Unlocking Greater Revenue with Consultative Selling

Discover the pivotal shift that can revolutionize your sales strategy and skyrocket your revenue.

There is a mistake that causes sales leaders to generate lower net new revenue than they might otherwise have had they changed how their sales force sells. What prevents these sales organizations from posting better numbers is how their sales teams sell. Instead of using a consultative sales approach, they sell in a way that leads their clients to believe they are a commodity.

The belief that the most important outcome of sales discovery is identifying a problem, a pain point, or a gap. This outcome is considered so important because it allows the salesperson to introduce their solution. This race to identify the problem and propose the solution is quite the opposite of what sales reps should do to win deals.

Here is how you might understand the difference between attempting to sell your solution or providing the greater value from a consultative sales approach: The consultative approach is about the client’s decision, while the weaker approach is centered on your solution. For sales leaders who want to accelerate their net new revenue, they should do the work to transform through a modern sales methodology, one that is consultative.

Elevating Sales: Beyond Solutions to Consultative Strategies

Many, if not most, salespeople believe that their solution is what creates value for their clients. It is true that your solution is capable of helping your client with whatever better outcome they need. But talking about the solution in the sales conversation doesn’t provide nearly the same value creation as a consultative methodology.

The second type of approach is not focused on the solution. Instead, it is focused on the client’s decision-making. If you were a consultant, you would be paid for helping your client make the right decision. You may not even have a solution to sell to your client. The salesperson who is most effective at executing a consultative sales approach is certain to score more points than the salesperson who prioritizes their solution.

This second type of value creation is greater than the first type, as your contacts are trying to be certain they get the decision right. One might argue the better salesperson is the one that is sitting alongside the decision-maker, guiding them through a conversation about the decision.

Overcoming Common Sales Challenges: A New Perspective

Salespeople often ask how to differentiate themselves from their competitors. They know that they need to distinguish themselves. But because they have been taught to believe the solution is what will make them different. The challenge here is that there are many more salespeople with an approach that centers on the solution, and far fewer consultative salespeople.

Each salesperson that darkens the client’s door can only be differentiated by the name of their company, the different colors of their logos, and their insistence that their solution is the best choice for the client. The lack of a conversation about how best to go about making the decision causes buyers to believe there is no significant difference between one salesperson and another.

If you feel as if your prospective clients treat you like a commodity, it is strong evidence you are selling like a commodity. When all your competitors sell exactly like you, you can understand why your client isn’t wowed by your solution.

Mastering the Art of Consultative Selling

To reverse the mistake of prioritizing your solution, you need to change the order of the two different types of value by starting with type two, enabling decision-making. You create much more value in the sales conversation when you focus on the eventual decision instead of your solution. As simple as this sounds, this approach will find your clients leaning forward instead of sitting back while you sing the joys and praises of your solution.

The rule here is to first create the value of enabling the client’s decision-making before you ever mention your solution. The more confident the client is about the decision, the greater the odds of your client buying your solution.

Becoming a Consultative Sales Expert

To be consultative, you must provide your counsel. This means you need to ask questions that allow the client to recognize something important or provide the client with a higher resolution lens through which to see their decision. This is the starting line of a consultative sales approach, but there is more.

Because you have greater knowledge and experience when it comes to the rare decision the client needs to get right, being consultative requires you to provide advice and recommendations. Every contact you ever sit across from is trying to acquire the education they need to make a decision with the confidence and certainty that allows them to make the change.

There is nothing consultative about your solution, no matter how great it is. Most of your clients will believe your solution and your competitor's is of parity. They believe your solution or your competitor’s is capable of producing the result they need.

The Decision-Making Advantage in Sales

Every deal you ever won was because you had an effective sales conversation. Every deal you lost was because another salesperson had a more effective sales conversation. This is the single variable that decides the contest between salespeople. By getting the two types of value in the right order, you can position yourself as the right person to help your client make a change.

If you are a sales leader who wants to accelerate net new revenue, you would do well to arm your sales force with a consultative sales approach and ensure they are enabled to create type two value, by talking through the decision-making long before you talk about your solution.

If you are a salesperson, you must do the work to be an expert and an authority in your industry, using your experience to guide your client to the better results they need. Do good work, and take care of your clients.