Are you a consultant to your clients?

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Fri, 12/23/2011

The term consultant gets thrown around quite a bit these days. There are those who are consultants and those who say they are consultants. What’s the main difference separating these two groups of individuals?

Those who are just saying they are consultants are mainly out for themselves, with their own agenda in mind. A true consultant has only one thing in mind, the success of his or her client. They will do anything it takes to bring this success to the forefront.

If you have square widgets to sell and you are selling them to clients with round holes, you are doing a disservice to the client, and more important, a major disservice to you. Not only will clients be turned off by this action, they will let their friends know as well.

On the contrary, if as a consultant you focus on selling square widgets into square holes, the positive results for your client will turn into a tenfold positive result for you. Renewals from your clients and referrals from your clients will come regularly.

How can you make the change to a true consultant? Stop talking and start listening. Pay attention to detail about your client’s industry, not about the products or services you sell. Your prospective clients are not so much interested in your products as much as they are about how your products can make them money.

When a client wants to hear about your services first, let them know that in the interest of time and bottom line results, it would be much more productive to first have them tell you about their business, so that you can propose solutions based on their needs. And if you aren’t the one to be able to provide the solutions, you will do your best to direct them to a company who can. Imagine this conversation with a client. The trust you will build will be tremendously satisfying.

When you repeat this process over and over again, it will become so natural and make so much sense that you will wonder why you ever approached clients in any other way.

What are your challenges when it comes to consultative sales? I look forward to hearing your comments. Until next time …