What Is Consultative Selling – Your Ultimate Guide
A common question Sales Professionals and Business Owners have, is what is consultative selling; and should it be something I use as my sales process?
First of all, let’s dive a little deeper with an example.
What is Consultative Selling – and should you be using it?
Picture this.
You go into a doctor’s office, and before she starts asking you questions about your situation, how it’s affecting you, the problems it’s causing in your day to day life – she start’s telling you about what medicine you should use.
She starts talking about the pills in the bottle, lists all its features and benefits, and how often you should be taking it to get better.
Sounds crazy doesn’t it?
What’s more insane, is this is how so many Salespeople approach their selling today.
I call it premature presentation (as per my article on Entrepreneur.com); and it’s killing you sales.
Instead, I recommend a consultative selling approach.
Consultative selling is asking questions that create rapport, trust and value, and genuinely exploring their needs before you even think about offering a solution.
Think about it.
How could you offer a product or service, without actually knowing the truth behind what they actually need to get to where they want to be?
The Consultative Selling Approach
At The 5% Institute, we teach Sales Professionals and Business Owners our flagship program called The 5% Sales Blueprint.
It’s a consultative selling approach, and it has a methodology to help your potential client sell themselves, rather than you do all the hard work of trying to sell them.
To learn more about this sales approach, and how you can implement it in your consultative selling process, check out our free 7 day sales challenge here.
Consultative Selling Steps
We have a process to help you win more sales using consultative selling steps.
These are:
- Rapport: Building respect and a relationship to create a genuine conversation
- Setting Pre-Frames: A powerful strategy we use to position yourself as a Specialist, rather than just another commodity
- Asking questions: Our questions are structured, so that you’re not winging it. They’re open ended, and focus on getting to the truth of their situation, pain, and pleasure. We also teach getting away from surface selling, and getting beneath the surface
- Openly talking about money: So many Sales Professionals and Business Owners stay away from money; because they’re afraid which way the conversation will turn. We encourage it; as long as you use the right approach
- Presenting: Once you’ve clearly established all of the above, you have the opportunity to present; but not before
- Handling objections: The focus should be working with your potential client to diffuse objections, rather than coming in with a strong and opposing view
- Closing: Closing becomes so much easier, when you’ve done all of the above correctly. When there’s no doubt in their mind, it becomes easy to ask for the sale
Final thoughts
Should you be using consultative selling as your sales approach?
Absolutely.
To learn how, register for our 7 day sales challenge here.
Want To Close Sales Easier?
Are you committed to closing sales a lot easier, and consistently?
If so, you should check out our self-paced and affordable online sales training program; The 5% Sales Blueprint.
It’ll give you everything you need to close sales consistently.
To learn more, simply click on the link below for more information.
Our Online Sales Training Program – The 5% Sales Blueprint.
