Extreme Other Orientation

Much of the time, without meaning to, salespeople use language that is self-oriented. Some part of this self-orientation comes from how salespeople are taught and trained. For example, you may have been taught to disqualify your prospective client, ensuring you are only talking to them so you can convert them. In first meetings, many sales reps still use a legacy approach that starts with a presentation about their company, clients, and their solutions, even though they should know better by now.

Let us call this malady an Extreme Self-Orientation. The remedy is an Extreme Other Orientation, which causes buyers and decision makers to prefer the salesperson by creating value for them in the sales conversation. Much of what salespeople do routinely prevents buyers from developing a preference for them.

Often, the first time a client sees the name of my business is when they receive an invoice. My company name, logo, and history offer clients no value, especially in an early sales conversation. In a sales call, no one has ever asked me about these things because they aren’t important to buyers, especially when the conversation is about the client’s business and the strategic outcomes they need.

Are You Really Consultative

In Elite Sales Strategies: A Guide to Being One-Up, Creating Value, and Becoming Truly Consultative, on page 32, there is a challenge to determine how consultative you are. Here is this scenario: You have been invited to have a 25-minute meeting with a reclusive CEO. But along with the invitation, you must sign a contract that you will follow five rules. If you break a rule, you will be removed from the meeting, and you will never be given a second chance.

Here are the five rules:

1. You may not mention who you work for or what your company does.
2. You may not mention any of your clients and their results.
3. You are prohibited from mentioning your products or your services.
4. You are not allowed to build rapport with the CEO.
5. You can ask no questions to elicit the CEOs dissatisfaction, problem, or hot button.

Most salespeople are not consultative. They would do better to pretend to be consultants. A consultant is not going to violate any of the five rules. They are being paid to provide the insights and strategies that will allow the client to improve their strategic outcomes. This is something different than solving a problem. You are also being paid to help your client improve their results, even if you have not been taught to focus on the client’s strategic outcomes.

See: Eat Their Lunch: Winning Customers Away from Your Competition for more on strategic outcomes and the fourth level of value.

An Extreme Other Orientation

If you are an average salesperson, it is likely you believe and act as if your company and your solution is the subject of your sales conversation. One reason salespeople fail to win a client’s business is because they focus on trying to position their company and their solution instead of focusing on creating value for their contact. This approach causes your contact to tune out, as the conversation isn’t valuable to their goals.

When you approach the sales conversation like a consultant, the subject is your prospective client’s business, their challenges, and the better outcomes they need. An extreme other orientation will focus on the client and what they need.

Imagine you are a CEO. You have a serious problem that prevents you from being able to produce the results you need to succeed. As the CEO, you have never had to make a decision about how to address this issue, making this a rare occurrence. You don’t know what you need to know to make the decision. You also worry about failing if you get this decision wrong and make things worse. We can call this a complex sale for the salesperson and a complex decision for you, the CEO.

Beating the Five Rules

To win more deals, follow the five rules that prevent you from coming off as self-oriented. Your contact can sense if you are pursuing their business and simply trying to convert them. It is a very different experience from enabling the client to make a rare decision with confidence and certainty.

You may want to start with an executive briefing that proves you know the kind of problems your client is likely experiencing and how those problems impact their results. Buyers complain about salespeople knowing nothing about their company or their industry, so using an executive briefing better positions you as a consultative salesperson.

You may not look like a good partner if you don’t already know about the client’s problems. You only solve a small number of problems. You should know what they are and what are the root causes behind them.

A large part of your conversation is made up of questions to identify the root cause of the challenge and what the client will need to change to be able to improve their results and reach their goals. What’s left is a conversation about what the client needs to succeed in improving their business. B2B sales means a business is selling to another business. You would do well to think of B2B as requiring you to have the business acumen to feel like a consultant.

Extreme Other Orientation

You can improve your sales results and win more clients with an extreme other orientation. This is easier than most might believe, as removing self-orientation makes room for a client-centered sales conversation, one that will create a preference to buy from you and your company. You alone can create value beyond anything your competitors provide.

Leaving this article, assess yourself as it comes to the five rules that determine how consultative your approach is. You may also want to assess the value of the counsel you provide and the advice and recommendations you provide your clients. If you need help with this approach, go here.