The Secrets Behind The Consultative Selling Method

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The Consultative Selling Method

Even as professional salespeople, we hate being sold to.

Think about your last large purchase…

Did you want a sales rep who pushed you to buy the thing they were selling or someone who understood what you needed and could recommend the best product?

That’s the idea behind Consultative Selling, (aka needs-based selling).

Consultative selling focuses on building trust with a prospect, listening to their needs, and acting as a trusted advisor to help them find the right solution.

Just like any sales method, it’s great for some scenarios, but not all (like your first cold call). It works best when a prospect is already interested in a product but isn’t sure which is best for them.

Now, let’s look at 2 things you can do to up your consultative selling game. 👇️ 

1. The Golden Rule 🥇 

The golden rule of consultative selling = be the solution expert.

And not just the solution you sell but all of the solutions on the market.

Prospects want to work with the expert. Someone who knows their stuff and makes them feel like they made the right decision.

We see examples of this in most things we buy.

Let’s pretend you need a new set of tires, but aren’t sure which ones are the best fit for you. You arrive at the tire shop and the rep shows you 15+ different tires that fit your car, each with a different performance rating, mile warranty, and price point.

And now you have to make a decision…

Do you really need the race car performance rated tires?
And are the cheapest ones a bad idea?

This is where the product expert (sales rep) shines. They see hundreds of tires installed a day and can tell you the best tires for your exact situation.

Product expert > salesperson.

2. Question Without Grilling 👀 

As salespeople, we love our questions.

What problems are you dealing with right now?
How long has that been and what issues?
How much can you bench?

The list goes on and on.

Questions help us discover more information, find pain points, and sell our products. But they shouldn’t be our entire pitch.

Author and consultant Scott Edinger wrote that a director of purchasing once told him: “I can always tell when a rep has been through sales training, because instead of launching in to a pitch, they launch into a list of questions.”

Sound familiar? The same 10 questions, every single call.

While Questions play a major role in consultative selling, Scott says it’s best to avoid checklist-style questions and leading questions that are only intended to be answered in the rep’s favor.

Questions shouldn’t feel like a ‘gotcha!’ moment to your prospect.

Instead, ask questions that get the conversation started, and follow them up with sincere questions that will help you recommend the best solution.

Bonus: Don’t Overshare 🤫 

You should know your product inside and out… but your prospect doesn’t need to.

Customers don’t care about every detail of a product, and too much information can overwhelm them.

In the case of the tires, let’s pretend the sales rep decided to tell you every single measurement.

The rubber is .13 inches thick… the circumference is 47 inches… and so on…

It’s useless information that’s of no value to you. The same goes for selling your product.

Be the expert, and share only what matters.

Today’s Buyers Want to See Your Product Sooner!

Even as a sales leader, it's important to consider the impact of educating prospects - before booking a demo. 

And interactive demos on your website are the best way to do this.

Our data shows that prospects who view demos on your website are more likely to request a sales call and convert.

So, if you’re a sales rep or leader looking to impress prospects, shorten sales cycles, and close more deals, you need to be using:

• Guided demos to show your product and educate prospects.

• Cloned demo environments to provide hands-on experience and convert them.

Heavy - hitters like Gong, Rubrik, and Clari, they're all using Storylane for their demos.

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