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THE
CONSULTIVE SALES PROCESS
Today’s
customer has a multitude of choices when they seek vendors to
provide products and services to their organization.
As the global market has expanded, it has also shrunk in
many ways. Customers
today have more organizations that are more accessible with more
products and services to choose from than ever before.
A successful sales representative does not just try to
peddle a product or service.
They are going to be trying to help the customer solve
their problems.
People
buy goods and services because they have a problem to solve, a
project to complete, a product to develop.
These are the three principal reasons that goods and
services are sold. So,
before the process of selling
to the targeted organization begins, the sales professional takes time
to understand what the needs of the organization are.
How
does he do this? Simply,
by becoming a consultant to the organization.
That is the foundation of the consultive sales process. Rather than beginning the presentation with an introduction
to the goods and services provided by the vendor, the vendor
takes the time to probe, question, and understand the customer
and their environment as well as their short- and long-term
needs. Much of this
research is done before the sales professional ever reaches the
customer’s front door. Those
sales professionals that take the time to develop the
information, gather the knowledge, and are sensitive to the
needs of the organization are going to be more successful than
the sales people who walk through the door and never take the
time to understand what it is that the customer needs.
It sounds simple; and, yet, most sales people are still
in the process of selling rather than understanding what it is
that the customer needs.
How
do you develop a consultive sales process?
One of the first things that you do is learn to listen and
hear. You have to
appraise and evaluate and explore; and you do these all from your
customer’s perspective. Don’t do it from
your own perspective.
The customer already has an understanding as to why you
are there -- you are seeking to become their vendor, to
sell them something. Unfortunately,
too many sales people drop right into the sell mode and don’t
take the time to develop the understanding of what it is they
are there to sell.
To
be successful in sales, you must connect, probe, question,
confirm, summarize, and provide.
Establish your personal credibility and concern for the
customer. This
allows you to connect on an emotional level.
Once the connection is made emotionally, and only then,
will you be able to pursue your objective...selling.
That is unless your product and service is so unique
that there are no substitutes available.
In that case, you don’t need sales people, you
need order takers.
Sales
is not easy, but it is rewarding when done correctly. Being a sales professional, rather than a sales person or
order taker is the goal. Like
Nike says, “Just do it...” and, as Paul Thomas says, “Do
it right!”
- Paul
Thomas
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Library]
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