Two Commitments You Need to Produce Better Results

You want to sell something more than price. You want to help your dream client produce greater results, and you want to help them obtain the outcomes that they really need. But your competitors have continually sold the fairy tale that your dream client can have better outcomes while spending even less than they are presently spending.

You want to be consultative. You want to be seen as a trusted advisor. Well, here is your big chance. A consultative, trusted advisor would give their dream client the cold, hard, and uncomfortable truth about what really needs to change in order to produce better results.

Investing More Money

This idea makes lots of salespeople uncomfortable. They think to themselves “How am I supposed to ask my dream client to spend more money than they are presently spending when I know my competitors are going to sell price?” It’s called selling, and it isn’t easy or everyone would do it.

Often, the reason your dream client is getting poor results is because they are underinvesting in the result that they need. Competitor after competitor has made the same empty promise that if only they would switch to their firm, their client could have even better results at an even lower price. It’s easy to believe that the poor results aren’t their fault, and that their provider could be doing a better job.

A few times through the cycle of chasing the bottom and getting a lower price, and your dream client is stuck with a provider that doesn’t have the profit that would allow them to produce the results that they promised. At some point, the cost of not obtaining the results that they need starts to cost your dream client time, energy, and money.

A good consultative salesperson will help their client understand that they are underinvesting, showing them how paying a higher price will result in lower costs. They will help them to see how the higher price they pay can be invested in producing greater results.

Investing More Time and Energy

Money may not be the only area where your dream client may be underinvesting. Your dream client might also be investing too little time and energy to produce the result that they need.

To move them from their current state to their desired stated, you may have to acquire their commitment to spend more time working on and in the area that they need improvement. This is especially true for service industries where producing results often means retooling business process, or spending time working with and training people. Sometimes getting a better result requires your dream client’s leadership and their engagement.

A consultative salesperson will be frank and honest in explaining to their dream client just what will be required of them if they are to close the gap between their current and their desired state. They won’t allow their client to believe that their leadership isn’t required or that a change initiative can succeed without their involvement.

Selling well means obtaining commitments. But these commitments aren’t limited to the commitments that would advance your opportunity. They include the post-sale commitments that would allow your solution to succeed in producing the results that you sold.