What Makes a Salesperson a Consultative Partner?

Consultative selling is a sales approach that shifts the emphasis from pushing products to being a trusted partner. In many ways, it is the opposite of how selling is depicted in movies. In place of “Always Be Closing,” salespeople should think “How Can I be Helpful?”

However, research cited in mailshake.com shows sellers often have misconceptions. For example:

• 50% of sales reps think they avoid being pushy, yet 84% of buyers disagree.
• While 74% of reps say they do enough research, only 45% of buyers agree.

This disconnect is at the heart of consultative selling. Clearly, sellers are not showing buyers they understand their needs. They are not building the trust that forms long-lasting relationships. Here, we will examine the strategies needed to be successful consultative partners.

Benefits of Consultative Selling

First coined in 1970, consultative selling is now the most widely used sales approach. And its popularity is directly related to its success. Consider the following:

• LeadSquared notes 53% of sales reps believe it makes their sales process more efficient.
• In addition, 89% of buyers describe their sales partners are trusted advisors.
• Seismic notes 80% of executives are more likely to purchase from a consultative experience.
• Further, 84% of buyers are more likely to buy from sellers who understand their goals.

When sellers more fully understand the customer’s needs, they provide more effective solutions. This builds stronger relationships and closes more deals more quickly.

Consultative Sales Strategies

Today, buyers have more information and options than ever. Simply having quality products is not enough. Instead, sellers must provide quality experiences. This starts with more thorough discovery and forming closer relationships. To be successful, consultative sales partners should follow these strategies:  

Research

It’s been said you never get a second chance at a first impression. For sellers, this means elevating themselves to trusted advisors over transactional sellers. This starts with a deep dive into the prospect. If you want them to invest in you, you must invest in them. Before you call, know as much as you can about the following:

• Contacts
• Organization
• Industry
• Problems/needs

Trusted advisors understand needs are as personal as they are professional, so get to know each contact. This means their roles, length of service, and how they will benefit from your products/services. In addition, know their interests. This helps build rapport.

Learn their organization. This is more than knowing they make widgets. What kinds of widgets? Who are they for? What is the manufacturing process? It’s also learning about key decision makers, relationships, and level of influence.

To fully know the company, know their competitors. What does your prospect do differently? How can they improve their position?

Additionally, learn their needs. As a proactive sales professional, recognize opportunity, not only for yourself but for your clients. In many ways, this is your greatest initial value.

Planning

Pre-call planning utilizes your research to make calls more than fishing expeditions. It’s key to offering value throughout the process, and it includes:

• The buyer’s journey
• Their readiness to buy
• Call objectives
• Set questions

Understanding the buyer’s journey involves three stages: awareness, consideration, and decision. It’s important not to rush these steps or you’ll seem overeager, a hallmark of “typical” sellers.

Determine the buyer’s readiness to act. This is usually influenced by their level of urgency, budget, authority, and trust. It is also influenced by organizational factors, such as company or industry events.

Identify objectives for your call. This includes what you wish to accomplish. If this is limited to selling a product, you’ve missed the point of consultative selling. Instead, develop the basis for a collaborative partnership.

Ensure questions are probing enough to uncover information but not so forceful as to seem interrogative. Of course, additional questions will come up, and we’ll examine a questioning strategy below. But start with set questions designed to illicit information and generate momentum.

Build Trust

Trust is the basis of consultative selling. It’s how sellers establish and maintain the relationships that lead to greater rewards, for both buyers and sellers. But forming trust is a process. It takes time and begins with the following approach.

• Build rapport
• Display empathy
• Follow through

A healthy rapport starts with a positive attitude. If you smile during your call, the prospect will hear it. It includes knowing names, expressing genuine interest, and keeping discussions casual.

Empathy is the ability to put yourself in the prospect’s position. It’s showing the prospect you’ve been in comparable positions and what you’ve learned from the experience.

Following through means delivering on promises, such as providing sales content and promptly answering calls. It’s delivering value in a social media post or contributing to a discussion. These little things show you can also deliver on the things that really matter.

Develop a Questioning Strategy

Questioning has always been a key sales skill. But consultative salespeople have a plan. They know the “right” questions to ask. These are the questions prospects have not thought to ask themselves. In addition, consider the following:

• Keep it conversational
• Open-ended questions
• Close-ended questions
• Follow-up questions

Prepare your questions. But also concentrate on cadence. This includes tone as much as sequence. For example, avoid a rapid-fire pace. instead, incorporate questions into the flow of normal conversation.

Open-ended questions are used to get beyond simple answers, such as yes or no. Instead, they require prospects to explain themselves. For example, “You mentioned distribution issues. Can you elaborate on what those entail?”

In contrast, close-ended questions do not require explanation. This does not make them unimportant. They are especially helpful for confirming agreements. Top consultative sellers understand the difference and know a mixture achieves the best results.   

Follow-up questions should seek to move prospects’ beyond canned answers and surface-level discussions. Consultative sellers should respectfully challenge prospects to look deeper. In addition to uncovering hidden needs, this shows a seller’s investment as a trusted partner.   

Active Listening

A stereotype of typical salespeople is a silver-tongued know-it-all. However, a key differentiator of consultative sellers is their ability to listen. But active listening is more than merely hearing the words. It involves noting the following:

• Content, meaning, and feeling
• Body language
• Other nonverbal cues

Pay attention to what prospects share. However, also put it into context by reading between the lines. This is a combination of understanding the content, meaning, and feeling behind their words.

Body language may indicate the true weight of their problem. Note a buyer’s posture and movements, such as fidgeting in their chair.  

In addition, note other nonverbal cures, such as eye contact, gestures, and changes in pace or tone. These can convey unspoken emotions or distress and reveal new lines of inquiry.

Problem-Solving

When you establish trust, you can begin the process of presenting solutions. As a consultative seller, this is not moving into the sale. Instead, follow these steps:

• Consultation
• Collaboration
• Flexibility
• Personalization

Consult with the prospect. Ensure you understand their needs and they understand your options. Also, explain the process and what you need from them.

By working together, you can uncover additional needs. Plus, you can explain price and how your solutions solve their problems. Key to this is presenting the value they receive for the price they pay.

Remain flexible. Demonstrate the types of solutions available and gain their input on customization.

Create solutions geared to this prospects’ specific needs. DemandGen cites research that shows the value of personalization. They note 80% of customers are more likely to purchase from sellers that offer a personalized experience.

Value

Consultative sellers focus on value, not sales. They know long-term solutions are worth more than quick fixes. Of course, price is often a primary concern. And sellers must address and overcome such issues. But consultative partners always place value before price. They must first demonstrate how solutions solve problems and improve conditions/situations. In this, the solutions ultimately pay for themselves. Following are keys to instilling value:

• Thought leadership
• Packaged deals
• Incentives and addons

Thought leadership, including informative blogs and researched white papers, illustrate your expertise. In addition, date-driven case studies show prospects how you have helped others. This is a great example of social proof that gives prospects confidence.

For example, imagine you’re a prospect with a pressing problem. The seller says, “We did this with a client in your industry facing a similar problem. They achieved a 200% ROI. I think a version modified to suit your specific needs can also be successful.” How would you feel? This is the personal touch that makes consultative partners more than mere sellers.

Consultative partners create value packages. They know what to add or subtract to a proposal. This includes free trials, customer support, and extended warranties. After all, value must be seen in relation to price. Of course, products must work well and last long. But this, combined with the comfort of support, provides a peace of mind that isn’t always qualitative.

Conclusion

Of course, consultative selling isn’t as exciting as the high-octane selling depicted in movies. It’s not supposed to. It is founded in the belief that selling doesn’t have to be dramatic or adversarial. Instead, it’s a process that is far more beneficial for both buyers and sellers.

This makes consultative partners like wise, well-informed advisors. In film, they are often a trusted attorney. They have served the same family for decades. They call everyone by their first name, and they have earned a seat at the dinner table. As a consultative partner, you can too.

Updated 07/11/2024