Many sales conversations still start with the customer's current state: needs, challenges, and acute problems. That's important, but increasingly rare. The world is changing faster than customers can articulate what they need in the future. It's in this space that visionary selling comes into play.
What if the sales conversation didn't start with what the customer is asking for – but with where their industry is going?
When a salesperson is able to identify the developments, emerging trends and future challenges in the customer's operating environment, they are not just selling a solution. They are helping the customer to look beyond the horizon to where the next choices are already taking shape. At best, the conversation moves from operational to strategic and from there to visionary levels, where insights and real value are created.
What does visionary selling actually mean?
Visionary selling is not about gazing into a crystal ball or making predictions. It is about the ability to combine an understanding of the client's business, industry changes, and broader phenomena, and bring these perspectives to support the client's thinking.
In traditional, reactive sales, the salesperson responds to an identified need. In visionary sales, the salesperson helps the customer identify needs and opportunities that the customer has not yet had time to articulate.
This change also changes the role of the salesperson:
- The seller is not a product or service presenter
- The salesperson is a sparring partner for thinking and a perspective conversation partner
This change requires courage. You have to dare to bring insights, even unfinished ideas and questions to the table that challenge the client's current thinking.
Proactive customer understanding as a source of competitive advantage
Proactive customer understanding means the ability to look a little further and a little further into a customer's business. It is built on four elements:
- Industry understanding – What are the key developments, uncertainties, regulations, technologies and competitive pressures in the customer's industry?
- Customer's strategic situation – At what stage is the customer in their own development and which choices will be emphasized over the next few years?
- Weak signals – What small changes, discussions or experiments are visible in the market that could grow into something significant?
- Impact on the customer's business – How can future developments affect the customer's business and what new opportunities can they bring?
When these come together, the salesperson is able to have a conversation about the future in a way that feels relevant to the customer.
The added value of future anticipation in sales work
Customers’ operating environments are becoming more complex. External factors – markets, technology, skill requirements and uncertainty about the future – influence decision-making, often before they are spoken about out loud. This is where a salesperson’s ability to bring a proactive perspective to the conversation really starts to make a difference.
Future orientation takes the sales conversation to a whole new level. When a salesperson helps a customer structure their own situation as part of a larger development, the conversation deepens. It doesn’t just remain a comparison of solutions, but becomes a shared thinking about where to build the business. This is where sales starts to stand out.
From a sales management perspective, anticipating the future doesn't mean predicting or making big speeches. It means reinforcing the thinking of salespeople:
- how to identify new, hidden opportunities in every meeting
- how to elevate the discussion from a journalistic level to a sparring level
- How can a salesperson be relevant even when the customer is not yet looking for a solution?
When this is done successfully, sales naturally become more efficient. Conversations move faster, solutions expand, and salespeople get to the tables where future decisions are actually made.
Practical example: same sales situation, different time frame and role
Let's imagine a situation. A client requests a quote for coaching because the organization is experiencing “a bit of change fatigue.” The request is familiar – and at the same time, it only tells us about a phenomenon that goes deeper than the surface.
Traditional approach
- The discussion focuses on the present and the workload in the coming years.
- The solution is designed to make it easier to cope today and in the coming years.
- Sales compete with alternative players on price and content
The discussion is rational and logical, but the focus remains on the short term.
Visionary approach
- The seller brings to the discussion a view of the longer-term development costs of the operating environment:
- How geopolitical uncertainty is changing markets and cooperation
- how technological development, artificial intelligence and the availability of information shape competence requirements
- how these phenomena will affect the customer over a 5–10 year time frame
- The discussion is not just about how to respond to changes, but also aboutwhat role the customer wants to take in the future
- Coaching is positioned as a means to build long-term capabilities: thinking, learning and decision-making in an environment of decreasing certainty
At this point, the nature of the sales conversation changes. The customer no longer just talks about fatigue, but starts to consider what kind of skills, leadership, and culture the future requires – and what they should start building now.
Sales are not a response to a ready-made need, but a shared moment in which the future is made visible and possible.
Forecasting is not just a strategy job – it is also at the core of sales
Foresight is often thought of as a strategy and executive management tool, but in reality, it is also one of the most effective sales skills.
Sales is one of those places where strategy meets everyday life. It’s where we test which ideas resonate, which fears are real, and which opportunities spark excitement. The proactive salesperson acts as an interpreter at this interface: they bring the future closer and make it manageable.
Summary – the salesperson as an interpreter of the future
Visionary selling doesn’t require perfect answers. It requires better questions and the courage to look to the horizon even when the road ahead isn’t completely clear. When you dare to look a little further with your customer, you help them make insights that stick and build a competitive advantage that doesn’t happen by chance.
