Brokers are all adept at helping clients with their benefits planning and decisions, but selling technology solutions takes many brokers out of their comfort zone. And when sales professionals find themselves in uncharted waters, it is all too easy to follow the path of least resistance. The tools of our trade can be used to aid in the buying process, but more often than not they are not used properly and to the best advantage. Selling technology is difficult; however, buying technology is even harder.
Short of going through a sophisticated RFP exercise, many HR professionals like to see competing vendors’ capabilities laid out in a spreadsheet or desire an ROI approach. Getting “spreadsheeted,” as vendors often call it, takes focus away from where the client’s “pain” is – zooming in on features and functions. Moreover, spreadsheets and RFPs do little to differentiate solution providers, and sometimes end up in apples-to-oranges comparisons. Even worse, the optimal solution gets deselected for reasons not directly related to the best solution.
