Effective Consultative Selling

 

Consultative selling II

Effective consultative selling

Consultative selling is not every body's cup of tea. 

It is a skill. Like any other skill the same can be developed with training and practice.

It calls for certain requisites like  thorough knowledge, experience, right approach and attitude.

During consultative selling it is critical that the focus should not shift from offering the best solution achievable under the given circumstances. 

It is also very important to ensure that at no point does the customer is made to feel less knowledgeable than the consultant. 

Please remember, though the pain or problem for the customer is being addressed, and the exercise is towards finding solution to that, still customer has to decide to purchase and he does control the money for the same. 

The foremost objective of the consultative seller is to find a solution to meet the customer's need with increased efficiency, profit at reduced cost. 

This exercise has to be done absolutely with an open mind and played fair, keeping only the interest of the customer in mind. 

Asking probing questions(sometimes even disturbing ones - avoiding hurt) to go to the root of the problem or pain point in hand, is very critical. 

It may take sometime for the customer to come out with full facts – which he will do only when there is complete faith in the person.

The faith in this context has two components:
One: The capability and willingness of the sales person to be in the advisory capacity as perceived by the customer.
Two: The customer feels that the sales person is acting only in the interest of their business.

The Sales person has to be proactive, and break himself from the shackles of conditioning and prejudices,and think out of the box.

It is also important to know the budget allocation which helps to offer the solution to suit the budget.

The key to getting information in consultative selling is intense listening (for that matter in any selling). 

If there are questions or doubts that arise when the customer is explaining or responding, it is better to make a note of them and ask them at the end of his session, helping them to go through their flow of thoughts.

It is not just about asking intriguing questions, but about analysing the answers and understanding them to drive the derived inferences towards desired results.

There may be occasions when the solutions desired by the customer may not fit in their budget and they may have to invest more than the plan.


In cases like this making the customer understand the cost-benefit-ratio and establish by analytical working that the solution is not expensive in the long term with justified ROI.
It will be better if the solution ends up increasing the bottom-line of the product/business.

In consultative selling the sales person is helping the customer to make the right purchase decision rather than selling his product. Selling his product is the objective, but not a priority over customer's interests.

In consultative selling the focus shifts from seller to the customer, their problems, their business. 

What do they loose (time/ effort/ money/ opportunities) because of that problem. How to course correct that cost effectively and efficiently, by finding the solution to the root cause of the problem.

There may be occasions in which after spending considerable time and effort the sales person may observe or understand that their products are not suitable for the customer to get the results desired by the customer. 

In such situations, he should act only in the interest of the customer and not push his solutions (this only reflects that the research for customer identification has not been effective)

Even in such cases, the time and effort invested in the customer will help to build a great personal rapport and yield results in the long run.

To develop traits required to handle consultative selling it is paramount to have the sales team trained to identify, approach and engage with the prospective customers who might be willing to go through brain storming sessions.