Gabriel G. Navaskas

What the heck is a “solution”? What does it really mean? The hot marketing topic these days for technology manufacturers, resellers, and marketers is “solutions.” Every major B2B and even sometimes B2C technology direct marketing resellers and manufacturers market much of what they sell as being called “solutions”. They also have started to call themselves “solution providers”. What are they talking about? What really is a solution and why are they now calling themselves solution providers?

Many of the major technology companies will sell you a simple device like a desktop LCD display or a projector and position it as a solution. They will say the LCD is a visual solution that does much more for you than simply serve as a visual device. So, as a customer, when I ask for a desktop display for the office and I receive a quotation for a desktop LCD display, is it an LCD or is it a solution? Better yet, when I am sold an LCD display is it a commodity or a solution?

It becomes a solution when the seller provides value that goes beyond the product they are selling. It extends to additional products and services that expand the usefulness of and integrate with of the original display.

The term “solution” is a symptom of the evolution of the technology manufacturer and reseller’s go-to-market selling model. Many manufacturers that sell thru the direct marketing resellers market restrict which products are sold based on complexity and the general lack of specialized expertise in specific product categories. Manufacturers have traditionally chosen to protect the specialized business with their smaller professional dealers who only focus on one market. As a result the DMR reseller market had to focus on the commodity selling model of reasonably simple to install and configure products which proved successful since the early 1980’s. The need to evolve and to differentiate from the competition while expanding their overall addressable market is a key component of their strategic addition of wanting to sell much more “complex solutions”.

The attractiveness of adding the specialized more complex product types is heavily driven by the opportunity to significantly increase margins. As these large mass market resellers have evolved, manufacturers have started to open new complex technology products to these resellers and have created the loaded marketing term “solutions” to be the all inclusive term that tells the business customer they are an, assessment, design, configuration, installation, and continued support services provider.

The question is; does the term “solutions” really convey a message that is inclusive of complete beginning to end management of all that it takes to solve customer needs in a technology driven environment?

Photograph Credit:
Sabrina Segal