The word ‘Selling’ is something many people do not like to associate with. They feel ‘Selling’ is bad or is being pushy. Now even some salespeople don’t find the word selling comfort to them.
But irrespective of the word ‘Selling’ people like or not, everyone is seeking the benefits of selling. Whether someone is keen to convince his manager to develop a new idea, wants to influence team members to approach the problem in a different way, or develops a new system, what essentially is being tried in Selling!
To make this act of selling, very effective and not sound pushy, a consultative sales model is the best approach. This consultative sales model is useful with external customers or with internal stakeholders, alike.
This article is essential for anyone who wants to pick up useful sales techniques that can be applied in different areas of work.
Consultative Selling
Today there are many solutions available. What lacking is the knowledge on how to apply the solutions to their area. This is where a consultant can come in and help identify a need or a problem and offer solutions that address the problem.
Consultative selling is all about being a problem solver. As a salesperson, you will show genuineness in helping solve a problem the customer is having.
In the process of solving the problem, you will offer your solution which can be a service or product. When you come across as a problem solver, there is greater acceptance among the buyers than when you approach someone selling a solution.
That is why consultative selling is a much-preferred mode. When does the consulting selling works?
Where to apply consultative selling?
There are a few areas where consultative selling works better than other approaches. Ask yourself, in your business, any of the following conditions exist
- Intense competition and the addition of new players
- Consolidation among buyers results in larger deals, higher stakes
- Increasing price pressure
- Buyers are not loyal
- Technological disruptions in terms of information access to buyers, buyers shifting to online procurement, etc
Now as a consultant, your job is to identify an area of problems your customer is facing and offer solutions better than what your customer can solve by himself, as well as competition.
7 top qualities for the consultative salesperson
To become good at consultative selling, the salesperson must learn to build expertise in customer situations, customer business, and the environment.
This can require exploring areas such as reading annual reports, technology trends, competitor solutions, customer competition, etc.
The 7 qualities we believe must for becoming best in consultative selling is,
- Ability to build trust and a credible relationship with the customer
- Has a clear understanding of the customer business environment.
- Ability to offer solutions to customer business environment.
- The solution is offered by building a compelling business case
- Until the problem is made aware, will not “pitch” the sales solution
- Has a problem-solving approach. Uses creativity, and innovation in addressing the customer business issues
- Self-confident and caring
Summary
Consultative selling is the need of the hour in many businesses. Most businesses today like to self-serve and do not like to meet a salesperson who doesn’t offer value.
Approaching sales by adopting a consultative way of selling can bring transformation results.
If you want your sales team to be trained on consultative selling, we invite you to explore the GrowthAspire Consultative Selling workshop or individually you want to become a consultative selling expert, then explore our one-on-one coaching.
Reach out to us or request a callback.
