Outcome-Based Selling: An Overview + Practical Tips

For decades, selling product features and benefits has been all the rage. Outcome-based selling, although more effective, has always been sidelined. But this is rapidly changing.

As new brands and products emerge, the competition gets fiercer. Customer retention has become more challenging due to the proliferation of similar products. So, if you want to improve your market share, you’ll need to step up your customer acquisition tactics.

In my years editing the HubSpot Sales Blog, I’ve seen that the best way to sell a product is by showing prospects you can help them reach their goals. In this guide, I’ll explain the benefits of outcome-based selling and show you how to get started.

Table of Contents

• What Is Outcome-Based Selling?
• How To Do Outcome Selling
• Examples of Outcome Selling

What is outcome-based selling?

Outcome-based selling is a customer-first sales strategy that conveys an offering’s value by presenting the desired outcome it can help the customer achieve. Rather than focusing on the features and benefits of a product, outcome-based selling highlights the buyer’s desired outcome.

You’re probably wondering what an outcome is and how it differs from a benefit. An outcome is the long-term gain a customer can expect to enjoy as a result of your product’s immediate benefits.

I’ll provide examples of outcome selling later on. But first, let’s explore how it works.

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How Outcome-Based Selling Works

People want solutions. Show your prospects you can help them reach their goals, and you’ve earned a new customer.

It becomes much easier to implement outcome-based selling once teams identify a target audience. That’s why I recommend obtaining the following information about your prospects:

• Their business goals. What are they trying to achieve? What is their vision?
• Their existing challenges. Are there any pain points they need to address? Are they currently facing any obstacles?
• Their key performance indicators (KPIs). What metrics do they use to measure success?

Once you have these key details, you can position your offering as a solution that will help your customers achieve their desired outcomes. It’s important to note, though, that you can only learn about your prospects through in-depth research.

Using the information you glean from the research phase, you can create a presentation showing how your offerings can help the prospect. If they accept your proposal, your product or service is delivered as a means to an end.

Benefits of Outcome-Based Selling

I’ve compiled the major benefits you can enjoy when you prioritize your customers’ needs by adopting an outcome-based selling approach.

1. Improved Customer Satisfaction

Outcome selling begins with research. That’s because you need to learn about your customers’ pain points, challenges, and goals.

While there are several avenues you can use to obtain these details, I'd recommend social media platforms and online forums because they allow you to communicate with your target audience and get more information about them. The more you know about them, the easier It’ll be to satisfy them.

2. Higher Upselling Potential

The experts I’ve talked to over the years note the link between outcome-based selling and upselling. If I’m satisfied with a brand, I’m definitely giving its other products a go — as long as they’re things I need. Most customers are like me — we’re loyal to brands that truly deliver.

What does this mean for you? Higher upselling potential. If this doesn’t hit the mark, you can cross-sell related products to your customers. Both techniques boost profitability by generating more revenue from existing customers, lowering customer acquisition costs.

Be careful when cross-selling, though. If customers feel you just want more of their money, they’ll likely lose trust. Show them you genuinely want to solve their problems.

I’d suggest winning them over with discounts. Interestingly, we surveyed 1,477 sales professionals, and 34% of them agreed that discount pricing is the most effective way to cross-sell customers.

3. Sustained Long-Term Relationships

The real magic of outcome-based selling lies in gaining a deep-level understanding of your customer’s needs. Once you identify their pain points, creating an effective solution becomes a breeze. This sales approach fosters long-term customer relationships and builds trust.

Trust is the king of the relationship-building game. Of the experts I work with, many say that clients have bought what they were selling because reps earned their trust by understanding customer pain points. So, once you establish trust, clients will want to stick with you.

4. Increased Perceived Value of Your Business

You’ve probably caught on at this point — fully immersing yourself in your customer’s business is crucial. It can help you improve your perceived value.

How, you ask? Customers expect one thing — to help them achieve their goals. This could mean streamlining sales processes, eliminating existing challenges, or introducing new methodologies.

To determine which option is best, make sure you have a solid pulse on my customers’ goals. It allows reps to create a strong reputation for getting in, figuring things out, and fixing problems. By doing this, the market has no choice but to respect your brand.

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When this strategy pays off, the market perceives your company as a high-quality business. It gets even better — you can charge more for your offerings while growing your portfolio.

5. Discovery of New Business Opportunities

An unexpected benefit of outcome selling is identifying new business opportunities. You can research these opportunities further and convert them into sustainable products that strengthen your future presentations, as well as your brand. Leveraging these growth avenues increases revenue and bolsters your position as a market leader.

How To Do Outcome Selling

If you’re ready to implement outcome-based selling, the steps below will help you and your sales team hone your strategy.

1. Create your ideal customer profile and buyer persona.

24% of the sales professionals we surveyed said that providing prospects with a highly personalized experience generates the most growth for their companies.

To personalize the customer experience, you must fully understand your industry and ideal buyer. Whenever I want to gain a high-level understanding of any industry, I always start by building an ideal customer profile (ICP) and a buyer persona.

While these terms may seem synonymous at first glance, they’re not the same. An ideal customer profile describes key attributes of a company that best fits the solutions I provide. So, my ICP could include details about the company size, annual revenue, and industry. On the other hand, a buyer persona describes my prospect’s specific needs, challenges, and goals.

The insight you gather from defining an ideal customer helps you personalize your sales call. Personalization, in turn, sways the decision-makers in your favor.

2. Understand your prospect’s needs and desired outcomes.

To create a compelling sales presentation, identify your prospect’s needs and propose solutions that provide a desirable outcome.

For example, if I notice that my prospect’s growth has stagnated, I’ll build my presentation around this problem. First, I’ll identify the cause of the stagnation, and then I’ll provide a solution that accelerates growth. But I can’t achieve any of these without doing my research.

In our survey, we found that 25% of sales experts also believe researching prospects before meeting them is non-negotiable. It’s a great way to build customer rapport, making the meeting go smoothly.

In-depth research will also help you determine what customer success looks like and the metrics they use to measure it. While measures of success can vary across industries, teams usually start with basic information like goals, challenges, and KPIs because these cut across organizations. So, you can start there and refine your strategies over time.

Bonnie Ruan, chief product officer at Beska Mold, a CNC machining manufacturer, recommends a similar tactic: “Understanding the prospect’s strategic goals and how they measure success is crucial. At Beska Mold, we often use tools like SWOT analysis to better understand how our solutions can align with and drive a prospect’s objectives.”

Pro tip: Each role within a company has unique needs and priorities. Find out what’s important to the people in these roles. This helps you craft a captivating narrative and make a sale.

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3. Clearly explain how your solution suits the prospect’s needs.

Offering alignment can help you close more deals. But this isn’t just a hunch. In fact, 25% of the sales professionals we surveyed believe that selling outcomes to prospects is more effective than selling products to them.

So, after identifying a prospect’s challenges and desired business outcomes, you need to find a way to align these challenges with your offerings. Whenever teams properly execute this step, they close deals faster.

Pro tip: Transparency is key. If your prospect has an issue you can’t resolve, admit your limitations. And if there’s something you intend to do about it in the future, let them know. But whatever you do, don’t overpromise.

For instance, if I’m pitching an email marketing tool to an agency that wants to target certain subscribers based on their website behavior, but my software isn’t built for that, I’ll be as transparent as possible. I won’t promise to offer that level of personalized segmentation just to land a sale.

Setting unrealistic expectations can quickly negate your investment in a client by eroding trust. In fact, Ray Pierce, the founder and CEO of Zippy Cash for Cars, has a cautionary tale on this:

“We learned to under-promise and overdeliver by meticulously planning and executing. An early client’s ambitious goal taught us the value of reasonable expectations and open communication. Now, we work together to align expectations and celebrate accomplishments along the way to their desired future.”

4. Provide supporting information for your pitch.

As you prepare to make your sales call, remember that your prospects are savvy. They hold the positions they do because they’re good at their jobs. So, you can trust they’ll double-check your claims and throw curve balls in your presentation.

The good news is you have nothing to worry about if you’re well-prepared. However, as you prepare, understand that quality information is the key to a good outcome-based selling strategy.

I start my presentations by acknowledging the depth of my prospect’s situation. This makes them feel heard. Plus, I get to demonstrate my attention to detail.

Next, I maintain a bank of resources by providing granular details of my offering and how it solves the problems I identified. I always substantiate claims with hard results from real-world tests to alleviate doubt.

Testimonials and case studies are gold. So, if I have some from past clients, this is a good opportunity to show them off. They prove to prospects that my solutions work because they’ve made a difference elsewhere.

Pro tip: If you have a website, consolidate all the important information on your offerings and organize them for prospects to pore over if they need to get into the nitty-gritty. If you’re yet to create one, I recommend beginner-friendly tools like WordPress and Wix.

Any time you make changes to your product, update the information on your website too. This way, you’ll always have a baseline for future presentations.

5. Present your outcome-based solution.

You’ve extensively prepared to blow your prospect’s mind. You have a killer offering, tons of research findings, and a captivating presentation. Now, it’s time to make your case.

Support all your claims with data from credible sources, but keep your points concise. Over the years, I learned that these show a prospect I’ve done my homework and respect their time. I also learned that personalizing my messages to align with the prospect’s point of view helps them see how my offerings relate to their desired outcomes.

This stage is also a great opportunity to showcase product demos. But first, I work with our product development team to customize the product. Through customization, we’re able to address inefficiencies and challenges currently affecting the prospect’s operation, which makes our product a great fit for them.

Finally, you must always consider your prospect’s budget when submitting your proposal. You wouldn’t want to sabotage your efforts by quoting a price the prospect can’t afford, would you?

We all hope our presentations will flow smoothly. But sometimes, prospects object to some of our ideas. Objections can put you down, especially if you poured your heart and soul into the project.

One of the biggest challenges that up to 13% of sales professionals face is difficulty in handling objections from prospects. But it doesn't have to be this way.

Jacob Kalvo, co-founder and CEO of Live Proxies, said this about handling objections: “Most often, the objections arise due to a lack of information or are prompted by fears over the implementation and its effects. Directly addressing these concerns with the use of detailed explanations, additional data, or examples of similar past situations would thus aid in mitigating doubts.”

Examples of Outcome Selling

The examples below illustrate how I would use an outcome-based approach to sell various products in different scenarios.

1. Content Marketing Services

It only took a quick Google search for me to discover that most content marketing agencies present their offerings by highlighting features. It’s common knowledge that such agencies offer keyword research, off-page SEO, and backlinking services.

To cut through the clutter, I’ll reveal specific business goals I can help the prospect achieve. Here’s a paragraph I might include in my pitch:

“With our custom-crafted content marketing strategies, you’ll see a boost in your website’s visibility across search engines and social networks, where your audience is more likely to find you. This exposure will drive organic traffic to your website and attract high-quality leads.”

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2. E-Learning Platform

A great e-learning platform is built with usability and convenience in mind. So, I wouldn’t bore my prospects by telling them how user-friendly the app is. Instead, I’ll talk about how the platform can help them upskill their team.

My pitch can include a paragraph like this one:

“So, what will the future look like if you invest in our e-learning platform? Well, at some point within the next twelve months — a timeline I’d be happy to discuss further — your workforce is equipped with advanced copywriting skills, saving you the cost of hiring and training new employees.”

3. Customer Service Management Software

In this scenario, a traditional sales rep would show off impressive product features like the ticketing system, reporting tools, scalability, integration, and subscription tiers. However, my outcome-based approach would revolve around real results the client wants to achieve.

Here’s a preview of what I’d include in my pitch:

“Our customer service management software will help you resolve problems three times faster than manual methods, leading to a 25% increase in customer satisfaction and a corresponding increase in positive feedback. I can point you to the success stories of ecommerce companies like yours that have achieved similar results.”

Notice how I spiced up this example with figures? It’ll give my audience even more reason to trust me. While it’s great to quantify your business value, you should only use this approach if you can back up your claims with real results.

Make Outcome Selling Work for You

Outcome-based selling can help you close more deals, reduce churn rate, and increase customer lifetime value. As you interact with more clients and discover the different ways they use your products, you can refine your strategy and deliver more value.

Using the steps I’ve outlined in this guide, you can create your own outcome-based selling strategy that delivers measurable results and helps you reach your sales goals.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in August 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.