Consultative Sales Skills

To survive in today’s aggressive marketplace you need the best sales people focused on offering real value to their customers. Being client-led and customer-focused is the only way to achieve long-term sustainable business.

The key question is:

How equipped is your sales force to identify, target and grow more complex larger solutions sales?

Why we disagree with the myth that “He or she is such a good salesperson they could sell ice to the Eskimos.”

Selling should be easy. We believe that the best sales people target the right companies and the right people in those companies that are more likely to want and gain value from what you have!

Stop focussing on selling. The consultative approach is to align your sales process to the customer’s buying process and their customer journey. Help the customer to succeed in their business.

Please click here to read the Video as an Article

“He or she is such a good sales person they could sell ice to the Eskimos!”

This is a common sales myth. No doubt you will have heard it – I have seen it – on TV, in newspapers, by Business people and entrepreneurs … “He or she is such a good sales person they could sell ice to the Eskimos!” Often people even say it as a compliment.

Well I think this is ridiculous … and I will explain why.

Let’s think about this intelligently, just for a moment. I’m selling to the Eskimos. I go along to the Eskimos and I try and sell them some ice. They already have a LOT of ice . So, the chance of selling to them is pretty small. Let’s assume that I do manage to sell them some ice, then the profit margin is probably going to be fairly small as they don’t really value the ice.

What is more interesting is when we think about what happens the following year when I need to sell more ice to the Eskimo. I knock on his door again to sell his more ice – and the Eskimo will not be very happy. They will say hey I have enough ice! You sold me loads last year and I still have loads left.

Surely if they were such a good salesperson they would have sold ice to people in a hot climate who might want ice!

You might be able to “persuade” the Eskimo to buy some ice but only if you use manipulative tactics. And these tactics definitely work – but how often do they work on the same person? Yes that’s right – Once!

Manipulative tactics only work ONCE on the same person.

Because afterwards they realise they have bought something they don’t want or paid too much for. They get “buyer’s remorse” – they regret making the purchase.

Selling should be easy so let’s target those companies and those people who are most likely to want what we have. Professional sales is not about forcing or persuading someone to buy. It is about helping the customer to buy the right solution for them.

Stop selling ice to Eskimos! Start targetting people who are most likely to want what you have.

Let Marlow Sales Academy help you to target the right companies, and the right people in those companies, who are more likely to want what you have.

I hope you found this useful. Good Luck and I’m off for a coffee!

We specialise in helping salespeople identify, qualify and win bigger, more complex sales. We do this by combining best practice consultative sales skills and techniques in a programme that is focused on achieving real ROI and sustainable behaviour change.

We can help you to transform your sales force by designing and delivering an integrated and modular Sales Development Programme that includes:

consultative sales skills
digital refreshers
relevant coursework
one-to-one coaching
committed personal action plans

with clear measures of success to give you maximum ROI.

We focus on developing the right mindset, knowledge and skill set to help salespeople to be more effective and efficient.

We can help your salespeople to:

Understand the buyer process & why buyer buys
Identify and target the right companies
Develop credibility with your value propositions
Tailor to different types of buyers
Qualify to improve your bid:win ratio
Analyse contacts and develop effective contact plans
Develop trusted advisor status
Improve discovery skills to understand the full requirement
Develop & write effective proposals
Negotiate & close good business
Ensure client benefits are achieved

Consultative Selling involves a mixture of the right mindset, skills, structure and process.

For more information on how we can help, please see our Case study for Consultative Sales Skills at Softcat, a leading UK IT Partner.

Consultative Sales Skills temp-admin August 15, 2017

Please click here to read the Video as an Article

Marlow Sales Academy

Get in Touch

Twitter