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Are You Consulting or Selling Your Clients?

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Tues, 10/13/2015

You may feel that both of these are one and the same. My opinion is that they are not the same. In fact, I feel they are at the opposite ends of the sales spectrum. If you truly consult your clients, you shouldn’t have to sell them-the sale will happen as a response to your consultation.

In my management experience I have been told by salespeople that they use the consultative approach, yet when I witness them in action, they are resorting to old sales techniques, far from a true consultation. While your product and/or service is the best thing since slice bread, your client or prospective client doesn’t necessarily see it that way.

Somehow you have got to work the benefits of your products into the conversation. That only comes after you’ve had the chance to really learn what the challenges and needs are of your client. Once you accomplish that, you can thern move to the next step to attach their needs to the products you offer.

If you have done this correctly, with empathy for your client, the amount you are asking for your products is secondary to the need to acquire your products. Your client should feel that at the price you ask, you are giving them a fantastic product with value worth much higher than the investment.

Every one of your clients is different, so even though your products are very consistent from one meeting to the next, based on the needs discovered for each client, your presentation to them, where you attach their needs to your products will differ. The more you focus on their needs and not your products, the more you will sell. Take time today to analyze what type of salesperson you are-are you being a consultant or are you selling?

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