You may think it’s your product or service that you’re selling to your clients, and while that’s technically true, it isn’t the whole story. Your prospects likely don’t care about your product or service as a standalone purchase. What they care about is how exactly that product or service of yours is going to benefit them specifically. That’s why Maddie Sheng, writing for HubSpot, recommends that you use a process called outcome selling.

What Outcome Selling Is

Sheng defines outcome selling as, “a framework that encourages conversions by prioritizing a customer’s desired outcomes, or long-​term gains that result from a product’s benefits, rather than simply pushing the sale of your product.” To do this, you need to ask yourself, and your prospects, what their goals and priorities are. If you don’t understand your prospect’s needs, you won’t know what their desired outcome is and won’t be able to build a sales pitch around it. Focus on the customer and their needs, and you’ll have a better chance of landing your sale.

How To Do It

There are a few keys to outcome selling.

Identification

When practicing outcome selling, Sheng recommends making a list of all your contacts, both prospective clients and existing ones. You can sell to both, and many argue that existing customers are easier to sell to than prospective ones. Making this list will also help make your target demographic more clear to you since you will definitely notice similarities between your clients on the basis of industry and such. “You can filter and manage your customers and contacts based on their industry, priorities, or stage in the sales process so you can better approach each client,” says Sheng.

Focus on Need

You can’t sell a solution to a prospect’s need if you don’t know what it is they need. So, when conversing with your prospective and existing clients, talk about their challenges, goals, and vision.

Planning

Once you complete your discovery process, you can formulate a plan based on how your solution can fulfill the prospects’ needs. Hopefully one of your products or services will be able to be part of that plan. Do your research to figure out which and how many of your products or services match what your prospects or clients need and develop your pitch on that basis.

Presentation

Now’s the time in outcome selling to showcase the results of your preparation! Present your solution based on the research you’ve done and how you came to the conclusion that your chosen products or services will work best for this particular client. Sheng points out that, “On top of impressing your client, it will also show how the solution you’ve crafted is tailored to them and their specific needs, making you stand out against competitors." Sheng also points out that you shouldn’t get defensive when your prospect or client raises doubts or questions. These are chances for you to showcase your thorough knowledge of the situation.

Follow-​Up

Remember, outcome selling doesn’t end with the closing of a sale. You’re focusing on the outcome, which means that you have to keep in contact with your client to make sure that they’re getting their desired outcome.