P+R=S
The Consultative Selling Success Formula

<<>>

I bet it has not happened to you.

I do know when it has happened to someone, they always become upset at themselves and most of all the salesperson.

What has changed?... The buyer

They are much more sophisticated in their knowledge about the market, products, services and who provides them including your competitors.

In developing my advanced consultative sales training program one of of my takeaways is"

Today's buyer has the power of information by simply pushing the enter key.

The internet has created a knowledgeable buyer and this means sales professionals must change their selling approach to meet their expectations.

The ecommerce capability of the internet is replacing the "Order Taker."

Taking customers to lunch to keep "Getting the orders" is no longer enough.

Why...because "Buyers want Results"

While, there are many sales systems that I wrote about in my book "Unleashing the Power of Consultative Selling." It became clear consultative selling is the one sales system used by the top sales professionals in every industry I researched.

After many hours of leading and observing the top 10% of sales professionals who are highly successful...a pattern emerged.

A pattern is like flipping a coin 5 times in a row and getting heads each time. Here is what these sales professionals are using with their customers.

Here is what you can do to apply this very powerful consultative selling technique

Do not begin presenting solutions instead...begin by asking questions to get to the problem

Nearly, every time you ask "What is the problem?"... "The customer will tell you the answer."

Let me give you an example:

"What problem are you having?" "We need a new system". A new system is the answer...not the problem. Or

"What problem are you having?" "We need teamwork" Teamwork is the answer...not the problem

Key consultative selling technique

When your customer or prospect gives you the answer...here is what you do:

What problem will having (fill this in with the answer you were given) solve? For example

What problem will having a new system solve? Or

What problem will having teamwork solve

Once you ask this question your customer will begin telling you about the problem. Take the answer they give you and continue to keep asking the question until you get to the core problem.

80% of sales professionals completely miss this very important question. When I ask them what result the customer wants they respond from what they heard using the example from above:

They want a new system

They want to have teamwork

The top sales professionals understand what the core problem is and ask questions to find out "What result their customers are wanting to get."

Key consultative selling technique

Once you find the problem ask "What do you want instead"

Let me give you an example:

Our problem is "Getting more leads." "What do you want instead?" "More leads"

Naturally, this can be a response from your customer. So, what question do you ask?

How many more leads Specifically?" "We would want 50 more leads a week"

The key here was using the word "Specifically." A word of caution do not over use this word because it can become annoying.

Here is where you can separate yourself from the rest of your competition:

Map your customer’s problem to the results they want...with your solution...that will solve their problem.

Here is an example:

The problem as you told me was a wanting to "Increase market share" (notice this is an answer not a problem) because you were losing revenue(We are getting closer to the problem) and the core problem was not having a system for generating enough leads."And, you wanted a system to generate at least 50 leads a week.

We have observed and assessed your current method for generating leads and our proposed consultative system lead generating processes will give you the tools and resource to generate 50 or more leads with the following...this is where you show the map of how each problem with your solution will provide the results your customer is seeking.

Remember the consultative selling formula P+R= S and this will not only bring success to you more importantly, you are now providing a very important role as a trusted advisor.

To get more consultative selling techniques...sign up for my "Free eZIne" and get my latest "Insights"

To your continued success,

Rich