Design Thinking In Sales

A few weeks ago, I shared a review for The Design of Business, an excellent perspective on design thinking and strategy.  Since reading the book, I’ve been far more aware of how this type of thinking provides a critical advantage in the sales process.

Successful selling today requires that you be able to get your customers to understand the limitations of the status quo and to develop complex solutions that can be easily understood.  You must have the ability to understand your customer’s current (perceived) reality and to enable them to see how your solution can effectively change that reality to create a better one.

This requires a dynamic-type of thinking that is missing in many sales organizations.  Design Thinking is ideal for this effort.  Combining the strengths of deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning, “Designers” can lead frustrated buyers to the future they desire, while driving high-margin sales opportunities.

By no means do I think every salesperson must become a “Designer,” but every sales organization needs to have a least one.

If you’d like to learn more about Design Thinking, you can download this article from Harvard Business Review (subscription required) or get the book The Design of Business (affiliate link).