The Evolution of Consultative Sales

The Evolution of Consultative Sales

Productive salespeople often make the difference between company success and failure. Although CRM programs can monitor sales productivity, the best approach to driving sales productivity should be focused on the interaction between the salesperson and the customer.

Salespeople used to simply disseminate information about their companies, by phone, mail and in person. The Internet made that “information delivery” role almost entirely obsolete and practically eliminated the need for a salesperson, if the product was a commodity that could easily be purchased from more than one vendor. Today’s transportation, logistics and supply chain solutions customers can retrieve product information effortlessly. They can electronically optimize shipments, tender loads, schedule pick-ups, check delivery status in real time, contact customer support, bill their customers, pay their carriers and so forth. The salesperson used to play the intermediary in at least some of these activities. These activities are no longer a part of the salesperson’s domain.

Ironically, the availability of information has made buying decisions more difficult, particularly when the product or service being purchased is sophisticated or has business implications that require a certain amount of experience to understand. For example, many business owners would happily order their office supplies online, but wouldn’t want to purchase their complex logistics solutions, TMS, WMS or other enterprise software the same way.

Sales professionals today must help their customers understand and solve problems. This requires a deep comprehension of a customer’s core business issues. Sales professionals must now possess the technological savvy needed to creatively and appropriately use new tools to streamline the sales process and generate profitable transactions.

Today’s sales professionals must learn to manage the complexity created in the buying process by the explosion of information and the need to undertake more sophisticated, often strategic, purchases. Salespeople must often shoulder the burden of responsibility for the diagnosis of the customer’s problem, the design of solutions and the assurance that whatever has been purchased works well.

Consultative sales is evolving, from a model in which salespeople ask questions about the customer’s needs to one where they do not assume that the customer has a complete understanding of the problem. In the past, the role of the salesperson was to understand the expressed needs and to present his or her products as the best solution to them. The underlying assumption was that customers could diagnose their own needs and describe their desired outcomes.

Recently, a newer diagnostic consultative model has been developing, that assumes customers may not recognize that a problem exists. The salesperson examines the customer’s business situation, locates the root problems that are causing that business to run less effectively (in conjunction with the customer) and proposes ways to work with the customer to address the root problems. The result is a designed solution that the customer would not design, or request, if it were left to them alone.

Good consultative salespeople get to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself. Ideally, a good match between needs and benefits provided should result in a customer who is ready to buy.