Discover the alarming trend that is jeopardizing the effectiveness of leaders and decision-makers, as the consultative approach becomes a casualty of modern practices.
The Declining Role of Consultative Thinking in Modern Leadership
Throughout all human history, one finds leaders relying on advisors when making decisions. These leaders knew they didn’t have the experience or knowledge of certain subjects, choosing instead to access experts to help guide important decisions. However, this practice is much more difficult for leaders today and puts their business at risk.
Here, we will explore trends and forces resulting in the cancellation of the consultative mind and what must change to better serve leaders and other decision-makers.
The Rise of the Transactional Over the Consultative
More and more, sales leaders adopt transactional approaches in B2B sales that should be consultative. The sales leaders and their sales organizations focus on pitching their solution without any concern for what their prospective client might need to make a decision that would allow them to move forward with better results. This approach is the direct opposite of consultative.
For their part, buyers and decision makers spend time researching companies and their solutions before speaking with a salesperson. But the false confidence that comes with information prevents a consultative approach. Unlike in the past, where information was not available to most people, we are awash in information. The problem is that finding insights is difficult, so decision makers can benefit from keeping their own counsel instead of trying to sift through everything that’s out there and determine what’s valuable.
Lack of Training in Consultative Strategies
Few salespeople are provided any B2B sales training. They are simply taught a transactional legacy approach. Because they have no access to consultative strategies, they do the best they can, even though it isn't enough to hit their sales targets. Not only does it harm the salesperson to go without these strategies, but it also leaves their clients without the help they need to make changes to succeed. This lack of training is canceling the consultative mind.
Many salespeople lack the business acumen to advise their prospective clients. One might argue that the salesperson with a side hustle selling craft beer would have greater business acumen than one who has no interest in the fundamentals of business. Even though some suggest that a college degree or an MBA is no longer valuable, this is poor thinking. It causes people to believe they don't need to understand business to be a business advisor.
The Erosion of Research Skills in Sales
The word research is mostly used for the idea of finding phone numbers and email addresses. This is not the research that would help salespeople become consultative. In a post-literate society, reading is rare, as is research. That's why buyers and decision makers complain about salespeople who know nothing about their business or their industry.
Throughout the 21st century, technology has been at the forefront of sales leaders' priorities. The promise of technology is efficiency, a word one uses when unable to promise effectiveness. As sales stacks increase in size and expense, win rates and quota attainment plummet ever downward. Instead of focusing on technology, sales managers would do better to educate their teams on how to conduct research that will benefit them and their clients.
The Misdirected Focus on Pipeline Coverage
The increase in pipeline coverage has spiraled ever upwards, not because it is a good or healthy practice, but because the sales force isn't consultative enough to close deals. Those who practice this strategy should know that they have no better chance of winning any of the additional opportunities they require. If a salesperson can’t close one deal, they probably won’t be able to close the many others they are required to log in the CRM. This approach ensures the sales force believes that selling is a numbers game, instead of an undertaking that requires them to help clients succeed.
Few sales managers focus on win rates instead of stacking up a giant number of opportunities they will not win. A consultative approach would improve the sales force's results. To get better sales results, be more consultative. Treating sales like a numbers game cancels the consultative mind.
The Trend toward Supplier-Centric Selling Approaches
To hell with what the client might need from the sales conversation; sell the company and their solution. This is a common approach, despite the fact that clients hate it. Buyers have a low opinion of salespeople, and their sales organization because they lack the ability to create value for their contacts. This is one of the major factors canceling the consultative mind.
Most salespeople believe sales is a job, not a craft. These beliefs cause salespeople to lack an interest in mastering the craft of consultative selling. Even if their client was susceptible to a consultative approach, it would be rare that the salesperson could provide that approach. A rote, repeatable, step-by-step process will not work for most B2B buyers. It’s time for sales professionals to recognize that and reevaluate how they think of sales.
The Future of B2B Sales
We tend to believe that tomorrow is going to look a lot like today. Changes start slowly, until they come all at once. The future of B2B sales will find fewer salespeople and fewer sales organizations as the Baby Boomers retire, removing the demand that we have experienced during the greatest expansion in human history. With a decrease in demand, it follows that there will be less of a need for salespeople.
Over this decade, we are likely to see fewer, more consultative salespeople who are quite different from the average salesperson today. The most consultative salespeople are already dominant, especially in large and complex deals.
Those who want better sales results would do well to study this list of trends and forces that have already canceled the consultative mind. If you are an individual salesperson, you can decide to become consultative, and work to become so.
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