Solve Don't Sell - follow up story
Winning Stakeholder Buy-In by Solving Problems
What happened after writing a recent Product Management IRL article? These insights are for premium subscribers to Product Management IRL.
This week’s backstory is about solving stakeholder problems instead of selling solutions to them (paid subscriber article):
What Prompted this Article?
Two events led to this article:
I wasn’t able to sell my product strategy change to stakeholders
I talked to Aaron Norris, a strategic sales specialist, about how he sells
Aaron explained that he solves problems instead of selling. Aaron outlined his steps to solving problems:
Find your stakeholders’ problems
Craft your value proposition that solves their problems
Prepare for objections using feedback loops
Instead of selling ideas, I need to solve problems.
What Happened After this Article?
Aaron’s advice made great sense. He had some extra advice that I didn’t cover in the article.
I was worried I would present a solution I couldn’t deliver. How does Aaron handle this?