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How to Put Consulting into Consultative Selling

Guest post by: Linda Schneider

Article Overview: To describe a sales approach as "consultative" doesn't really explain it. It's a broad identifier, like saying someone is religious, which doesn't say what kind of religion. Saying you are a consultative salesperson is like saying you're in the category of "solution-oriented selling" vs. the category of "fast-talking carnival hawker." But that doesn't mean you know HOW TO DO it.

How to Put Consulting into Consultative Selling

Putting the Consultant in Consultative Sales

To describe a sales approach as "consultative" doesn't really explain it. It's a broad identifier, like saying someone is religious, which doesn't say what kind of worship they do. Saying you are a consultative salesperson is like saying you're in the category of "solution-oriented selling" vs. "fast-talking carnival hawker." But that doesn't mean you know HOW TO DO it.

To actually DO a consultative sales, you have to learn some of the trade skills of being a consultant. I cut my own consultant teeth as a Franklin Covey training design consultant, using the following kinds of skills to help my clients integrate solutions.

Consultative Sales Skills

• Question chaining: Zeroing in on the heart of a customer's answer, then asking follow-on questions that take the answer deeper and broader.
  
  Using counseling-based questions to move past objections, like: (Customer: "The program we have in place right now cost us $207,000. We can't just scrap it.") Me: "What would happen if you did scrap that program?"
• Asking "clean" questions, like: "What sorts of things are you doing to get your website noticed?" (vs. "Wouldn't you like to get a 35% increase in web traffic?") The first question invites them to describe what's going right for them. The second question feels like a set-up...if they say yes, they know they're going to get a sales pitch.
• Asking "irresistible" questions, like: "If your website were doing just what you want it to be doing, how would your business be different a year from now?"
• Channelling thinking in the direction you want it to go using a kind of decision tree. In my Openhanded Selling approach, I use a six-stage approach to channeling a sales conversation to a natural close.
• Dissovling objections proactively: Using questions, the salesperson can uncover and raise issues that might cause a problem later on if not addressed. By getting to those issues first, the salesperson can often get the customer to propose solutions, thereby avoiding the whole problem of "handling" the objection.

Manipulation or Influence?

Are these things a form of manipulation? They could be, in the hands of someone with low integrity. After all, when you use these techniques within the framework of a sales model, you will find it fairly easy to direct someone's attention to the details you want them to focus on. But used with high-integrity, good consulting techniques are a way to influence people to make decisions that serve them.

Related Articles
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  How Does Someone Actually Do Consultative Selling?
  Stepping Beyond Consultative Sales
  The Difference Between Consultative Selling and Consultants
  Consultative Selling Won't Fill Your Pipeline
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  Does A Hard Sell Work?
  Consultative Selling Solves the Puzzle Your Product Can't
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  Consultative Selling Approach
  Value Added Selling
  Increasing the Velocity of Your Selling Cycle
  What Makes A Great Consulting Manager
  Consultative Selling is Classic and Classy
  \"Canned Sales Presentations\" Just Dont Work Today
  Sales Experts Disagree on the Right Way to Train Salespeople
  Using the Right SMB Sales Approach
  New Selling Skills Needed in Today's Marketplace
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Article Tags: consultative selling, sales approaches, sales model, sales questions, sales skills, sales techniques, selling, selling skills, selling tips, soft selling



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