Four Key Advantages of Being a Consultative Salesperson

There is a very common way to lose a deal you might have won had you avoided the tendency to talk about yourself, your company, your clients, and your solution. We call this the legacy approach. In Elite Sales Strategies: A Guide to Being One-Up, Creating Value, and Becoming Truly Consultative, you will find an exercise that has you walking into your client’s conference and spending 20 minutes with them without mentioning your company, your clients, your solution, or any question to elicit their pain point or hot button. One mention of the banned topics, and your client will feel you have wasted their time.

This does not mean you aren’t ever allowed to pitch the client. That time will come. But in the first meeting, being self-oriented and pitching the client to buy from you, will prove you are transactional and lower your probability of winning the client’s relationship and their business.

The right time to pitch your client is the end of your sales conversations, only once you have created the value your contacts need to address the rare decision they are facing. Your clients must get their strategic decision right on the first attempt and feel certain you will help them secure the related outcomes.

Your contacts are concerned about making a decision. Your champion is looking for a salesperson who is an expert. They do not have time for a peddler who lacks the empathy to understand the consequences of making a poor decision. They need someone with the authority and experience to know that a bad decision harms their company. Only an expert can help them attain the better results they need.

What can you do in meetings with decision-makers and their stakeholders to prove yourself? How can you demonstrate that you have the experience and insight to lead them to the outcomes they need?

How Clients Decide in High-Stakes Sales 

Your clients are facing a decision they have not made in years—or perhaps they have never made this type of decision. Their results are not acceptable, and your contacts are under tremendous pressure to turn things around quickly. The problem is that they do not fully understand the problem they are trying to solve. The business landscape is different, their industry has changed, and it is difficult to tell the available options apart. This is a high-stakes decision, and your contacts know that they are missing critical information, but they do not know how to get it.

Imagine they meet with a salesperson using an old and antiquated approach. The presentation is familiar, down to the slides that show their big-name clients and company org chart. This salesperson pitches their solution, but there is no discussion of the client’s particular problem. This leaves the contact feeling uncertain. They spent an hour in this meeting, but learned only about the salesperson’s company and products. They didn’t learn anything valuable about their situation.

Now imagine another salesperson comes in and spends time asking questions and sharing well-sourced data and insights about the client’s industry. This information resonates with them. Instead of learning about this salesperson’s solution, the salesperson explains the major challenges and opportunities the contact is experiencing. This helps the client better understand the root cause of their difficulties. This salesperson knows things the client doesn’t know, but needs to in order to make an informed decision. There’s no pitch in this first meeting, but the client is eager to meet with this salesperson again to learn more. This person could be the strategic partner they have been looking for. They’re more consultant than salesperson, and they seem to understand this decision even better than the client organization.

From the perspective of the client, the second salesperson offers key advantages. (The first salesperson was likely forgotten long before the second scheduled a second meeting.) Here are a few things you can do to create this level of effectiveness for yourself:

1. Use information disparity. The second salesperson leverages information disparity. This is another way of saying they know something important their client doesn’t, and they are able to share these insights to ensure the client succeeds. I recommend using an executive briefing in a first meeting to walk prospective clients through the key trends, opportunities, and challenges in their industry. This elevates you to the level of expert, and it helps to support a conversation that can help you learn more about the client. As you talk, the client will learn from you as well.
2. Cultivate relationships. As more stakeholders pile into conference rooms, you need to develop relationships. This is less about rapport, especially when there are a dozen contacts, each with their own desired outcomes. If you are paying attention and asking questions, you should have no problem identifying what we call the centers of gravity. These are the contacts who have a greater share of the decision. Focus on them and their needs. Put them at the center of your relationship with the client organization.
3. Outperform competitors in strategic sales contests. Winning a deal is a contest. When you sign in, look for your competitors’ names on the clipboard. Just because you don’t often run into your rivals, doesn’t mean they are not set on winning the same deal. You must distinguish yourself from your competitors. Every sales force has a couple of highly effective sales reps that win the large deals. Know who they are so you can try to determine what they are doing right—and how to beat them.
4. Pitch effectively. The longer you create value, and the more you understand what your client wants and needs, the better. Pitching at the end gives you time to tailor your message to your client. No matter how good your pitch is, if it doesn’t provide what your prospective client needs, you are likely to fail. By the time you ask your client for their business, both you and they should feel confident that you can deliver what they need as they make a significant change. What is most important in that pitch is how you will ensure the strategic outcome the client is seeking.