I came across an interesting concept in marketing during my class discussion. The professor introduced “Provocative Selling” as a part of the discussion on global financial meltdown. It was quite interesting. Then I searched for the information on Provocative Selling and got the HBR article by Lay, Hewlin and Moore. The cognition from the discussion turned into reality.
Provocative selling is a marketing technique which can be used when companies face with a stagnant sale.
Source i-ehow.com
During the recession, companies face the tough task of cost containment (I have different opinion as I discussed in my earlier blog on Keynesian Model and Firms). The executives’ spending would be mostly on the existing commitments and only a fraction would be for discretionary spending. As a marketer, one has to fight for this fraction. During hard times, it may become difficult as the proposals go through lengthy reviews and conventional channels are shut. Conventional selling is solution-selling. This means that typically companies consult the customers, offer their solutions explaining their products’ features and functions and persuade the customers to use their products. Provocative selling differs from the conventional selling in that it identifies the competitive challenges faced by the customers and helps them realize the problems as urgent. When customers are down with painful problems, come up with a provocative pitch which customers see as a real threat to their very existence. That means, hit the iron when it is hard.
With Provocative Selling, you proactively identify a critical and big problem that the customer is facing. Then come up with a sale pitch (in this case a provocative point) on the problem. Finally you have to get hold off an executive who has the authority to make purchase decisions.
But it seems Provocative selling is not that easy as it is thought of. There are inherent challenges to Provocative Selling.
It is not applicable to all situations and to all customers.
Since it is a proactive approach rather than a reactive approach, identifying the customers’ problems requires an insight into the customers’ organizations which may not be readily available.
Reaching out to the Right people in the customers’ organization could be a challenge especially during recession i.e. provocative selling requires the contacts of the senior executives and requires the dialogue with them.
Provocative Selling attracts more resources.
Whilst there are challenges, there are advantages too. I see it as a win-win situation for both the customers and the organization. Conventional selling responds to the problems as defined by the customers. The provocative selling proactively identifies the strategic problems addressing the unacknowledged pain. This gives a competitive advantage to the customers as well as to the organization. A successful provocative selling would result in enhanced customer-organization relationship (indirectly helping for repeated purchases). It also helps the organization keep going through the recession time.
In essence, Provocative selling seems to be a promising tool in a marketer’s kit. But the organizations need to be careful in implementing this strategy and should go only with enough research, preparations and resources.
-Deepak
(Courtesy HBR)
Provocative selling is a marketing technique which can be used when companies face with a stagnant sale.
Source i-ehow.com
During the recession, companies face the tough task of cost containment (I have different opinion as I discussed in my earlier blog on Keynesian Model and Firms). The executives’ spending would be mostly on the existing commitments and only a fraction would be for discretionary spending. As a marketer, one has to fight for this fraction. During hard times, it may become difficult as the proposals go through lengthy reviews and conventional channels are shut. Conventional selling is solution-selling. This means that typically companies consult the customers, offer their solutions explaining their products’ features and functions and persuade the customers to use their products. Provocative selling differs from the conventional selling in that it identifies the competitive challenges faced by the customers and helps them realize the problems as urgent. When customers are down with painful problems, come up with a provocative pitch which customers see as a real threat to their very existence. That means, hit the iron when it is hard.
With Provocative Selling, you proactively identify a critical and big problem that the customer is facing. Then come up with a sale pitch (in this case a provocative point) on the problem. Finally you have to get hold off an executive who has the authority to make purchase decisions.
But it seems Provocative selling is not that easy as it is thought of. There are inherent challenges to Provocative Selling.
It is not applicable to all situations and to all customers.
Since it is a proactive approach rather than a reactive approach, identifying the customers’ problems requires an insight into the customers’ organizations which may not be readily available.
Reaching out to the Right people in the customers’ organization could be a challenge especially during recession i.e. provocative selling requires the contacts of the senior executives and requires the dialogue with them.
Provocative Selling attracts more resources.
Whilst there are challenges, there are advantages too. I see it as a win-win situation for both the customers and the organization. Conventional selling responds to the problems as defined by the customers. The provocative selling proactively identifies the strategic problems addressing the unacknowledged pain. This gives a competitive advantage to the customers as well as to the organization. A successful provocative selling would result in enhanced customer-organization relationship (indirectly helping for repeated purchases). It also helps the organization keep going through the recession time.
In essence, Provocative selling seems to be a promising tool in a marketer’s kit. But the organizations need to be careful in implementing this strategy and should go only with enough research, preparations and resources.
-Deepak
(Courtesy HBR)
Deepak - good post, thanks! Our firm, Sales Performance International, has been promoting a provocation-based approach to stimulating customer interest for over twenty years as part of our Solution Selling methodology. The HBR article was a good one, except for the mischaracterizations of Solution Selling, which were grossly inaccurate. We wrote a comprehensive point-by-point analysis of provocative selling vs. Solution Selling on our blog, which you can see here: http://bit.ly/19tHyX -- good luck and good selling!
ReplyDeleteTimothy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments. I realized the mis-characterizations of Solution Selling after going through your Solution Selling blog. Thanks for pointing out this to me.
-Deepak