Consultative Selling, Say What?

Consultative selling is a way of seven syllables to convey what is in the hearts of a very simple concept.

You do not have to be a graduate of sales leadership training to be able to understand it.


Consultative selling is based on the fundamental building relationships with your prospects before launching into a list of all the bells and whistles of products and services.

Think of it this way: are conventional sales-based products. My product is great. You should buy it because ... But the prospect of consultative selling is based. Who are you? What are your needs? How can I best help you? It's a subtle shift in perspective.

Sales coaching in this type of sale teaches salespeople to take their time with clients, to see them as a source of relevant, even indispensable, information. A salesperson is involved in this kind of relationship selling is actually doing informal market research methods, by taking the time to find out what solutions their clients will need or want.

Sales leadership training to teach the kind of sales rep to see the prospect as a partner, with whom to work towards a solution. He did not consider that the salesperson knows the solution at the beginning of the process, or that the outlook is not. Choice of product depends on the answers to many questions that the seller puts the client. In consultative selling, no marching in and saying, Nor "This is what you need." Can the seller dutifully giving customers what they claim to need the first interaction. It is, more careful thought-out process.

That said, consultative selling does not work for all situations, because, of course, in some situations, the client does not know exactly what they want, and be distracted by questions that are not necessary. They may resent the seller tries to slow down the process, and stand in the way of sales. That's why sales training sessions devoted to this style should also teach tips the seller to decide how and when to use them. In this type of situation is a relationship-based sales approach is preferred? Under what circumstances should it be avoided? Many sales leadership training sessions have been devoted to answering tough questions, but important.

So what might be coaching the sales force to sell it look like? This may involve the following:

• Role play
• Participants may be asked to clearly set goals, such as "Learn more," or "Ask a question" for every interaction with clients
• learn how to let go of the field as a crutch
• collaborative problem solving

In short, consultative sales would not be appropriate for all situations, but for some situations, it would be the best approach. Proper sales training can teach sellers to identify the most suitable situation for customer-based sales force.