Stop selling, start consulting

01. What consultative selling actually is

SalesStar defines it as enhancing client profit, by finding ways to improve a client's revenue and reduce their costs. The payoff is shorter sales cycles, better conversions and real distinction from competitors.

02. What it costs you to skip it

Objective Management Group data on 1.1 million salespeople shows the lowest performing 10 per cent have under 42 per cent of the consultative skills needed. Relationship selling and coffee-and-doughnut visits give a very low return on time.

03. Consultative selling vs the Challenger

The Challenger tells the customer what their problem is. Consultative questioning lets them reach the same conclusion themselves, which creates motivation instead of defensiveness.

04. Solution selling and value based selling

Both are strings to the consultative bow rather than rivals. Solution selling has lost ground since buyers can research their own answers, and value selling collapses into a price war when everyone claims the same measurables.

05. The psychology behind the method

Around 90 per cent of decisions are emotional, and pain motivates roughly four times more than gain. Socratic questioning, used for 2,500 years, is how consultative sellers surface that pain.

06. The DNA of a consultative seller

Salespeople worldwide have only about half the skills to sell consultatively. The four traits that separate the best: no self-limiting beliefs, no need for approval, comfort talking about money, and genuine listening.