Introduction
Customers of top salespeople describe their consultants as "unpaid members of my own staff."
The Consultant's Desk
Consultants often spend so much time at the customer site that they eventually opt to create their own desk.
They say, "He really understands my situation" and "He's my reliable problem solver. "
As a consultant, this must be your aim as well.
Consultative Selling Defined
Consultative selling can be defined as meeting customers' needs by listening to customers, understanding their problems, paying attention to details, and following through after the sale.
Your Role as a Consultant
As a sales person who solves problems, you must begin the sales process by asking questions about your prospect's business, seeking to understand the following:
- how sales and revenues are generated;
- how costs and expenses are incurred; and
- how profits are made.
In consultative selling, you must put yourself in the position of the business owner or executive and try to see yourself as being personally involved in achieving the financial results for which he or she is responsible.
Once you understand how your prospect's business or department operates, you can then find a way to define what you sell in financial terms. Your primary aim is to demonstrate to the client that the financial benefit of dealing with you is greater than the cost of what you are selling.
For you to sell the company something, you must demonstrate that it will save or make the company 15% or more each year and eventually pay for itself. You have to be able to talk to them about the "time to payback," or the amount of time that will pass before the company gets 100% of its money back.
You'll have to answer questions such as,
- "How much does it cost?"
- "How much do I get back in return for my investment?"
- "How fast do I get this amount back?"
- "How sure can I be that your projections are accurate?"
The more vague you are in answering these questions, the harder it is for the customer to make a buying decision. If neither the sales person nor the customer can figure out the rate and speed of return, no sale will take place.
It is crucial for you to know how to answer these questions to prove that you are a reliable problem solver and consultative selling specialist for a company.
As a consultant, you continually point out how the customer can achieve more of his or her business goals as the result of following your advice and recommendations. You position yourself as an unpaid member of the customer's staff, and as a problem solver, helping him or her to increase sales, reduce costs or boost profits.
While doing this, it is still important to remember to focus more of your selling energies on those clients who can profit the most rapidly from what you sell.