How to Sell Solutions, Not Just Products

The goal of every marketer is simple--to sell your products.

Meanwhile, your potential customers are sharing their reviews, reactions, comments, photos, and videos about your products and/or your competitors’ products.  This is providing a great degree of insight into the problems that they want to solve. 

Given this open feedback, consumers are demanding more from brands. 

Connect the Dots

To find prospective customers and maintain your current customers, it is no longer enough to point out product features, competitive differences, or price points.  You should strive, instead, to understand your potential customer’s lifestyle, needs, goals, and aspirations.  

Consumers want you to connect the dots between their desired outcomes and your products.  

When offering a solution, try to make it easy, convenient, fun, entertaining, and exciting for consumers.  (We suggest being a one-stop shop for the solution your consumers are seeking.) Be a one-stop shop for the solution that they seek.  This will distinguish you from your competitors and make your online media a go-to destination.  

How Offering Multiple Products Can Assist

While it is important to sell individual products, research has shown that brands that build customer relationships by selling solutions gain loyal, repeat shoppers.  Product bundles are a common approach, but bundles usually only feature your own products. 

Shoppable’s Universal Checkout uniquely allows you to offer complimentary products from any of our verified merchants to help create a solution and seamlessly purchase these multiple products in a single cart.  Additionally, you will receive the first-party data from orders that include products from these other companies.  It actually expands your marketing funnel by enriching your CRM and discovering which, of these complementary products, help sell your products.

There are over 400 million product SKUs for you to select from in crafting your solution using any of Shoppable's Commerce Suite products--DTC Lite, Shoppable® Ad Experience, and Instant Shop.

Best Practices Beyond Bundling

Look at shampoo and conditioner for curly hair, for example.  Bundling these two items together is a good start.  A step in the right direction, but that is just selling your products.  Let’s tie these products to a problem and create a solution.  

For example, how to style curly hair for a formal event.  Instant Shop could be used to create an online storefront for prom as a destination for a campaign targeting high school or college students.  It would be a perfect venue for your influencer involvement!

You can connect your products to the hottest trends by selecting up-and-coming hair care products and decorative accessories.  Showcase the newest blow dryers, curl diffusers, curling irons/straighteners, temporary hair color sprays, fancy hair claws, barrettes, tiaras/headbands, bun-making tools, clip-on hair extensions/braids, etc.  

Your custom Instant Shop would offer a complete and full solution for prom attendees to style their curly hair.  Rather than just pitching shampoo and conditioner for curly hair with no context, you’re sharing how to “Celebrate Your Curls at Prom!” 

You can make this a limited (and therefore, more exclusive) social commerce experience much as major retailers do with their physical "store-within-a-store/pop-up promotions."  Run your Instant Shop for a month, or two, with much fanfare.  Promote with online ads and via social media.  Change out your Instant Shop theme with the seasons.  Based on the sales performance of related brands, you may also discover future partnership opportunities. 

The greatest reward, of course, will be to sell more of your products than you would with just a standard product-selling approach.

Give Your Customers What They Want

The possible solutions that you could offer are limitless.  In the hair care example, it could be how to manage short hair/long hair, bridal party hair, holiday party hair, beach/swimming hair, dyed/dry hair, and more.  Listen, when consumers are voicing their deepest concerns.  Let these challenges inspire your solutions. 

This is how you increase your online traffic, garner greater brand exposure, and convert the users of related products (that should also be using your products).  

Offer solutions and sell more of your products! 

Instant Shop is included in all license plans (and you may also offer solutions in DTC Lite, embedded commerce in your website or app, or with Shoppable® Ad Experience via your online advertising).  Review Shoppable's plans to see which plan is right for you (they start at FREE) and start presenting solutions, today (yes, today, as Instant Shop can be set up in 30 minutes or less!).