What Is Insight Selling? A Beginner’s Guide

What is insight selling? 

Insight is the ability to form an accurate and intuitive understanding of a person or thing. When applied to sales, it means you use data, trends analysis, market research and experience to help customers sift through the relevant information. This helps them diagnose problems, determine their needs and make informed buying decisions so that leads will buy from you.

The RAIN Group’s Mike Schultz and John Doerr have written extensively on the topic, including the book Insight Selling: Surprising Research on What Sales Winners Do Differently (Wiley, 2014). They define insight selling as “the process of creating and winning sales opportunities, and driving change with ideas that matter.” In other words, the salesperson, especially in business-to-business environments, must become a strategic consultant or business coach to help a customer navigate the purchasing decision. 

“Most buyers are looking for ways to address the problem behind the problem,” said Eric Quanstrom, former chief marketing officer at CIENCE. “They tend to favor sellers who can teach them useful things about their own business.”

What is the history of insight selling? 

To understand what insight selling is, it’s helpful to get a grasp on what it is not. Not so long ago, sellers didn’t have to work hard to pitch their product to potential buyers. They simply explained its benefits and features to prospective customers, who often didn’t have the means to differentiate a product from the competition to determine if it was the best option for them. 

In the 1980s, sellers began asking customers big, open-ended questions — such as “What are your top three priorities this quarter?” and “What keeps you up at night?” — and using the answers to shape potential solutions for the customer. 

Although this approach is more effective and personalized, it lost some of its luster with the advent of the internet and the oversaturation of information. Customers began to conduct research on their own, but they were overwhelmed by the barrage of information they encountered. They had a hard time sorting through all the choices and determining what mattered most. 

“Increased access to information has made traditional solution sales a thing of the past,” said Steve Wunker, managing director of New Markets Advisors and co-author (with Jennifer Luo Law) of the book Costovation: Innovation That Gives Your Customers Exactly What They Want – and Nothing More (AMACOM, 2018). “Buyers no longer need to listen to any type of sales presentation to understand your product; they simply browse online.” 

Buyers look for advice to help them make sense of all the noise, Wunker said. They want to learn from what others are doing in situations similar to theirs and, ultimately, to feel confident in their decisions. 

Today, this information overload continues to leave buyers confused and overwhelmed. They are searching for sellers that can cut through the clutter and partner with them to make sense of everything. This is where insight selling comes in. 

Many business buyers say it’s important to interact with a salesperson who is a trusted advisor. “With insight selling, you come to the table bubbling with new ideas, perspectives and, potentially, data points,” Wunker said. “Insight selling is about becoming a true partner to your customer, not just a salesperson. You need to offer value beyond the research that buyers can conduct on their own.” 

What are the categories of insight selling? 

There are two types of insight selling: opportunity insight and interaction insight. 

Opportunity insight

Sellers who use opportunity insight don’t wait for prospects to ask for help; they recognize that the customer may not even realize a problem exists. The opportunity-insight salesperson proactively brings up a specific idea, engages the customer and guides them through the process of realizing that that idea addresses one of their needs. 

Interaction insight

Opportunity insight often works hand in hand with interaction insight. This type of insight focuses on building connections with customers by encouraging creative thinking, inspiring “light bulb” moments and challenging assumptions. 

Sellers who use interaction insight ask questions and push customers to reach outside their comfort zones. These techniques nudge customers to come to their own realizations about what solutions work best for them. The salesperson will be there to craft a product in response. 

What are the components of insight selling? 

There are three aspects of successfully employing this selling technique: researching, synthesizing and listening.

Researching

How do you pull off insight selling? The key, according to Wunker, is better sales research. “Don’t just learn the basic metrics about your customers — instead, push to develop a deep and holistic understanding of the jobs your buyer is trying to get done,” he said. “Some jobs might be functional, like building a business case for a new venture. Other jobs might be more emotional, like being the hero to a tough, unsolved problem.” 

Salespeople need to dig deep to understand the issues and challenges their customers face and offer them new and innovative ways of addressing their concerns. Use data analytics tools to help identify trends, pore through statistics, follow buying patterns and tap into a range of other methods to source information that will get your clients to their ideal solution. 

“Once you understand what your buyer is trying to do, you can pinpoint obstacles that are getting in the way of that, and you can help them overcome those pain points,” Wunker said. 

Synthesizing

Salespeople often serve one particular industry or profession. That means they are in the unique position of being able to spot recurring or distinctive issues in their focus market long before those issues are a blip on their customers’ radar. 

“Sellers have a useful seat at the table in that they typically sell to a similar cohort and can listen, synthesize information and see patterns across businesses dealing with the same problems,” Quanstrom said. 

Communicating the insight amassed from varying interactions within an industry is preferable to old-school sales tactics, according to Quanstrom. 

Listening

To gather insight, you must ask good questions and actively listen to the responses. Insight selling works most successfully when salespeople begin by listening to the buyer. Then, they use their knowledge to help customers identify what they need, instead of telling them what to buy. 

Although listening seems simple, it may not come easily, especially to a salesperson who is conditioned to always be ready with the next pitch. “The risks are that this is hugely demanding of salespeople,” Quanstrom said. “They cannot be transactional, tone-deaf [or] shallow in their approach.” 

But salespeople who get it right are well on their way to establishing themselves as trusted advisors. “Your customer will relish feeling heard,” Wunker said.

Kimberlee Leonard and Jamie Johnson contributed to this article. ​​Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.