System selling: why complex projects are won at the buying centre, not on the product

What happened

On 14 September 2026 Vertriebszeitung published a specialist article by Anne-Rose Raisch, managing director of the Raisch Institut, on system selling in technical sales. Its core thesis: anyone selling components is selling too little. What is in demand are solutions that improve processes, reduce risk and fit into existing systems. The article identifies the real hurdle not as the technology but as the buying centre: in complex purchasing decisions several people with differing and partly opposing interests sit at the table — technical, commercial and personal ones. Decision-makers have to be identified early, the argument tailored to each role and informal opinion leaders brought on board. As starting conditions the author names the deliberate selection of target customers and projects, a clearly formulated customer benefit and the analysis of decision paths; in execution, an interdisciplinary core team with clear responsibility, an early review of feasibility, risks and resources, as well as systematic follow-up. As success criteria the article names higher margins, stronger customer retention, service potential and reduced interchangeability; this is supported by experience and a reference to the RAISCH sales survey 2025, while the text gives no concrete figures.

Who it affects

Anyone selling something in B2B that still has to be installed, connected and supported after the purchase: mechanical engineering, IT, building technology — and payment. A card terminal is exactly such a case: it hangs off the till, off a contract, off an accounting process and off a person who does the end-of-day close in the morning.

Assessment

The article describes exactly the mistake I see most often in payment sales. The salesperson talks to whoever receives them — usually the operations manager or the technician — and takes their approval for the close. But the signature happens elsewhere: with the owner, with the tax adviser, at the head office of a chain. Anyone who only learns those names at the proposal stage loses four weeks and usually the deal. That is why the question “who else looks at this besides you before a decision is made” belongs in the first meeting and not in the follow-up.

The second, more uncomfortable point is project selection. Not every enquiry is an order in disguise. A system that would have to be pushed through against an existing till, a running contract and a sceptical tax adviser costs three meetings and yields nothing. System selling also means saying no early — for us that is the question about the remaining term of the existing payment network operator (Netzbetreiber) contract. Anyone not asking it in the first conversation is selling against a wall they cannot see themselves.

What to do now

1. In the first meeting, establish bindingly who besides your contact takes part in the decision — owner, head office, tax adviser — and when those people are brought in.
2. Before the proposal, check the customer's exit conditions: remaining term, notice period, hardware ownership. That determines the implementation date.
3. Review lost projects in the team and record the reason for the loss. Without that loop the same mistake repeats itself in the next tender.