Design Thinking is an innovative, creative, and user-centric methodology that can be used to analyze and solve problems and obstacles in sales. It connects the perspectives of employees from different departments to understand the customer’s pain points and needs.
What is Design Thinking?
Design Thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that sales teams can use to understand customers, challenge assumptions, redefine problems, and create innovative solutions for prototyping and testing. It is a powerful approach to problem-solving that puts the customer’s needs always in the foreground.
Why Design Thinking?
Since the cognitive scientist and Nobel Prize winner Herbert A. Simon first mentioned Design Thinking in his book "The Sciences of the Artificial" in 1969, the world has become increasingly interconnected and complex. With this new level of complexity, having the ability to understand and respond to changes in our environment and social behaviors has become crucial. In the 21st century, companies from a variety of industries see Design Thinking as a valuable tool for solving customers’ problems and developing their products and services. The Design Thinking methodology allows us to reframe problems and obstacles in a customer-centric way, so we can focus on what matters most to our customers. It helps to "think outside the box" and opens the possibility to create breakthrough solutions and improve customer experience.
Problem and Solution
Design Thinking gives as much attention to the problem as it gives to the solution: the first step to finding a sustainable solution is defining the problem with as much detail as possible. For this matter, during the so-called Design Thinking Challenges, sales teams are confronted with problematic situations that they need to solve.
The Design Thinking methodology can be divided into two main parts: an in-depth understanding of the (customer) problem and the creation of tailored solutions. This approach enhances the development of innovative and very specific products and services that are tailored to the customer’s needs.
Which are the main Design Thinking Methods?
Where can you apply Design Thinking Methods?
Design Thinking can be used anywhere. Just to give a few examples: it can be used to (further) develop products and services, design new business models, optimize/develop digitalization processes, or in corporate development. Design Thinking methods can also be used in creative areas, such as content creation in marketing; by bringing the focus on the customer, marketing teams can develop concepts and stories that are useful, helpful, and entertaining for their target group. Design Thinking is also well suited to develop agile corporate cultures and structures since its collaborative working methods require and encourage cooperation between several departments.
Our “Jumpstart Design Thinking” Course
In our hands-on beginner course “Jumpstart Design Thinking”, you can learn the basics of this methodology and how to use it for your own purposes. We walk you through the 6-step process and provide you with our best practices methods and templates to get you up and running. Upon completion of this course, you will be able to use the Design Thinking methodology to develop products and services that meet the needs of your customers.
Learn more about how we can help you develop and establish forward-looking services, products, and business models by means of the design thinking approach.
We can help you take your B2B sales to the next level. Get in touch!
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