Earlier this year, we asked 400 customers of one of our client companies what they felt was important to them in the sales process and how frequently they were actually experiencing those valuable attributes. Using the C-Lens Index, the results showed that consultative sales actions-like offering alternatives, providing advice, finding other valuable resources, etc.-were rated as important, but were practiced less frequently than more transactional skills. But It's Tough To Be Consultative In A "Wal-Mart World" So, what's happened to consultative selling? Our point of view is that where it works, it really works. Where it doesn't, salespeople aren't trying with ingenuity and perseverance. Why do we say that? Our findings show that customers do find consultative sales actions important. Sure, our sample is limited, but even this group says that ideas, advice, resources, options and the like are all important to them. Therefore, salespeople have to try, despite the challenges. Here are some suggestions: Missing Customer Expectations: Creativity and Persistence Apply Within It is clear to us the opportunity is there for salespeople. While there are challenges, the goal is to best serve the customer. It really is an attitude that permeates and drives sales interactions. Take the pressure off the closing-the-sale-button; think instead of how to help, no matter how small or grand a form that help takes. Customers will remember what you've done for them, and the next time they need help, they will remember you. How Consultative Selling Continues to Work Define the value you bring This led us to wonder what happened to consultative selling. After all, the concept of helping solve a customer's business problem has been the gold standard in selling circles since the early 1970s and the number one aspiration of most sales managers we've talked to over the past 25 years. To earn trusted advisor status, these respondents summed up the journey. Salespeople had to step up to a being a sales professional. They had to study the profession, practice the fundamentals, learn the details of the customer's world to earn the respect of the customer, and have a point of view about the different ways his/her products or services could help. He/she had to build a network of resources, any of whom could offer support to potential problems the customer's business might encounter. These professionals exuded value and could articulate their role as providing that value well beyond the delivery of a product or service. On the other hand, some respondents paint a different portrait of why customers might not see consultative selling in action, despite sales managers' entreaties and four decades or more of sales training. For one thing, many respondents point to a "remote-access" environment. Purchasing processes designed and managed for the benefit of buyers seem to be the most frequently mentioned inhibitor. These systems deny access to decision-makers and are staffed by buyers who are rewarded for lowest price, period. The long-term view and relationships can't even get a beachhead in this kind of environment, report our respondents. Add the notion that some buyers often have short tenure-a year or two and they're gone-making for shallow relationships at best. Don't believe that some people don't want value Looking Ahead You have more value in your tool kit than you probably give yourself credit for. You have your experience-the people you've worked with, the kinds of problems you've seen and solved for others, your network of people and other resources both inside and outside your current organization. You can also define uniqueness in how you do business-your own belief system and how that shows up in your personal business process. Of course, you also can tap into your organization's official differentiators, including resources such as training, experts, process, web tools,Cheap Steven Jackson Jersey, customer referrals, demo methods, and customer services that make a difference. If you've identified and documented these personal and company values and linked them to the kinds of needs they address, you can better spot when to bring them out of the box. If there is a computer application between you and a customer, then continue to supply exactly what that customer needs, in the way they need it, and anticipate-if possible-what terms are important to them, i.e., delivery, credit, choices, packaging, staffing, and let them know you are supplying these. Stand out by error-free and timely compliance and by anticipating needs. When you have an opening of any kind, find a way to ask your contact "What kinds of challenges are you facing in your job?" Then, find a creative way to help, or at least begin helping that person do his/her job better, easier, faster. That's a beginning. Where people have the skills and attitude, consultative selling is alive and well. The necessary skills mentioned most frequently included face-to-face relationship skills, sophisticated product and technical knowledge, and understanding current trends and challenges in the customer's business as well as in the customer's industry. But more than skill mastery was mentioned. Many LinkedIn respondents said consultative selling required confidence. Salespeople who were successful at consultative selling felt they wanted to and could make a contribution-that their role was to find a "true" fit of product or service to the customer's need, making recommendations with integrity. The result was to become a trusted advisor-a person who the customer could rely on for the long view, providing the advice of a confidante, and the knowledge of an expert. In addition, respondents point out that many companies don't invest in or use more up-to-date sales training beyond a brief initial on-boarding. The training investment is "past due;" people are "thrown on the phones" with a quota and numbers to call. Whatever training that is done isn't followed up or supported in the field. Finally, there is an interesting notion that consultative selling doesn't fit every buying process. While some relationships do lend themselves to exchanges of information, establishment of relationships among a number of different customers within an organization, and all the other consultative sales attributes, there are those who say that kind of approach might not be for every customer. Some customers just want product information: a salesperson who can write up the order and make sure it is fulfilled without errors or delay. That makes it easy for the salesperson since he or she is turned into a human catalog and order pad. If you are selling in that kind of environment, you go with the flow and settle into the expectations your buyer has created for you. Find an opening, any opening As we mentioned earlier, there are those who hold that some sales situations don't require a consultative approach. That view is that some customers know what they want, and the sales role is more order fulfillment than consultant. But think about it; you just want a pair of socks for formal or business wear. Would it be valuable to you for a salesperson to suggest a style that goes over your calf, making for a more elegant presentation than six-inches of bare skin between your cuff and your shoes? Absolutely; that's a valuable suggestion. Now multiply that tiny suggestion by the kind of advice and insight you can use to help your customers, no matter who they are or what they are buying. Our research suggests that ideas are important to customers. Offering them as a way to help customers solve their problems, big and small, is adding value. And that's what consultative selling is all about. Another reason is that salespeople are inexperienced, often untrained,Cheap Jay Ratliff Jersey, focused on orders but not relationships, and are impatient with a relationship-oriented sales process. This crop of salespeople has a window for success that is 30-, 60-,Cheap Redskins Jerseys, and 90-days long and where commissions are based on short-term results. This sounds like an environment where control of the game is ceded to the buyer, and the seller is willing to do what it takes to get a score. That means a lot of dialing for dollars, cherry-picking predictable orders from regular customers without too much focus on segmentation, targeting, prequalification or penetrating existing accounts. Then there's what one respondent called the "Wal-Mart phenomenon," where low price not only prevails but is a philosophical and practical way of being. Even if you could get through to the decision-makers, the decision is bound to be price-only, they say. Our whole society has been driven to buy at the cheapest price possible at every opportunity. This shows up in the purchasing process where your product or service is "commoditized," where differentiation is minimized or ignored, and purchasing agents get a "commission" for buying low. To get some insight from people who are close to selling, we posted questions on a number of our sales-oriented LinkedIn groups. We received more than 50 responses from sales professionals, managers, consultants and coaches. Basically, the opinions fell into two broad camps: 1) those who felt consultative selling was alive and well, and 2) those who acknowledged consultative selling was under pressure and facing hard times. Let's look at each category. 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