Sales Success: Master the Art of Consultative Selling and Outshine Your Competition

It can be challenging to convey the point I’ve been making since the publication of Elite Sales Strategies: A Guide to Being One-Up, Creating Value, and Becoming Truly Consultative. One way to express this idea is that your client should make the decision you would make if your contacts asked you to make the decision for them. To achieve this, you would need to equip them with what they need to make that decision through the sales conversation, including your experience.

Other, older, outdated sales approaches posit that the salesperson is merely positioning their company and their solution. Sales leaders with teams adhering to what we might describe as the legacy approach mistakenly believe the contest is between two or more companies and their solutions. By employing this approach, they commoditize their company, their solutions, and their sales force, ensuring a parity problem.

Overcoming the Sales Parity Problem in Modern Selling Environments

Your company is a good company, as are your competitors’ companies. The people who work for your company are dedicated individuals working hard to take care of your clients or customers, just like your rivals’ employees and leaders. Your solution is outstanding, enabling you to assist your clients in improving their results, like your competitors’ solutions.

When there is no discernible difference between one salesperson and their company and any other salesperson and their company, clients will treat both salespeople as commodities. There was a time when every salesperson employed the same approach, using a slide deck that began with a discussion on the trustworthiness of the company and its leaders, followed by a slide showcasing a set of logos of their clients and their results, and then their solution.

More than two decades ago, decision-makers became frustrated with this approach and rejected both the slide deck and the salesperson for not being helpful.

Disclosure: You may struggle with what comes after this if you are the type of sales leader, sales manager, or salesperson who is enamored with their solution. You may need a grief counselor and a warm, safe place to lie down for a while.

Navigating Legacy versus Consultative Sales Approaches: A Strategic Comparison

Two choices are presented here. The first is the legacy approach, which involves asking questions about the client’s problem, hot button, or pain points to introduce your solution into the conversation. If this describes the sales conversation you have with your clients, be aware that this approach is easily overcome by a salesperson employing a different strategy, one that educates the client about the decision they need to make—a decision they must get right on the first attempt.

The legacy salesperson who is infatuated with their solution is a “needs something” salesperson because they need the client to buy their product or service. These sales reps pitch their solution to the prospective client.

The second type of salesperson needs nothing, as they are a “knows something” salesperson. This salesperson is One-Up, meaning they possess greater knowledge and experience than their client. Instead of positioning their solution, they dedicate their time to a conversation that creates a higher level of value for decision-makers and their teams. This approach is so valuable that the One-Up salesperson has no concerns about their solution, recognizing that their method will create a preference to buy from them.

Disclosure: If you are fond of your solution, it is unlikely that you are consultative. Being consultative means offering your counsel, advice, and recommendations as your approach, knowing that the value of this conversation will surpass a mere pitch.

Empowering Decision-Makers: Key Strategies for Effective Sales Consultation

When a decision-maker is tasked with making a change to improve their results, they seek the kind of person who can help them learn what they need to know to make the right decision the first time. In Elite Sales Strategies, I mention how ancient this idea is. As far back in history as records exist, leaders have sought trusted advisors to provide them insights and information to bridge gaps in their knowledge and experience. These leaders are wise enough to recognize what they don’t know.

By being the one to provide clients with what they need to decide confidently and with certainty, you make it easier to win the client’s relationship and their business.

Addressing Mismatches in Sales Conversations: Strategies for a Competitive Edge

When one salesperson focuses solely on their solution and how it will solve the client’s problem, and another enables the decision by providing a vastly different and more helpful sales experience, you encounter a mismatch so one-sided that it hardly seems a fair contest at all.

If you sell in a commoditized industry where you and your rivals are treated as commodities, know that you can learn to sell differently. If differentiating in the sales conversation is challenging for you, this approach will do more to help you stand out. It provides you with a sustainable strategic advantage.

The preference to buy from you carries more weight than the solution itself, as your client knows that your solution is likely to work as well or better than others. Your contacts feel they are safer with a salesperson who has the capability to guide them through their decision-making process and help them advance their company and results.

Leaving this article, assess your ability to enable the client’s decision. Consider whether you are leaning too heavily on the solution to compel the client to buy from you.