You may think your sales strategy is flawless, but even seasoned professionals need an occasional boost. This is where consultative selling can help. Consultative selling involves a creative approach designed around the client's needs. To do it right, the salesperson must develop a relationship with the potential client before trying to make a sale.
We spoke to Paul Kiewiet, executive director of the Michigan Promotional Products Association (MPPA), Grand Rapids, Mich., and Ryan Sauers, president and owner of Sauers Consulting Strategies, Stone Mountain, Ga. Kiewiet and Sauers have decades of experience successfully using this method, and offered advice on how to get started.
Check out five of their best tips here.
1. RETRAIN YOURSELF
It may not be new, but consultative selling is a preferred approach for many, since it will make you stand out in a crowded field of sales-people with the same sales pitch. You are not just trying to sell 200 pens or 500 tumblers. You're digging for a more comprehensive solution by learning what keeps clients up at night. This approach may require more work before landing a sale, but the sale will make the extra effort worth it. "When you're approaching clients and problems from a consultative basis, you're really expressing your desire to solve their problem, and that's a completely different dynamic than 'what can I sell them?'" Kiewiet said. "Instead of 'what can I sell them?', I think your whole mindset is 'what problem can I solve for them?'"
It is also important to change how the client views you. Instead of working across the table from them, sit next to them. This creates an atmosphere in which you are working together, Sauers explained. "A consultative selling approach is coming beside somebody and saying, 'How can we truly help you in a way that you see us as part of an extension of your team?'-not as some person to beat up on because you can get another $5 out of a quote," he said.
2. ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
Kiewiet, formerly in the point-of-purchase/merchandising business, got involved in promotional products when his customers started asking for his ideas in addition to the displays he was selling. He referred to his method as "need creation." "A lot of people in our business are in the need-fulfillment business," he indicated. "They're waiting for a client to say, 'I need 250 mugs for an event next Wednesday.' My approach to selling was need creation. In order to do that, you really need to understand what the needs of the client are," he said, noting other topics to discuss such as what they're trying to accomplish, what their brand stands for or how they want people to feel.
3. SEPARATE YOURSELF
Researching a prospective client's niche market is another way to win his or her business. Kiewiet subscribed to Progressive Grocer magazine to understand packaged goods and visited appliance stores to speak to salespeople and customers to identify the needs of appliance manufacturers. Using those tools will make you a better experience creator, he noted. "A lot of people ask me [how to] get customers to answer their questions," he said. "You do that by showing a keen interest and showing that you've done the homework. And that could mean reading an annual report, going to the trade shows [or] reading the trade magazines, and with all the tools at hand today, there's really no reason not to."
4. BUILD TRUST
Push the sale to the side and commit to learning about the client's problem in order to build trust. "It means not selling oftentimes," Kiewiet said. "It's sharing of information; it's positioning yourself as an expert by talking about success stories that you've done for other customers. As soon as you start whipping out product and start pitching stuff, you've taken away that credibility."
Your prospective client is a person. Get to know him or her before talking business. Sauers likes to call this human-to-human (H2H) marketing. "I like to relate it to a friendship developing," he said. "You first meet someone, you know them and then you see them again, and you talk to them a little bit more and maybe they say, 'Here's $1 for a soda' or whatever, and then you pay them back. And you get to know them and their family, and you get to understand them. And slowly, they know you as a human being in that H2H marketing, versus just a guy trying to sell something. And there's a huge difference in that."
Still, this is a process. It takes time, but building trust will deliver or at least present a chance for you to prove yourself. "If you stay on top of things and start to build a real relationship before you've ever done business, I've seen many times they say, 'We'll tell you what. We'll give you a smaller job and just kind of see how you guys do,'" Sauers remarked. "And that becomes the opportunity to do well and expand to bigger things."
5. MAKE A PITCH
Consultative selling approaches can vary, and often involve more than just a promotional product, but ultimately provide a resolution to a situation."If we can figure out how to make their life easier, how to ask them questions, how to figure out and solve their problems and come along beside them, that is [...] how a salesperson has an opportunity to go help them save some time and be creative in doing it," Sauers said.
- People:
- Paul Kiewiet
- Ryan Sauers
Amanda L. Cole is the editor-in-chief of NonProfit PRO. She was formerly editor-in-chief of special projects for NonProfit PRO's sister publication, Promo Marketing. Contact her at acole@napco.com.