Customers don’t like feeling rushed to make a purchase. An impulsive salesperson seems more concerned with their commission than customer satisfaction.
Consultative selling avoids this inconvenience by being solution-based and customer-centric. The goal is to build positive relationships with customers by helping them solve their problems, whether it’s with your product or someone else’s product.
What is advisory selling?
Consultative selling is a specific business approach in which representatives act more as consultants than salespeople by recommending solutions to potential clients according to their needs or problems.
It’s actually selling a solution, not a product.
Of course, a sales consulting approach is not always appropriate. It is usually appropriate if your customer has already done some basic research on products or solutions, but does not yet know which solution is best for them.
In this case, the first contact with the customer is often made in the middle of the customer journey, rather than at the beginning. And contrary to what you might think, the increased access to more online resources is making sales consulting more useful than ever.
Sales advice in a nutshell
With product information, solutions, reviews, and resources readily available to consumers online, salespeople find it more difficult to manage their conversations with customers.
The sales consulting approach helps salespeople meet customers wherever they are in their customer journey, and ensures that interaction is purposeful and profitable.
However, for this approach to pay off, reps must first deeply understand the customer and their needs.
Listen to your customer
Ask your client to tell you about their business, the difficulties they encounter, the challenges they are facing, and their current solutions and needs.
be objective
Focus on solutions rather than products or features
Demonstrate a thorough understanding of your customers and their needs
Provide your customer with useful information and resources (without asking for anything in return)
Offer a solution that meets their needs, whether it’s your product or not
Let’s look at an example of how this approach can be applied to a potential sales scenario.
Consulting sales process in progress
A company wants to invest in a CRM tool to simplify data storage and is considering your software. She communicates with you.
The potential client reads blogs on the topic, downloads articles from knowledgeable experts, participates in online forums. He understands what an effective and efficient CRM tool is, but he’s not entirely sure if it fits in with his company’s overall strategy. This is where you come in.
Ask specific questions to learn more about how the company plans to use a CRM software system. Try to gather all the information you can get about the company to fully understand its needs by watching its webinars and reading its blogs and articles. Ask what software and technology he is currently using.
Then, leverage your expertise to develop a plan or make suggestions for integrating a suitable CRM tool, helping the client make the best decision for their organization. In this example, it is possible that the most appropriate product for this customer is not your company’s CRM software.
But it’s okay. Remember that selling advice is about selling a solution, not a product. The ultimate goal is to deliver real value and build a solid relationship with the client. If you are successful, the customer will surely come back to you for their future business needs, and will recommend you to others.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the four principles of advisory selling.
- Ask the right questions to understand the needs of your customers
Your customers know their problems well. Your role is to determine if what these customers think they need matches what they actually need. Knowing how to ask the right questions is essential to identifying the roots of your client’s problem and providing the right solution for their business.
Begin your search at the aggregate level, and visit the client’s LinkedIn page to determine the size of the company, product or service, and target audience. Then go to the bottom level and get to know your customer as an individual by looking at:
Social media accounts
private personal blog
