Guided selling gives buyers a helping hand as they navigate the buying process. It provides all the information and advice buyers need to help them make the right decision.
Guided selling buyers a helping hand as they navigate the buying process. It provides all the information and advice buyers need to help them make the right decision. It gives buyers the confidence to commit to purchases they might otherwise have been hesitant about. Guided selling is usually part of a broader sales strategy, aiming to provide vital information to accelerate sales and facilitate better-informed decisions.
How Does Guided Selling Work?
Using the power of data and data analysis, combined with the dynamic decision-making that great visibility enables, guided selling software can make a huge difference to businesses.
With guided selling, the aim is to present prospective buyers with multiple options that align with their needs and support why each option is a suitable fit with data-supported reasoning. This sets guided selling apart from traditional sales methods, which may tailor ads to consumer behaviors but often leave customers to navigate product options on their own once they arrive at business websites.
For example, in a typical eCommerce setting, customers might find a website through inbound marketing efforts and then be left to browse through category menus or search for products themselves. In contrast, guided selling might present visitors with a short questionnaire upon arrival, asking about their preferences, needs, and budget. Based on their responses, the system would then recommend specific products tailored to their requirements.
While guided selling is it’s often associated with B2C companies, it’s also an important selling tool for B2B businesses. Here’s how it works in both a B2B and B2C context.
B2B Guided Selling
In B2B markets, guided selling can offer huge advantages. Typically, B2B businesses will have fewer customers than their B2C counterparts, yet these customers will spend far greater sums each time they make a purchase. B2B brands, therefore, need to ensure that every step of the sales process is fully optimized and stress-free for their customers.
Guided selling can make the sales process a smooth one by leveraging the power of data to provide a better experience for every buyer. Companies can make full use of their existing insights to optimize the entire customer journey and ensure that they’re always meeting the needs of their customers. As a result, conversion rates tend to improve, and the average value and frequency of orders rise too.
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In B2B sales organizations, guided selling might involve:
- Account managers using data-driven tools to ask targeted questions about a business client’s needs
- Presenting customized product bundles or solutions based on the client’s industry, size, and specific challenges
- Offering comparative analyses of different product attributes to help clients make informed decisions
- Providing real-time pricing and configuration options for complex products or services
B2C Guided Selling
The customer journey isn’t just an important consideration for B2B companies. It’s also crucial for those targeting consumers. In these markets, guided selling can be used in a similar way to improve the shopping experience using targeted data.
Companies can use various technologies to analyze customer data in greater detail than ever before. The resulting insights can then be turned into real changes that benefit customers and provide an easier and more informative shopping experience.
Guided selling enables brands to offer a step-by-step buying process for customers as they shop online. Ideally, such processes will provide all the information customers might require without ever having to seek it out specifically. This tends to result in fewer abandoned carts and greater customer satisfaction, along with an increase in repeat purchases and loyal brand advocates.
In a B2C scenario, guided selling might include:
- Interactive product finders or questionnaires on eCommerce websites
- AI-powered chatbots that ask customers about their preferences and suggest relevant products
- Personalized product recommendations based on browsing history and previous purchases
- Virtual try-on experiences for fashion or cosmetics products
By utilizing guided selling techniques, both B2B and B2C businesses can create more personalized and efficient shopping experiences, leading to increased customer satisfaction and higher conversion rates.
Arm your sales team with insights for increasing customer satisfaction and reducing customer defection.
Examples of Guided Selling
In both B2B and B2C contexts, guided selling has become increasingly practical in helping customers navigate complex product offerings and find the best fit for their needs. Let’s explore a few effective examples of guided selling in action.
Microsoft Surface “Help Me Choose”
Microsoft’s Surface lineup offers a range of devices with varying specifications. Their Help Me Choose tool simplifies the selection process:
- Asks users about their primary device use (work, school, personal)
- Inquires about specific tasks (note-taking, gaming, design work)
- Considers portability needs and budget constraints
- Provides tailored device recommendations based on responses
This approach focuses on the user’s needs rather than technical specifications, making the process more approachable to non-tech-savvy customers.
Brooks Shoe Finder
Brooks Running’s Shoe Finder is an excellent example of guided selling in the athletic footwear industry:
- Collects information on running habits and preferences
- Asks about any discomfort experienced during runs
- Considers factors like arch type and desired level of support
- Recommends specific shoe models based on the user’s profile
The effectiveness lies in its ability to replicate the expertise of an in-store associate, enabling online shoppers pinpoint the ideal running shoe for their individual needs.
Suhr Guitar Configurator
Suhr’s Guitar Configurator takes a different approach to guided selling, catering to musicians looking for customized instruments:
- Allows users to visually build their dream guitar
- Offers choices for body shape, wood type, pickups, and finishes
- Provides real-time pricing updates as options are selected
- Generates a detailed specification sheet for the custom guitar
This configurator combines visual customization with guided choices, ensuring that even complex custom orders result in compatible and playable instruments that meet customers’ exact expectations.
These examples show how guided selling can be adapted to various industries and product types, improving the customer experience by offering personalized recommendations and simplifying complex decision-making processes.
How Does Guided Selling Benefit a Business?
The benefits of guided selling don’t end with customers and consumers. There are also significant advantages to be explored within a business. When companies start to make use of the opportunities that guided selling provides, they invariably see real progress within their teams too.
The very idea of guided selling helps to boost confidence in sales by championing the importance of information and providing valuable insights. It can therefore be used as a highly successful training tactic, and many companies use the ideas of guided selling in their onboarding processes too.
Guided selling can help close gaps in employees’ knowledge base by providing targeted training information, tutorials, and guides. It’s an idea that works just as well for long-standing employees as it does for new joiners. Many B2B and B2C companies are already reporting huge progress from guided selling practices in their training programs.
Guided Selling in CPQ
Guided selling plays a powerful role in Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ), enhancing the overall sales process by turning product configuration, pricing, and quote generation into a frictionless system. Not only does it alleviate the administrative overhead displaced on sales reps, but it serves as a pivotal tool for sales optimization, converting interested prospects into paying customers.
Configure
In the configuration phase, guided selling assists sales representatives and customers in navigating through product options and features:
- Presents a series of questions to understand customer needs and preferences
- Dynamically adjusts available options based on previous selections
- Enforces product rules and constraints to ensure valid configurations
- Suggests complementary products or upgrades to maximize deal value
By simplifying the configuration process, guided selling reduces errors and ensures that the final product aligns with customer requirements.
Price
During the pricing stage, guided selling contributes to accurate and optimized pricing:
- Applies pricing rules based on selected configurations
- Calculates discounts and promotions in real-time
- Provides visibility into margin impacts of different options
- Suggests pricing strategies to improve deal profitability
This approach helps sales teams generate competitive yet profitable quotes quickly and consistently.
Quote
In the quoting phase, guided selling accelerates the quote generation and presentation process:
- Automatically generates professional quote documents
- Includes relevant product information and pricing details
- Allows for easy quote revisions based on customer feedback
- Facilitates the approval process for special pricing or discounts
By streamlining quote creation, guided selling reduces the time from configuration to proposal, improving the efficiency of sales processes.
Benefits of Guided Selling in CPQ
So, what advantages can be gained by strategically integrating guided selling with CPQ tools and sales processes? Here are some of the most compelling benefits:
- Increased sales efficiency: Simplifies complex product offerings, enabling sales reps to create accurate quotes faster
- Improved customer experience: Provides a consultative approach, helping customers find the best solutions for their needs
- Enhanced upselling and cross-selling: Suggests relevant add-ons and complementary products based on customer preferences
- Reduced errors: Enforces business rules and product constraints, minimizing configuration mistakes
- Consistent pricing: Ensures adherence to pricing policies and approval workflows across the organization
By integrating guided selling into CPQ software and processes, businesses can optimize their sales operations, improve customer satisfaction, and drive revenue growth. This approach is particularly effective in industries with complex products or services, where expert guidance is crucial throughout the sales process.
Guided Selling Technology
Guided selling technology encompasses a range of tools and systems designed to streamline sales activities. These technologies leverage data-driven insights and intelligent algorithms to guide customers and sales representatives through complex products and configurations.
- Machine learning: Machine learning powers algorithmic guided selling by analyzing customer data to provide personalized product recommendations. These systems continuously improve their accuracy over time, enhancing the relevance of suggestions.
- CPQ technology: The best CPQ software automates complex product configurations and pricing, ensuring sales representatives can quickly generate accurate quotes. Guided selling tools within CPQ systems use rules-based logic to guide users through valid product selections.
- Chatbots and virtual assistants: These tools engage customers in real-time, asking questions to understand their needs and providing instant, personalized product recommendations. They enhance the customer experience by offering immediate assistance and guidance.
- Data analytics platforms: These platforms collect and analyze customer data, providing insights that inform guided selling strategies. By understanding customer behavior and preferences, businesses can tailor their offerings to better meet customer needs.
- Recommendation engines: Recommendation engines use data-driven intelligence to suggest complementary products or services, improving upselling and cross-selling opportunities. They play a crucial role in delivering a personalized shopping experience.
As companies work toward adopting these tools, they can position themselves to better meet the evolving needs of their customers in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
Guided Selling Done Right
Guided selling offers significant advantages to B2B businesses, but only when it’s done right! Take a look at some of the key areas to focus on to ensure the success of your guided selling strategies.
Automated Playbooks
Great guided selling relies on data. However, once companies start to investigate how this data can be used, their capabilities soon soar. Automated playbooks are a prime example of making selling more frictionless, effortless, and optimized. By automating time-consuming parts of the sales process, companies can free up time for their sales team while also offering buyers a more reliable and responsive experience.
Sellers can easily access all the information they need to check in on new and existing deals, and ongoing client relationships can be easily managed to facilitate a better service going forward. Key metrics relating to deals can also be checked regularly, giving businesses a clear picture of everything from the extent of a deal’s progress and its estimated close date to the amount of time spent on it.
Real-time Responses
Flexibility is hugely important if a business is to succeed in today’s competitive online markets. When done well, guided selling enables a company to be readily adaptable and incredibly dynamic, ensuring that it can quickly respond to fluctuations in demand at a moment’s notice.
To accomplish this, it relies on real-time responses to ensure its success. Therefore, if a company uses the data it has and ensures that such data is acted upon in real-time, its capabilities will rapidly increase.
There are several points in the customer journey that rely on speedy responses – and in many cases, the time taken to respond can have a real impact on whether or not the company will close a deal. For guided selling to work, companies must prioritize response times and do all they can to keep deals moving.
Establish Visibility and Leverage Customer Insights
Guided selling relies on accurate data. The visibility of this data is also of the utmost importance. Companies looking to make the most of guided selling will need to champion visibility, providing teams with quick and easy access to key metrics gathered from the entirety of the sales pipeline. The provision of such data will then allow all team members to act on data in real-time and leverage customer insights quickly and efficiently.
Software dedicated to guided selling tends to provide opportunities for companies to do exactly this through regular auditing of key metrics designed to leverage customer insights in real-time. Companies can then gain a better understanding of what’s working well in their existing processes, and where there’s room for improvement.
