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CONSULTATIVE
SELLING
Sales miracles do occur. In 1995, I was
brought into a distributor’s account where they were having equipment
problems. I planned to begin the sales call by discussing a product that
could solve their problem. As I suggested the product and before I could
go into any detail, my customer said, “Send me some.” I made the sale
without discussing my product! A sales miracle had just occurred and I had
only waited almost twenty years for it. If you don’t have twenty years to
wait for your sales miracles to occur, read on about consultative
selling.
What customers
buy.
You can learn what problems exist at your
customers by questioning and listening. Then you need to understand the
features (what your product/service does) and benefits of what you sell (
what your product/service does for your customers.) Customers buy
benefits, not features. If you are selling widgits, a feature is that your
widgits are machined more precisely than your competitors’ widgits. Learn
to think of your product in terms of translating features into benefits
for your customers by adding “This means that…” to the feature statement.
The benefit statement is “Our widgits are machined more precisely than our
competition. This means that your reject ratios and production costs
decrease when you buy our widgits.”
It is important in
consultative selling to present your solution to your customers only after
they understand the magnitude of their problem. I believe you should begin
talking about your product only after your customer identifies 3 needs.
Listen carefully for words such as ‘I would really like it if…, I want…,’
or ‘I need…’ which signify underlying needs.
It’s as simple as ABC…
D.
Consultative selling starts with what you know
ABOUT (A) your customer. Rather than learn about your customer during the
sales call, prepare before the meeting by reading their annual report or
checking out their web site. Don’t waste your questions with acquiring
basic information. A good opening question can allow your customer to talk
comfortably about their business. The next step is to find out what’s BAD
(B) at the account. When things are going well, customers see no need to
change so a sale is less likely to occur. If something can be improved or
better yet, needs to be improved, there is a higher probability of a sale.
A question like “And is that working as well as you’d like?” on an area
your customer mentioned can uncover the problem areas. Next develop
CONSEQUENCES (C) of the bad situation. Figure out what the problems are
costing your customers. If lack of performance skills is the problem, the
consequences could be downtime, higher employee costs from turnover, lost
sales or decreased customer satisfaction. The last step is DESIRE (D). You
must make your proposed solution desirable so your customer feels a sense
of urgency to implement it and buy from you. Desirability can be
demonstrated by showing how the benefits from the solution far outweigh
the costs to implement.
Buy low, sell
high.
Delivering a value-driven message rather
than a product-driven message will be better received at higher levels in
an organization. Given the choice of selling to a buyer, a Purchasing
Manager, or a Plant Manager, always choose to sell at the highest
management level. Remember, the higher you sell, the better prepared you
must be with knowledge about your customer and the value of your solution.
Your consultative selling strategy will be best received at the highest
levels. At higher levels, the scope of management’s responsibilities
allows them to see their company’s broader needs.
You may not
get a sales miracle when you use consultative selling, but you will
certainly shorten your sales cycle. When my sales miracle occurred I was
dumbfounded that a customer would buy so quickly with so little effort on
my part. I quickly recovered my composure and asked another question… “Mr.
Customer, what else would you like to buy?”
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Maura
Schreier-Fleming is president of Best@Selling (http://www.bestatselling.com/).
She works with business and sales professionals at company and trade
association meetings to make selling easier and more productive. She is
the author of the book Real-World
Selling for Out-of-this-World Results. She can be reached at 972
380 0200 or info@BestatSelling.com.
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