire after a prospect’s investment in the project.

 Basic issue questions raise potential problems.

One vital component emphasized in Conceptual Selling is that the sale must be a win-win—
for both the salesperson and the buyer. If it isn’t, the salesperson should walk away.

3.2 The Backbone: An Efficient CRM Solution

Conceptual Selling will only truly succeed with a highly efficient CRM solution.

 The concepts given you by the prospect of their issues must be exactly recorded in
such a way that they can be instantly retrieved.

 The stages of Conceptual Selling questions—getting information, giving information,

and getting commitment—will parallel the stages of a company’s sales process. Your
CRM solution should exactly mirror your sales process so the answers fall into the
same places, every time.

 Your sales process stages should be mapped out as precisely as possible, with the
Conceptual Selling questions that should be asked in each stage, the answers that
need to be obtained in each stage, and the buyer and seller actions laid out that will
result in the sale moving to the next stage.

3.3Create the need, Create pull, Demand Generation..

Similarly based around utilising telemarketing and sales development lead- appointment
generation techniques, however, also using the sales call to open up intelligent discussions
with decision makers, so that we can raise awareness of the benefits, cost-savings and ROI
Return On Investment of your products/services/solutions and efficient suitability for the
prospects operation.
The core objectives and deliverables of Concept Selling are to improve the prospects
operation/OEE/efficiency and uptime. Also reducing labour costs and increasing their
profitability.
The whole philosophy of concept selling is to reach a new level of prospective customer,
whom may not have been aware of the benefits of your products and services, prior to our
telephone call engagement with them. These kinds of prospects are in abundance within your
target industries, yet they are often unaware of how beneficial your products and services
could be for their operation.
It is likely that your company is already aware of this untapped abyss, yet naturally found it
quite timely and specialist in allotting field sales team time to investigate the market place to
identify prospects of this criterion and calibre.
MBD’s key strengths revolve around this technical concept selling ability to help drive up
business for our clients in this manner, no matter what your industry is or the complexity of
your products, services and solutions.
 Concept selling are commonly based around the following principal drivers:-
 Automating, implementing lean-architecture, improving and streamlining a business process
 Reducing labour and associated operational costs
 Implementing fail-safe or integrity systems for the operation to eliminate problems down the
line
 Optimising total quality, total efficiency and/or OEE within an operational business model
 Alleviating process headaches, intricate reporting procedures and unreliable paper-based
systems
 Cost effective techniques to increase productivity and profitability – whilst using the same or
less head-count
 Government legislation or targets to comply with – environmental or sustainability issues
effecting the their organisation
 Process or continuous improvements – quality standards, initiatives for excellence
 Improvements to alleviate costs and pressures put on their operation due to customer
demands
 Business improvement knock-on-effect to increase customer satisfaction and retention
 Competitive & strategic advantage
 Improving overall operational business efficiency

3.4 Accelerate production

During WWII world industry geared up for accelerated wartime production. When the war
was over this stimulated industrial machine turned to producing consumer products. By the
mid 50’s supply was starting to out-pace demand in many industries. Businesses had to
concentrate on ways of selling their products. Numerous sales techniques such as closing,
probing, and qualifing were all developed during this period and the sales de-partment had
an exalted position in a company’s organizational structure.

The Selling Concept proposes that customers, be individual or organizations will not buy
enough of the organization’s products unless they are persuaded to do so through selling
effort. So organizations should undertake selling and promotion of their products for
marketing success. The consumers typically are inert and they need to be goaded for buying
by converting their inert need in to a buying motive through persuasion and selling action.

In a modern marketing situation the buyer has a basket to choose from and the customer is
also fed with a high decibel of advertising. So often there is a misconception that marketing
is all about selling. The problem with this approach is that the customer will certainly buy
the product after the persuasion and if dissatisfied will not speak to others. In reality this does
not happen and companies pursuing this concept often fail in the business.
3.5 Things to Remember to Successfully do concept selling

Make it personal. The fastest way to make your product tangible to the customer is to
describe how it will make their life safer, easier and better. Maybe HR Harley wants to
improve engagement of her company’s employees or Salesperson Steve needs to find a
new incentive to get his sales team buzzing. You have to put in the work. You have to
research. You must learn about your prospects and be an expert, not only in your industry,
but maybe in your client’s industry to earn coveted trust.

Keep it simple. The world is a complex place and the last thing people need is more
complexity when trying to make difficult decisions. When selling something complex you
have to bring things down to the lowest common denominator. “It’s like Uber for
barbershops…” “It’s like your personal bank vault in the cloud, only accessible with your
thumbprint…” Your message must be simple and repeatable to sell to investors. And in a
world overflowing with options, simple beats complex—every time.

Track progress correctly. It’s more important than ever to be as transparent as possible
with everything you’ll be doing for your clients. Much of the work in tied to strategic
solutions is never seen by the client so it pays to open up the curtain and let them know
everything they’re getting. You tell the customers what you’ll do for them and then go out
and do exactly what you said.

Accentuate the trivial. Talk up the little things; when you have similar services as a
competitor, you must hype the differentiator—that which sets your solution apart. A good
brand is associated with a trustworthy firm that will perform like it’s supposed to perform.

Articulate the ROI. Ideas need muscle in order to gain traction. Whiteboards,
visualizations, pictures and “napkin math” are great ways to get the ball rolling to estimate
the financial investment and possible returns. No idea gets off the ground without
“financial translation”—you must be able to articulate the ROI before any idea gets
support.

Sell peace of mind. What you’re really selling is the comfort of knowing that everything
will be okay even if the unexpected happens. People worry about their finances, their
families, their reputations, their futures, their style choices, their social media status, etc.
People worry about many, many things. If your offering can remove an item from the
worry list, that’s a benefit worth selling.
3.6 Concept selling vs product selling

Is there a difference between selling a product and selling a solution? Over recent years all
sorts of marketing and sales people have transformed their pitches. Products were out, and
solutions were in. Great news. Something different to talk about, and an escape from the
pressure on features and price.

In all too many cases the words changed, but everything else stayed the same. Without
corresponding transformations in the sales and delivery models any evolution from product
to solution will be an illusion. The customer experience won't change, except for increased
disappointment.

The lines between products and solutions are easily blurred, and misunderstood, so maybe a
short review of the history of selling will be useful? Understanding how we got from there to
here makes it easier to understand the ramifications for both sales and delivery processes.
And points to the very real changes which need to be made for a business to really evolve
from product to solution.

There was a time when there weren't enough products to go around. In fact, right from the
beginning of the Industrial Revolution up until the new millennium, factories were flat out
trying to keep up with the explosion in demand for just about anything. Sales people were
employed to present products to potential buyers. That's all they had to do. Catch the buyers
attention, present the product, and ask for the order. If any punter didn't buy, so what. There
was always another just around the corner.

Typically sales professionals were paid only a commission on what they sold. Sales Managers
allocated territories and measured activity rates. They developed the concept of a sales
funnel in which prospects were captured and forced through a series of arguments to a
purchase decision. The model was really simple. Making 100 calls to get 20 prospects to listen
to a pitch, would result in 10 proposals and 5 sales.

Sales teams would operate in isolation from the main business. Their job was to get orders.
The factory would deliver. Whether the product would, or would not, meet the expectations
of the buyer was irrelevant. Let the Buyer Beware - or Caveat Emptor - says the law.

That was how most of what we know as the principles of selling emerged. The sales super
hero who didn't take no for an answer, battered down doors, cold called like a machine, talked
fast, told jokes, hit and run, became the role model.

Much of that thinking survives even now, despite a fundamental shift in the power of the
customer, which drove the evolution from product to solution.

Through the latter half of the 20th Century things started to change. Mass production
techniques increased the supply of product. Globalisation allowed new suppliers from
emerging economies. Customers grew to have choices, and learn a great deal more of what
they were about to buy. The world went from a shortage of products to a glut in the space of
20 years. Competition exploded, and the pressure on features and price grew with it.

In response, the marketing people came up with the idea of solutions. With these, the
customer wouldn't have to worry whether the product was right - the solution would ensure
satisfaction.

Customers liked the idea, a lot, and so did the sales people. But not many understood. The
sales and delivery model needed to change if the promise of a solution was to be delivered.
All too often the businesses didn't stop to understand they needed to change philosophy as
well as the marketing words.

The solution assumes responsibility for the result. That's what customers expect. And its what
some companies delivered. They developed a new model in which the sales guy took time to
understand what the customer wanted and organise his resources to provide it. Instead of
sales operating in isolation from the rest of the business it became the first step in a seamless
process, from marketing through manufacturing, distribution, delivery, implementation, to
customer service. The sales role transitioned from unwelcome interference to trusted
advisor. The sales funnel transitioned to prospect pipeline. Sales processes ensured cost of
sale wouldn't be wasted on prospects who weren't going to buy.
 Chapter 4

Advice for Effective Conceptual Selling

Prospects have more reasons to buy than we do Stop asking for their name and number
to sell

Stop Closing………..Start Opening People buy for their reasons – not ours

Don’t give them a business card Stop being enthusiastic

Stop selling features and benefits Stop assuming the close

Stop educating the prospect Don’t overdress

Get a timer Don’t tell the prospect everything you know

Don’t get commission breath Don’t have a vanity wall

Author’s apology You can’t talk anyone into anything

No puppy dogs Actual questions……….and statements

Stop trying to control the sale How to sell at prices higher than your
competition