---

Guest post by: Dave Kurlan Become an Author

Tweet

---

---

So much is written about consultative selling and the huge part it plays in the world of modern sales. However, talking about consultative selling and actually selling consultatively are two entirely different things. Actual consultative selling requires that salespeople ask good, tough, timely questions, and when appropriate, challenge and push back. Most salespeople simply cannot do that, not because the questions are so difficult, but because the questions cannot be scripted in advance. A salesperson's follow-up questions nearly always should be derived from a prospect's most recent response and that's where the challenge usually begins. In today's article, we discuss five examples of what salespeople must do to sell more effectively.

Listening. Many salespeople aren't even capable of stage 1 listening skills.

Here's an example. Today, I was listening to the radio and for the very first time, I actually heard the words to songs to which I used to listen when I was younger. Back then, I felt and heard the music - the notes and chord changes - but never quite caught the words. I'm one of those people who sings songs with all the wrong words. So, why did I hear the words today yet not when I was younger and listening to the very same songs, over and over, many times each week? Stage 1 listening skills. I have developed them quite nicely over years, but did not have those skills back then. Most salespeople don't have those skills either.

Unselfish. We live in a self-centered world and for many salespeople, it's very difficult to focus non-stop on what someone else is saying without thinking of one's self, for the entire length of a sales call. Until salespeople can focus on someone else, they won't hear all of what their prospects are really telling them.

Curiosity. Salespeople must ask their prospects to tell them more about what they are hearing, but salespeople think they know what their prospects mean, so they rarely ask prospects to explain anything.

Patience. Salespeople can't wait to talk about what they sell and how it helps. As a result, they avoid asking more questions because it delays their presentations, demos, proposals and quotes - things in which they have confidence and believe they do effectively. Salespeople must slow down, dig in and go deeper and wider with their questioning.

Counting Higher - Similar to impatience, salespeople tend to believe that they are selling consultatively when they have asked a few questions. The reality is, until about 50 questions have been asked, a salesperson isn't close! This isn't 50 scripted questions where one simply goes down a list. This is 50 thoughtful, spontaneous follow-ups to perhaps one, or maybe two opening questions which were asked by the salesperson in the first five minutes.

Perhaps these examples get you thinking of some of the areas in which your selling skills have tremendous room for improvement.

Related Articles

  Top 10 Outcomes When Salespeople Screw Up Selling "Value Added"
  Vote the Best Top Article on Sales and Sales Management
  6 Keys to Make All Sales Calls Easy Sales Calls
  The CEO Who Needed to Hire Salespeople
  Top 20 Reasons Why Sales Managers Suck at Coaching
  Improve Sales Effectiveness at the Salesperson's Hall of Fame
  The Enemy in Sales
  Why is Selling So Difficult?
  With Blown Call, Jim Joyce Succeeds at a Sales Core Competency
  My Sales Force Needs a Make Over
  Manage Your Salespeople by Working Smart, More Stack Rankings
  Effective Trade Show Selling
  10 Best Sales Force Articles That You Probably Didn't Read (Yet)
  Latest Fiction for the Sales Force - No More Hunters/Farmers
  Are you Hard, Scrambled or Soft?
  New Metrics for the Sales Force - Unusual Thoughts for Unusual Times
  Your Salespeople Can't Even Do That?
  The Prospect Isn't Talking With Any Other Salespeople
  Drivers and Your Salespeople Need to be Patient
  Manage Salespeople One at a Time

Related Forum Posts

Re: SmartWoman seeks Fiesty Woman Writers
Financial investment plans
Re: Kevin's Case Study #10 - When to become an entrepreneur?
Re: This is Marketing Warfare!
Blog pinging

Share this article. Fund someone's dream.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Severance and Separation Agreements

Getting the Word Out - Using a Media Kit

Vision, Innovation, and Teamwork

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.