Traditional sales tactics might include highlighting your product’s price or features to draw in customers, but outcome-based selling flips that approach. Instead, it encourages learning more about your customers and their long-term goals, then crafting pitches that show how your product is uniquely positioned to help them achieve those desired outcomes.
As a theory, it posits that you’ll achieve better customer satisfaction if you build your relationship based on mutual understanding and clear business outcomes from the beginning of the sales process, rather than making those a priority only after they’ve purchased your product.
Selling outcomes could mean landing more deals, but it’s also essential to building lasting customer relationships.
What is outcome-based selling?
Outcome-based selling is a sales approach in which you emphasize the results a customer will get from using your product instead of its features or specifications. Instead of prioritizing product specifications, you’d focus on how its features would help your customer reach their goals. For example, you’d focus less on the fact that Rothy’s shoes are made with recycled materials, and more on how Rothy’s makes it easy to get stylish footwear that promotes a more sustainable lifestyle.
This approach is relevant in business-to-business (B2B) marketing, but it also comes into play in business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing. You’ll notice that Odd Bunch’s homepage, for example, highlights that customers will save up to 50% on their grocery bill, instead of leading with the produce delivery services they provide. This messaging focuses on what the customer wants to achieve instead of opening with details on the types of veggies they might receive.
Why does outcome-based selling work? At its core, it puts the customer and their unique pain points first, which creates trust and rapport between a company and its customers. For B2B businesses, it helps create business value and opportunities to upsell existing customers down the road by uncovering critical information early on and allowing them to collaborate on the solution.
Outcome-based selling vs. solution selling vs. value-based selling
Outcome-, solution-, and value-based selling are all alternatives to traditional feature-centric sales, speaking to the customer’s needs over the razzle-dazzle of the product. Here’s how they differ:
Solution-based
In solution selling, sales professionals ask questions to understand the issues a customer is facing, and then propose a product or service as the answer to solve the customer’s problem. Hair care company Crown Affair, for example, offers a hair quiz to new customers that identifies their hair type and hair goals, then creates a custom product bundle designed to address their concerns. The quiz also collects crucial customer data and includes a discount.
Value-based
There are a couple of different kinds of value-based selling (qualitative, financial, differentiation, and security), but all aim to show how the product meaningfully improves your customers’ lives. In showcasing its tech accessories, Keychron notes on its website that it’s the best mechanical keyboard brand recognized by ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok. It includes photos from real customers, showing that it also delivers on visual appeal.
Outcome-based
Outcome-based selling focuses on the customer’s vision of successful outcomes. Solution selling is often a starting point for uncovering a customer’s problems, while outcome-based and value-based selling build on that foundation.
Best practices for successful outcome-based selling
- Make yourself trustworthy
- Have meaningful conversations
- Maintain transparency in all interactions
- Respect your customer’s budget
- Demonstrate outcomes with social proof
- Measure success and stay in touch
Implementing outcome-based selling requires speaking to customer goals in your initial conversations or having them reflected on your homepage. Here are some best practices to help you get started:
Make yourself trustworthy
Start by positioning yourself as a peer rather than a vendor or a salesperson. Brand tone is important in establishing this dynamic—whether that’s through email communications, your site’s copywriting, or actual conversations with customers. Brand trust starts with consistent and honest messaging.
Establish your expertise by researching your target audience or the target customer’s industry and developing a real understanding of the landscape and customer pain points. In the case of B2B sales, you should get to know a customer’s company culture and the dynamics of the various departments.
Have meaningful conversations
Effective communication is all about practicing active listening and reading between the lines. Being able to facilitate flowing conversation is crucial in outcome selling, as discovering ideal customer outcomes is key to creating the right solution. In customer conversations or focus groups, ask open-ended questions designed to get customers talking not just about pain points, but also their hopes and dreams for the future. If you’re selling a product, consider sending out a survey to new customers to get a sense of their priorities and reinforce that you value their opinion.
Maintain transparency in all interactions
Part of building trust is being as transparent as possible. In a sales environment, keep your customers clued into your sales process and timeline, and make sure you demonstrate exactly how you’ve tailored your sales solution to meet their needs and goals. It’s not enough to just present a solution that meets their needs; you need to repeat back to them what you’ve taken away from each conversation and how that impacted your subsequent recommendations.
That goes for B2C companies as well. All communications with customers, from direct emails to social media campaigns, should demonstrate how you actually prioritize your brand values. If tinned seafood company Fishwife claims its products are ethically sourced, its storytelling should support that.
Respect your customer’s budget
Be respectful of budget boundaries and, ideally, provide your customers with options that meet their needs and desires at different price points. In B2C environments, that might mean developing both affordable and luxury lines if that aligns with your brand strategy.
Demonstrate outcomes with social proof
Social proof is a powerful tool in outcome-based selling. Not only does it show credibility, but it also helps customers who are new to your brand take you more seriously. When pitching a customer, include relevant case studies and customer stories. Be sure the studies or stories mention the customer’s background, the initial challenges they faced, and how your product or service helped them achieve favorable results. The more specific and quantifiable the results, the better.
You can pull customer testimonials from positive social media comments or messages, or solicit them in your email marketing campaigns. Give them prominent billing on your homepage to get the message across right away, and couple those with third-party reviews or ratings for extra support.
Measure success and stay in touch
As with any sales strategy, you want to make sure you align on the key performance indicators (KPIs) your customer will be using to measure success and a check-in cadence ahead of completing the sale. Continuous communication and follow-ups ensure that you and your customer can make adjustments as needed. This ongoing relationship builds trust and loyalty, and as new challenges come up, it also provides more selling opportunities later on.
For B2C brands, that might mean monitoring KPIs like:
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Customer satisfaction score. Measures satisfaction with a specific transaction.
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Net Promoter Score. A metric from customer surveys that measures loyalty and likelihood to recommend the product.
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Customer retention rate. The percentage of customers who continue to do business with you over a specific period.
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Customer lifetime value. The total revenue a business can expect from a customer over the entire period of their relationship.
Outcome-based selling FAQ
What is an example of an outcome-based approach?
An outcome-based approach focuses on achieving desired results rather than a product’s features. In marketing, you can do this by adjusting copy to emphasize impact and big-picture results. For example, instead of highlighting product attributes, a beauty company might lead with aspirational lifestyle photography that captures the lifestyle customers aspire to lead. In a traditional sales environment, an outcome-based approach means having conversations about desired outcomes upfront and catering all future solutions to those long-term goals.
What is an example of outcome-based pricing?
Outcome-based pricing is a pricing model where the cost of a product or service is directly tied to a specific result that’s agreed upon upfront, rather than a fixed price or activity. In this kind of agreement, which comes with its own set of pros and cons, the customer and salesperson are invested in achieving the desired outcome. A classic example of this is in personal injury law; personal injury lawyers typically don’t charge clients unless they win their case.
What are the four types of selling methods?
The four selling methods are transactional selling, consultative selling, solution selling, and provocative selling. Transactional selling focuses on speed and efficiency in the sales process. Consultative selling positions the salesperson as an expert adviser. Solution selling focuses on solving a customer’s problem with a product or service. Provocative selling leans on bold tactics to challenge a customer’s assumptions and create a sense of urgency.
