By Shirleen Von Hoffmann Sales and Business Development Coach  Home Builders Edge and Vortex Sales Solutions copyright 2012

 

My primary selling method that I share with my Clients is relationship selling.  Consultative selling fits  like a glove inside relationship selling methodologies because through consultative selling you develop relationships.  Once you build relationships, everything is easier…trust, rapport, negotiations, closing, follow up and referrals.

There are many top-notch consultative sales methodologies available from which to choose. Each methodology has an approach that may appeal more to one company and its sales force than another. Here are some reasons why Consultative selling appeals to most of my clients…

The whole idea behind consultative selling is to become the trust consult.  The trusted advisor, gaining clients for life.

A sales professional needs to gain an in-depth understanding of the prospective buyer’s unique situation and environment as it relates to the product or service being sold.

  • So this won’t fit in your process if you expect your Sales Team to product dump and talk, talk, talk about product.  In Consultative selling it’s asking great questions, providing answers…problems…solutions…Just think about your consultants.  Do you use any who never ask questions and just talk your face off about products they have?  Probably not.

By selling consultatively, the sales professional needs to develop skills that demonstrate business acumen, and as a result, the prospect may view him or her more as a business consultant, trusted advisor, or partner and less as a vendor.

  • This step is done well when the Sales Person can have enough knowledge in all facets of their business to be “an expert”, “the one stop shop”, has all of the answers, the confidence and knowledge the customer is looking for.

The sales professional must demonstrate how the proposed solution will meet or exceed the buyer’s needs, objectives, and goals.

  • Again this will only work if your Sales Person is asking great questions, listening, then providing solutions to the needs of the prospects.  Discovering the problem…providing the solution.

Selling consultatively builds a long-term, higher-margin, and mutually beneficial partnership between the buyer and seller.  Once you have developed your consultative selling position with a client then caring for this relationship over time will maximize your efforts with this client for future buys and referrals.

  • So for the Sales Person who does a “sell it and forget it” attitude, they would be doing themselves a huge favor to learn consultative selling.  Because consultative selling bonuses is building long term relationships, staying in touch for further sales and referrals.  It’s what you work so hard to do a great job for.

Consultative selling is more demanding in that it requires the seller to understand the buyer’s issues, pains, and goals, doing more consultative actions like follow up for long periods of time. However, in the long run, this method overall brings about a long term relationship which results in much higher sales conversion rates, a bigger breadth of sales options and more value to your long term sales effort.