“As differentiation from product advantages is reduced or neutralized, the customer relationship built on value grows in importance.”
Gartner Group
In developing and mastering consultative selling, you should strive to achieve “3 principals” that are the mark of a professional consultant (salesperson). These tents apply n mater industry you are in, how large or small your accounts, what product or solution you sell, or what the price, etc. It is your “value” that differentiates you and wins the deal.
People want value, then the relationship is formed!
The 3 Tenets are:
- Help uncover “latent” vs. active pain, helping prospects understand their problems and issues.
- Offer an unforeseen solution by helping prospects come to a better solution than on their own.
- Act as a broker of competence, teaming with the prospect to work together on a solution.
Good sales people have discovered that these value-creating efforts make the difference between great prospecting and high pay-off vs. leaving a plethora of unanswered voice and emails. Prospecting
messages should be: Challenging vs. Informative: A good prospecting message drives interest, and does
not lecture or simply inform. The purpose of the prospecting phase is to move the suspect into a legitimate sales cycle. The prospecting message does not do the selling. Brief: Whether the prospecting medium is voice or the written word, it is imperative that the message be short, to the point, and usually no more than a 15-20 sec sound-bite or read. Credentialing.
The vendor needs to feel a sense of professionalism about what they are saying and prove this with references and statements of proof. Value-Creating. It is equally important that a sales person select one of three value-creating selling activities mentioned above as the theme of a prospecting message (free “gifts of Knowledge”). If the sales person has thoroughly developed a set of proposition from the problems most current and urgent to a particular industry vertical, this should be a relatively straightforward issue.
Whatever kind of message is created, it should be rehearsed and practiced before it’s tried. In the end, customers will respond more frequently to a prospecting message that sounds as though the seller may help them be successful, than to the message of the seller trying to sound successful.
Good prospecting has a lot to do about timing as well as crafting messages which are tuned to the prospect who either recognizes a potential need for change, is currently evaluating alternative vendors, or is about to make a buying decision on your solution environment. Prospects who perceive no need to change or have just made a buy are those where the vendor is either too early or Knowing this helps to make timing and avoiding wasting your time essential. It is reflected in your offer message. Prospecting can be a process that credentials and invigorates a sales force if the results are predictable and the actions are kept in an objective mindset.
What do you do next? Send us an email and we’ll arrange for you to speak with Ed to chat about how these learnings can help build more sales just for your business.