Designers make everything better. They know what everyone wants, and then they deliver.
When something looks good, we can tell. When something feels right, we know. When something just works the way it should, we connect. That is what makes designers so valuable, they create things we feel like we have always needed.
Designers are not smarter than everyone. They know what everyone wants because they think differently. The way they think is by using the foundations of Design Thinking.
Everyone can become a designer.
It does not take expert creativity. It just takes a better process and a little curiosity.
Every company talks about focusing on the customer, few do it.
The best companies in the world use Design Thinking to understand the user, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems to craft creative solutions that have not been tried before.
Now, the most productive sales teams in the world are also reaping the benefits of applying Design Thinking in their sales strategies and processes.
Design Thinking in sales makes everyone a superstar.
In order to do something new, having a solid roadmap is beneficial. The foundations of Design Thinking are very simple.
Design Thinking basics:
- Empathize– with your clients, partners, and the users. Applied empathy is the greatest tool a sales professional has. This is also true for sales leaders.
- Define– their wants, challenges, needs, and problems. Make sure to define your insight as well.
- Ideate – come up with new ideas by challenging assumptions. Apply the findings of your empathy.
- Prototype– create the new solution, build out the ideas and make it work.
- Test– put those ideas into to practice, test the solutions, get feedback.
When you focus on what your partner needs and wants, you are applying empathy.
While you can never full know what someone is feeling, you sure can try. The secret to Design Thinking is empathy. When you actually care about someone else you begin to find creative ways to solve problems. The best sales teams focus on understanding their client.
But they don’t stop there.
True modern-selling is transforming from asking and telling to co-creating.
They keep going by defining the findings and then working together to come up with ideas.
This is when vendors can actually become partners.
When you take these same ideas that the best design teams (Apple, Google, etc.) use and apply them to your sales strategy and sales process, sales will improve. Your clients will feel like partners and everyone will be working toward the same mission.
The world of sales is changing; the skill of facilitating co-creation is the future of sales. This future is based on Design Thinking being applied to better sales strategies.
Once you come up with great ideas, you need to deliver. This is where the magic happens and this is not done alone. What you deliver to the client must come from them and their story as much as your own. It is not about forcing someone to fit, but creating an outcome that is molded to everyone’s needs and desired outcomes.
When the fit is perfect, no one feels like they are being sold.
The best sales experiences are actually a service that they customer will want to pay for.
The future of selling is based on the ability to define and deliver value, where the customer does not feel like they are being sold. This happens when the value is co-created with the supplier (vendor) and the buyer.
Design Thinking encourages teamwork. When the spirit of helping is the attitude adopted by both sides, then a true partnership is finally achieved. The value comes from two partners coming together to solve the most challenging problems.
Collaboration is the way the best companies sell. In order for the collaborative approach to be taken, then Design Thinking must be the foundation.
When you are a great designer, your influence never ends.
Sale professionals are not just experts.
Sales professionals are not just consultants.
Sales professionals are not just relationship builders.
Sales professionals are also designers.
The most valuable sales professionals are designers, and so are their leaders.
They design solutions by using empathy to understand and facilitation skills to share knowledge, define situations, and create. These designers know how to get every to deliver results. These designers get the job done by including everyone in the process.
By becoming designers, they bring and lead their customers along the journey as well. Everyone starts to create true value together.
Sales strategies built on Design Thinking constantly adapt and always deliver.
Styles change. So do designs. The best designers in the world know how to adapt the right way. The sales strategies built on Design Thinking will never get stale, they will never become outdated because they are not focused on your company and your product. They are focused on the changing needs of the customer.
No buyer wants to be persuaded or controlled. Yet everyone wants to lead and be lead.
When you care enough, you do what it takes to help the customer. Having the proper framework makes it so much easier to sell well. The best framework to use is built on the foundation of Design Thinking.
The customer wants more than a promise, more than hope, they want results, they want delivery.
The best designers always deliver.