How much time you invest in each sales-customer interaction depends on the value-benefit of the transaction. You would not for example make a $100 pitch if you were selling a 10 cent product.
I used to play a lot of contract bridge. One of my favorite partners used to say “Don’t make a twenty five dollar play against a two bit player”. Why? It’s wasted. It’s too subtle. It won’t work.
Regardless of what you are selling the steps and approach of Counsellor Selling will help you make sales and build customer loyalty. The real question is: how can I effectively use my time in relations to the benefit of the sale. You are obviously not going to take two hours to make a ten dollar sale.
Adapt the words to the occasion. Be aware of what you’re doing and why. Also be aware of what the customer is doing and why. There are four types of sales people: Unconscious competent; Unconscious incompetent; Conscious incompetent; Conscious competent. I think we should strive to be in the ‘Conscious competent’ category.
Sales is more than words and hustle. It’s a process of discovery, understanding, developing trust and relationship and problem solving. if you think about it, there is not a problem anywhere in the world that could not be solved or improved upon with communication and relationship.
The sales process a process of transformation that starts with recognizing and communicating a need, exploring and understanding the need to finally choosing the solution to the need. All that is done by the customer. The sales person acts as consultant, facilitator, enabler, catalyst through the process.
Counsellor Sales builds a relationship between the customer and the sales person. The relationship building enables the customer to discover, clarify and understand the problem and what they can do about it. The sales person helps to find a fit between the customers needs, options and available service or products.
The relationship develops the following elements:
1. Establishes trust.
2. Reveals the problem.
3. Helps solve the problem.
4. Offers support.
In the Counsellor Sales process the sales person helps not sells; the customer is not sold, the customer chooses and buys. The main obstacles to buying are:
1. No Trust (Between the customer, sales person, product, service, selling company).
2. No Need. (No problem to solve, or problem not defined. A problem is the difference between what you have and what you want.
3. No Help. (Your product or service does not help solve the customer’s problem sufficiently to warrant a purchase.)
4. No Hurry. (Assuming trust, need and help barriers have been understood and overcome, the customers fear of change may outweigh perceived benefit.)
The process in Counsellor Sales is called LSPCA:
Listening.
Sharing.
Clarifying.
Presenting.
Asking.
The steps of the process are:
1. Discovery
Here a lot of questions and deep listening enable understanding of the customer’s situation: needs, feelings, experience, assumptions, the problem, the causes of the problem, the gaps between problem and solution, benefits of solving the problem, opportunities and obstacles to fix the problem.
The key aspects of Discovery are questioning and listening, clarifying, relating, sharing which will result in empathy, understanding and building trust.
Note: Avoid questions that start with ‘why’. Why questions put the customer on the defensive. They can sound more like an interrogation than a discovery. A Discovery allows the customer to become comfortable with the problem, the sales person, and allows the opportunity for the customer to believe somebody is listening to and trying to understand the customer’s needs.
Note: You also need to determine who is the decision maker in the customer’s buying process. This information will determine how much time you spend with the customer, what you cover, and how-when you engage the decision maker.
2. Discovery Agreement
Here the sales person feeds back to the customer what he or she has learned. A good way to do this is by relating back the ‘5 w’s and w’ (What where, when who, why and how of the customer’s problem, need, and expectation.). The idea is to get a common understanding of the problem, the cause, extent and urgency of the customer’s need and expectations, the benefits to the customer of solving the problem, and how important it is to solve the problem.
During the Discovery periodically ask for confirmations from the customer that you are correct. You are essentially attempting to eliminate assumptions and inaccuracies. You also want to minimize objections to your presentation of the solution later on.
Note: At this stage the sales person has not introduced any proposed solutions - i.e. the product or service that he or she wishes to sell. The Discovery Agreement enables the sales person to determine the commonalities between the customer’s need and available products and services and thus to determine the potential and likelihood of a sale.
Your Discovery should summarize the customer’s present situation, the customer’s objectives, and the customer’s obstacles to solving the problem. At the end of the Discovery Agreement process ask: “Do you agree Mr. or Mrs. --- that we share a common understanding of what you need?”
An effective feedback demonstrates that the sales person understands the problem and thus builds credibility, trust and confidence. It will also reinforce in the customer’s mind the need, the benefits, the urgency of solving the problem and is thus a powerful prelude to advocating the solution.
In some complex situations, it is useful to put the Discovery Agreement in writing. In many instances, it is useful for the sales person to keep notes as the Discovery proceeds.
3. The Presentation
Sticking strictly to facts, relevant commonalities, shared experiences, and linked to what has been summarized in the Discovery Agreement, the sales person presents information on the company, the product, the service.
The Presentation might start with “Based on what you have told me...followed by a summary of the Discovery Agreement, the features of the solution and how they benefit the customer and solve the customer’s problem. Demonstrate if you can. Better still, get the customer to use the product hands-on. Cover everything discussed in the Discovery Agreement.
Cover how your solution helps the customer personally.
After the presentation, ask for customer feedback and questions, deal with objections (stick strictly to facts and to the Discovery Agreement) and then seek agreement that the solution meets the customer’s needs and the customer appreciates the benefits.
Note: The sales persons attitude toward questions, objections, hesitations is important to success and to the customer’s perception of trust and condifence. Be supportive of the customer. Use questions, objections, hesitations as an opportunity to learn - about how effective your sales approach is and what you might change in the future and about what the customer’s needs are to make the next step (i.e. the purchase decision).
4. The Decision
Ask for the order. How you close the sale depends on what you’re selling and the relationship you have built with the customer. By this time, if the customer perceives you, your company and your solution as being credible, professional and reliable.
Essentially with Counsellor Selling, you really do not need to ask for the business, the solution is already apparent. However to close the sale you must ask and ask confidently, unapologetically and specifically - ten times out of ten.
Two books previously recommended in my article “The A to Z of Small Business Sales - SP for Sales Process - Adopting a formal Sales Process and adapting it to your business” deal specifically with closings. They are:
“Conceptual Selling” by Robert Miller, Stephen E. Heiman and Tad Tuleja
“Stop, Ask, and Listen - how to welcome your customers and increase your sales” by Kelly Robertson (Guest Selling Process)
The A to Z of Small Business Sales - SP Sales Process - Essentials of a Counsellor Sales Process - To learn more about this author, visit Norm Tucker's Website.
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