Guided Selling – simply explained
Customers who search for products online often struggle to make a purchase decision due to a lack of guidance. Consequently, an increasing number of companies are turning to digital Product Advisors to efficiently guide customers towards making a purchase.
In this guide, you will learn about Guided Selling and how to create your own digital Product Advisor in just a few steps.
What is Guided Selling?
Definition: The term Guided Selling originates from e-commerce, signifying that customers are led through the product selection process using digital purchasing advice and provided with tailored recommendations to streamline their purchasing decisions.
With Guided Selling, websites can advise each customer as effectively as a personal sales specialist in a physical store. Therefore, more and more companies are adopting digital advisory solutions to increase their sales and minimize returns.
Guided Selling solutions are hosted as Software as a Service (SaaS). This means that maintenance and management are handled by the respective provider.
How it works
Guided Selling describes the process of digital guidance. The solution behind it is the digital Product Advisor, also known as Product Finder or Product Configurator.
1. Understanding Customer Needs
What sets Guided Selling apart from simple filter searches is its top-notch guidance. Filter searches assume that customers already know which product features they need. Guided Selling, on the other hand, meets the customer at their use case and provides needs-oriented advice.
To determine what the customer needs, the digital Product Advisor asks use case-oriented questions. Technical product features are translated into customer-friendly language.
Consider the following example:
A customer is planning a multi-day hiking trip and needs a tent. This is where Guided Selling comes into play. To determine which tent best suits the customer's requirements, the digital Advisor asks:
"For how many people do you need the tent?", "What type of tour are you planning?", and "What weather conditions do you want to be prepared for?"
The customer doesn't need specialized knowledge to answer the questions and can quickly and easily describe their use case.
2. Perfect Recommendations
In the next step, the customer receives a product recommendation that perfectly matches their needs. This recommendation is generated by an AI-based recommender engine, which aligns the customer's selection options with technical product data.
As a result, each customer receives a individually calculated product recommendation.
3. Informed Purchase Decisions
Explanatory texts and a pro-con list in the recommendation help the customer understand why the recommendation perfectly suits their needs. This makes it easier for customers to complete a purchase.
This is how digital Product Advisors boost sales
In such cases, it's beneficial to draw attention to the digital Product Advisor through banners or internal linking to assist customers in their product search. The Product Advisor reliably guides even customers with no prior knowledge to the right product.
And on top of that, the Guided Selling solution generates valuable consumer insights, such as the user's purchasing and motivational reasons.
Additional features such as a watchlist, dynamic product comparisons, or even a shopping cart function in the results list further enhance the conversion rate.
Overview of Guided Selling Systems
There are several application scenarios for which Guided Selling is ideally suited. For example, do you want to advise customers on your website? Or guide your employees through sales conversations?
In the table below, we have listed the various Guided Selling systems and their advantages:
| Guided Selling Solution | Use Case | Advantages |
|---|---|---|
| Product Finder | Digitally advises customers and leads them quickly to purchase | Reduces bounce rates and facilitates purchase decisions |
| Product Configurator | Configures product variants or complex systems | Visualizes product selection |
| Lead Generator | Generates prequalified inbound leads for the sales team | Form as CRM integration enables dedicated customer approach |
| Gift Finder | Makes assortment tangible and delivers individual gift ideas | Product Discovery and inspirational product search |
| In-store Solution | Brings digital product advice to stores | Omnichannel experiences which pick up customers at the point of sale |
| Sales Enablement | Guides employees and supports in sales consultation | Uniform consulting quality and improved direct sales |
When Does My Website Need Guided Selling?
The use of digital Product Advisors is always beneficial when assortments are extensive or products require explanation. Just like a salesperson in a physical store, Guided Selling assists customers in product selection, thus facilitating the purchase decision.
Products are particularly in need of explanation when they have many technical features and characteristics.
The digital Product Advisors have a clear advantage here because they can compare an infinite number of products and product details. Therefore, product guidance is ideal for large assortments to also support sales personnel.
- First-time buyers versus experienced repeat buyers, who have very different levels of prior knowledge
- B2C versus B2B customers, who purchase with completely different requirements
- Youth versus older individuals, who approach the purchase decision with different demands
Guided Selling can cater to different target audiences. The Product Guides feature an intelligent question flow that interactively adapts to the preferences of each target group. As a result, every customer is provided with the information that is relevant to their purchase decision.
