What we want you to focus on is the consultative selling process. Mike bosworth has the best understanding of sales process in corporate america. Caliper competency library consultative selling salespeople who engage in consultative selling win business by consulting with customers in order to understand their true needs and provide solutions that effectively address those needs. How to master the art and science of consultative selling. Connect the dots between your solution and their strategic goals. A salesperson who practices consultative selling develops a holistic and nuanced understanding of the buyers needs, and then they try to fulfill those needs with a customized solution. Like many other modern sales strategies, solution selling avoids talking about features and benefits in its pitch. What is consultative selling and how to be a consultative. May 22, 2008 some companies say it is a 90%10% split. Today, i think a lot of the original distinction has been lost. Consultative selling is an approach to sales whereby sellers redefine reality and maximize buyer value through.
How to beat the 8020 rule in sales team performance and how to beat the 8020 rule in selling. The salesperson, in turn, uses that information to select the best possible product or service to meet a need. Product versus solution selling business 2 community. How to sell the way people want to buy hardcover by. Personally, i have met a lot of salespeople who are selling. Here are some characteristics of what a salesperson does that makes their way of selling more of a product selling approach. By participating in the workshop, the participant will. Value selling is a sales process that focuses buyers on the high returns theyll receive rather than getting a low purchase price. The term consultative selling can get thrown around a lot. Consultative selling has been the new buzz word doing rounds in marketing and sales circles. Creating buyers in difficult selling markets, was brilliant, and full of. Solution selling is a type and style of sales and selling methodology. In fact, along with customized solutions, which is covered in the next section, and an interactive conversation, these three essences are often what makes consultative selling what it is, according to consultative sales training articles. Read the future of consultative selling and find out whats working today and what will work in the future.
Consultative selling sprang up following the failure of content selling. Solution selling has a salesperson or sales team use a sales process that is a problemled rather than productled approach to determine if and how a change in a product could bring specific improvements that are desired by the customer. For decades, sales pundits have been advising companies to practice a consultative style of selling. Tagged ben decker, consultant, consultative selling, decker communications, listenerfocused, plumber, product selling, product vs. It explores a selling technique in which the salesperson acts as an expert consultant for his or her prospects, asking questions to determine what the prospect needs. These 9 essential books will help you to build a foundation upon which to build a successful career in businesstobusiness sales. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. We created this resource to provide an insight into what we believe is a highly effective consultation process. Consultative selling vs solution selling salesstar.
Communication is a key point in the consultative sales methodology, and it can make a huge difference in meeting your sales goals. Mar 21, 2014 and because of this simple secret, we have an endless array of consultative selling models to choose from. Synchronized books to help you build and manage topperforming sales teams and help your salespeople achieve top sales performance. Search the worlds most comprehensive index of fulltext books. If you are a new b2b salesperson, this list is a curriculum. Oct 16, 2017 so here are my top 5 key tips to make sure that your selling interactions are more effective. Consultative selling is a philosophy rooted in building a relationship between you and your prospects.
Product versus solution selling partners in excellence. Productfocused selling the transition from productfocused selling to needfocused selling was the direct result of market changes. Lawyers and consultants have always been selling their services by consulting. Mar 27, 2017 it requires salespeople to request a lot of feedback and to really hear what the customer is saying. Watch my latest video to learn the differences between normal, or, transactional selling, versus consultative selling. Buy consultative selling 5th revised edition by hanan, mack, etc. If you arent positioning your organization as a consultative, solution selling resource you are falling behind because, rest assured, your competition is. Increased competition and customers greater access to information and sophistication shifted the focus of a sales call from the seller to the buyer. A consultative selling approach is key to running a welloiled sales team. Plumbers are possibly the best solution sales people out there. Caliper competency library consultative selling transforming.
Solution selling understanding the importance of not only being consultative, but leading customers through a process to help them achieve success begins with relevant content in the right place and time. A salesperson who practices consultative selling develops a holistic and. Consultative selling skills ebook harrison consulting 2014. He or she first assists the buyer in identifying his or her needs, and then suggesting products that satisfy those needs. Consultative sales training people will demonstrate the value of asking questions in this type of sales method. The term consultative selling first appeared in the 1970s book consultative. What is not consultative selling before we look at what you can do to be a consultative salesperson, we want to start with looking at what most salespeople do and that is what we will call product selling.
If youre asking if consultative selling is obsolete, the answer is no. Gain a greater awareness of how to build trust and how different types of behaviors interact in the selling environment affecting relationship building. Consultative selling and examples sales pro central. The details pertaining to uhuru, our prospective client, and even the outcome of the process should be of little concern to you. What was missing, until now, is the next generation of consultative selling for the 21st century sales mapping, which fills this void. The following are steps to get you started with consultative selling. This is somewhat different from the original consultative selling, as coined in the early 1970s by mack hananin a book well worth reading. Jan 29, 2012 consultative selling is a more complex, longterm process involving collaboration of both buyer and seller, in which the latter must first develop an understanding of the customers business. However, it emerged that marketers could have been providing benefits, which customers did not value khosla 2010.
Consultative selling process management study guide. The hanan formula for highmargin sales at high levels hanan, mack on. Today, we embrace a consultative type of selling, introduced in the 1970s, which promotes a better understanding of the dynamics of how to sell. The challenge with these models is that every salesperson, as well as every business, has their own way of selling. How many sales organizations try to position themselves as consultative vs. The term consultative selling first appeared in the 1970s book consultative selling by mack hanan. How to foster trust and encourage openness from buyers. Mike bosworth is probably the smartest guy i ever met in the sales training world. Consultative selling, sales training and sales management training books, ebooks, cds, mp3s. What is the difference between consultative selling and. Many organizations claim to have switched from selling products to selling solutions. Product selling compared to consultative selling sales. Discusses consultative selling techniques and introduces how to develop salesproducing profit improvement proposals pip. Whats the difference between consulting and consultative.
Consultative selling, sales training and sales management. Consultative selling refers to a sales approach and an attitude of the salesmen who do not try to sell their companys product or service to the customers. Sales and management toolbox au page 4 3 top tier selling consultative selling talks the language of toptier decision makers. The hanan formula for highmargin sales at high levels.
The concept of solution selling has been around since the mid 70s thats the earliest reference i can find, and popularized in a number of books with solution selling in the title. Consultative selling has grown in stature owing to changing market dynamics. Consultative selling skills is a twoday workshop that focuses on the participants selling skills. Considered an enhancement to the solution selling and consultative selling processes, the value selling style is most useful when products or services need to be sold at aboveaverage or premium prices. Apr 28, 2015 watch my latest video to learn the differences between normal, or, transactional selling, versus consultative selling. Apart from the traditional sales approach, a new way of selling called as consultative selling has gained ground in the past two decades. Rather than telling your prospects what they need, consultative selling is an investigative approach by which prospects are. To me, the difference between a traditional sales process and a consultative one looks a bit like the difference between a doctor and a therapist. Personal selling in which a salesperson plays the role of a consultant. I want you to take your salespersons hat off for a moment and instead put your doctors hat on. Consultative selling is a selling technique in which a typical salesperson acts as a consultant and judges the need of a customer by intuitive questions and then satisfying them by expertise and knowledge. However, this has now been recognized as an important attitude and orientation that every salesman, all business managers and organizations need to possess. What do you see as the difference between consultative. I read the book and i found that it very helpful and useful for sales representatives.
To bring clarity to that question, we will take a step back and compare consultative sales with a more traditional type of selling and in this exercise we will call that product selling. In consultative selling, the salesperson looks at each sale as just one in an ongoing relationship with the customer. In richardsons white paper, elevate your consultative selling approach to compete today, we examine the recent changes in the buying process and how sellers can up their game and stand out in front of buyers. We propose the following new definition for consultative selling in our white paper the future of consultative selling. Consultative selling tm gives readers the tools to partner with customers rather. While you may understand the benefits of consultative selling, you may not understand the seven consultative selling skills to master, how to improve your consultative selling skills, or you may simply be seeking strong examples to help you understand the concepts as you prepare to use the consultative selling approach. Over the years, i have adopted what i consider to be a consultative approach to selling. Selling like its 1987 or even 2007 doesnt work like it used to. Lessons learned from consultative selling book mohamed.
Historically, solutionbased selling was the expected methodology for achieving goals. Apr 23, 2012 the aim of consultative selling should be focused, first on taking the time, potentially an entire sales call or more, to really understand the nature of the prospects business, getting to know the prospect a little more with each question, and try to determine the underlying causes of some of the challengesproblemsissues that the prospect. Consultative selling is a sales approach that prioritizes relationships and open dialogue to identify and provide solutions to a customers needs. Nov 20, 2018 the term consultative selling first appeared in the 1970s book consultative selling by mack hanan. The salesperson, in turn, uses that information to select the best possible. Selling consultatively resembles consulting in some regards, but ends with presenting a single brand as the best solution. Popular consultative selling books showing 16 of 6 integrity selling for the 21st century. Previously focus was on features and benefits attributable to products. If you have worked in businesstobusiness sales for some time and havent read these books, you will discoveror be reminded ofsome ideas that will make you even more effective.