Did you know? We are phasing out 1 million sales job by year 2020? Order taking jobs are giving ways to kiosks and automation. We need reps that understands the clients’ needs, can analyze data, drive trends, and put together a creative solution that addresses every point. Six principles defined by Hubspot are the basic key to consultative selling.
Consultative sales process helps you structure your selling methodology to increase its efficiency. It based on the focus of the lead’s experience during your conversation with them instead of only pushing the product, service, or business. It starts off with research on your lead. Acquire meaningful information about your lead like contact preferences, pages they visit on your site, and the size of their company. The more research you have gathered on your lead, the easier it becomes when you’re ready to talk to them.
The next step is to contact your lead and ask questions to gather more information you couldn’t acquire through your research. But do not be mistaken, you may also ask questions you have the answers to. This will essentially help build the relationship between you and your lead. The questions you ask should uncover the problems they face, what their goals are, and as well as their budget. During your conversation with them, be mindful of their tone and choice of words, as these subtleties’ will provide hints to what they are.
As you are more familiar with your lead, find opportunities where they can learn more from you. With the insights about your lead, you should be able to give valuable advices, even if the solutions does not lie with your product or service. At this point in the conversation you should be ready to judge if your lead is going to be qualified. A qualified lead should have a challenge to overcome, a budget, goals to be met, and might or might not have any plans. If you deem a lead to be unqualified, it still gives you a chance to help and be friendly, but be careful of not consuming too much time. As Coco Chanel once said, “Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping it transforms into a door.” Identifying your lead as soon as possible is in your best interest.
If you feel that your lead is qualified and you have discovered their goals, challenges, and needs, closing your lead should be simple. If your lead has the budget and the authority to purchase your product or service, they will most often accept your offer. If they do resist, you can seamlessly transition the conversation to what might happened if they do buy your product or service. Remind them why their goal is important and why your product will help overcome their challenges.
As you follow the steps, you should keep in mind that the process from one step to another should transition smoothly into your conversation. The main point of the consultative sale process is to not only think about your product, but give an answer to your potential customer’s problem.
