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Indeed, consultative selling comes more naturally for many sales reps, even if it isn’t part of the formal sales methodology prescribed by their company. Indeed, consultative selling can lead to much more satisfied customers and, ultimately, a more successful business.
For those who haven’t worked with consultative sales in the past, this approach might sound intimidating. We are here to help!
Listen Actively
Find out as much as possible about your lead before the sales call so you can tailor your presentation accordingly. Pay close attention to the questions that they ask, as well as other clues they are giving you. For example, if a person displays exaggerated enthusiasm while being told about your product or service, this could reflect a good fit with their needs. You can become a more proficient active listener by repeating what was just said using your own words (reflecting), one of the most useful techniques of active listening. (For example, borrowing two helpful active-listening phrases and statements from Bauer and Figl.) However, when reflecting you must not evaluate; as the saying goes, ‘When you point one figure, there are three fingers pointing back at you.’ Hence, if you judge people or start commenting on what they say, you could end the dialogue prematurely.
Build Rapport
Even with access to product details and reviews online, prospective buyers will often do a lot of their own research on a product before engaging with a sales rep, whether the rep employs a transactional selling style or a challenger selling style. It’s no wonder that selling can be so challenging: managing a buyer’s conversation can be daunting from a rep’s point of view. In consultative sales, you’re in a relationship with your prospect and the path forward is paved by mutual advice and trust engendered by empathic disclosure. Offer something valuable beyond your product – maybe it’s data to back up your claims, or some bit of insight into the sector your buyers won’t get elsewhere – so that your customers know you’ll be there for them, writing genuinely useful material, months and years from now.
Ask Open-Ended
Questions These open-ended questions demand more thought, elicit a trust-building exchange between customer and sales rep and can help uncover needs that may otherwise never surface. ‘Wasn’t your weekend good?’ is a closed-ended question that can result in only one response that doesn’t aid conversation, whereas ‘How was your weekend?’ is open-ended and is more likely to receive detailed and thoughtful responses from the prospective employee. Open-ended questioning can be effective only if a sales rep is an industry expert, which in turn can be accomplished only if he or she reads articles and newsletters, listens to podcasts or webinars, and otherwise stays current on industry and business-process issues.
Identify Needs
Solution sellers hone in on a buyer’s obvious pain points and position a product or service to address them; consultative sellers are more interested in long-term business relationships, and work to develop genuine partnerships by asking the right questions to show insights and context. Making the transition to being a consultative seller means that you must become an expert in your field, and you can do this through reading articles, newsletters and press releases on the subject – or by networking with the kind of buyers that you want to go after. But, most importantly, to ever have a chance of becoming a trusted adviser in the eyes of a potential buyer, you must first build credibility. Buyers can spot a charlatan a mile away. Once you have gained an understanding of what they might need, then it is almost natural the way the solution follows – that’s when you do genuinely good sales.
Present Solutions
Even though consultative selling has long been the favoured approach to sales methodology and currently competencies keep selling focus on being consultative, rapid buyer-side technology advancements mean that the fundamentals of consultative sales successes are already changing. The buyers who are using this new technology want time- and cost-savings, so positioning your product or service as meeting those needs has become imperative. Prepare your team to expect objections by giving them access to a CRM that helps agents follow up every lead by tracking prospect data, as well as promptly respond to and reach out to clients, and deliver solutions at the right moment.
Handle Objections
Objections are a natural part of selling. It can feel frustrating to persevere with someone who seems skeptical or misinformed, but remember that almost every objection reflects a legitimate concern. Rather than responding defensively, listen to see where a question or complaint is coming from and how you can answer it in a way that’s relevant. When you listen and then respond, you can offer individualised solutions that will help your client achieve his or her own goals – whether that’s winning a case, navigating a tough conversation with a colleague or gaining more insight into him or herself. So, as you’re presenting your solutions, show your experience, explain why it’s superior, and build trust with prospective customers and hopefully get referrals. Build an experience, and then many referrals will come naturally as a result.
Ask for the Sale
Only then, after your salespeople have identified the individual needs of a prospect, can you have them transition to a proposal of tailored solutions. Here the mastery of consultative selling kicks in: you need to become familiar with every product so that you are able to create a meaningful connection between your product solutions and a prospect’s pain. Coach your reps to ask open questions and listen carefully, and to build meaningful rapport. Seek to solve what is solvable issues with the customer together in an iterative manner, and create new solutions – these actions position them as a customer’s advocate and help to build a greater level of loyalty.
