In last week's post I made a bold statement that outcome-based selling was dead.

(Here https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/single-most-important-question-succeed-sales-chris-luxford-1pnic/?trackingId=3ePJbrZ1TH%2B25lGWYs8eYA%3D%3D)

In 2008, we started helping our clients move from a product and solution selling approach to an outcome-based one. At the time we declared, that within 10-15 years "everyone will be doing it". At which point it will no longer be differentiated, and as such, no longer the approach that leaders will embrace.

Today, almost every company or sales professional says they are outcome-based. Are they? Really? That is debatable in our view. Many say they are but it is really lipstick on a pig. It is still product or solution led with some outcome-based language wrapped around it. That said a large majority of companies have attempted to get better at aligning their offerings with their clients and prospects outcomes.

However, we believe outcome-based selling no longer offers any differentiation at all. We still absolutely believe that clients deserve better business outcomes from their technology investments and that those providing that technology should be far far deeper involved and rewarded around those impacts on outcomes.

To truly differentiate now and over the coming years a better and different approach MUST be embraced and a new journey commenced.

In a market that is overwhelmed by products and services where clients and prospects have almost unlimited choice;

Where clients and prospects are almost always more educated on the range and diversity of choice than the average sales professional;

When company budgets are shrinking over time and investments require significant impact on growth targets;

How can a sales professional bring value to a client or prospect?

There are some fundamental shifts, but they are underpinned by the key questions from last week's article:

Whatever you are planing to do, in the eyes of your client or prospect is it meaningfully different?

These shifts include:

• From knee-jerk reaction to voracious continuous learning


• From ego-centric focus to a deep passion to serve


• From mindless compliance to thoughtful experimentation


• From knowledge to wisdom (defined below)


• From what to think to how to think


• From push to pull


• From offerings to ideas


• From actions to habits


• From ingrained neural pathways to better and different neural pathways

In short outcome-based selling was an attempt to shift a corporation from a company-centric to a customer-centric engagement model.

This new, better and different approach is not about the corporation.

It is about you.

A corporation cannot help you discover how to meaningfully differentiate to each of your individual clients or prospects. It can only help you be scalably efficient. And provide you a generic message about its offerings.

To be sustainably, truly, meaningfully different in the eyes of your clients and prospects you must re-invent your identity.

What does re-invent your identity mean? Here is a great 23 second video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0969Klx6SlM

This identity re-invention will be a learning journey not training or episodic events. It will not be about what the corporation directs you to do, but the journey you are willing to embark yourself on.

There are lots of smart people...but how many are truly wise? Wise in a way that adds amazing value to your clients or prospects. Our definition of that wisdom, applied wisdom is:

• Voracious continuous learning + deep reflection + real-world experience + knowledge + critical thinking + systems thinking + intuition + imagination + creativity


• Mobilized via a latticework of Mental Models


• Appropriately applied via a “Jobs to be done” situationalized context

Over the coming weeks I will explore more about what the above shifts really mean and why it can help you be massively more successful in the coming years.

By Chris Luxford

Keywords: Innovation, Leadership, Sales