Empower Your Business with Consultative Selling Model for Product Management

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what is consultative selling that's the question on top of your mind today well we're going to answer that question in six specific steps and i'm going to share a seven step a secret with you on this edition of the inside bs show [Music] hi my name is dave lorenzo this is the inside bs sales tip show and today we're talking about consultative selling and i'm answering your question what is consultative selling this is part of a seven video series on selling consulting services and consultative selling so thanks for joining me today if you missed any of the videos in this series go down to the description there's a link to a playlist there with all seven of them okay so today we're talking about consultative selling and i'm gonna give you the six specific ways that you can be more consultative in your sales process and then i'm gonna share with you a secret that's step number seven and it's a a big big secret it's something that i learned the hard way and it's something that once you discover it will transform your entire business whether you sell consulting services or you sell any type of professional services and you just want to be more consultative in doing it let's get right into the content number one consultative selling prioritizes relationships that's the first thing you need to know i don't sell widgets i'm not selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door i'm not selling used cars i'm not selling jets i'm not selling time shares i sell a relationship with me and i help people solve problems in exchange for financial compensation that's what i do so i have to ask a lot of questions and uncover what people's needs are and then i have to help them understand that engaging me to solve their problem will be better than trying to solve it on their own i have to convince them that they need to solve this problem now because if they don't solve this problem now things aren't going to get better anytime soon so when it comes to consultative selling you prioritize relationships not transactions step number two in consultative selling is you focus on delivering value first you focus on delivering value before you ever ask for any money so i may start up a new relationship with someone today by introducing them to someone who can be their customer i may start a relationship by putting two people together for the purposes of a strategic alliance partnership where they can work together and make money together and i may not get anything out of those relationships that i fostered i may not get anything out of that for years but then down the road they're going to think of me when they have a need for someone who does what i do so i focus on delivering value first and then i worry about how i'm going to make money later on if you focus only on how you're going to make money people are going to recognize that and they're going to run away from you unless you have a commoditized product or service and that's never a good position to be in so step two focus on delivering value first step three help people solve problems or achieve goals people are motivated by two things in this life they're motivated to get away from pain and they're motivated to move toward pleasure so if you're helping people achieve goals they're going to want to be around you if you're helping people solve problems they're going to want to be around you and you can do this in the business to business space by thinking about three things how can you help people make money how can you help them save money and how can you help them reduce risk make money save money reduce risk that's your focus so whenever anybody asks what you do you say i help people make money save money and reduce risk and they're going to go wow how do you do that and that's where you get to deliver your value proposition so step number three focus on helping people solve problems and achieve goals you're not hawking a product you're not pushing something on someone step number four ask questions and there's a specific methodology we use in consultative selling and that's understand diagnose and prescribe understanding comes first you first have to understand your prospect's business then you have to understand what they're facing in their business what's their what's the biggest challenge that they're facing then you can diagnose what's really going on because what they bring you will be the symptoms it won't be the problem so once you understand then you can diagnose and after you diagnose then you can prescribe a solution but in consultative selling you prescribe a solution in a specific way what you do is you help the person who's sitting across from you see what the problem is then you help them realize what the solution to the problem is as if they came up with it themselves and then once they've decided that yes that is the solution to the problem you can prescribe the step by step to get them out of the predicament they're currently in so understand diagnose and prescribe ask questions first and then help them see the problem help them come to the solution on their own then you can prescribe what your role in that process will be step number five is to focus on outcomes you have to focus on the end result always always always focus on the end result what are you hoping to achieve how are you hoping to achieve it we're going to get there focus on the end result keep the client focused on the end result too many times i see people who claim to be consultants focus on their process or their methodology nobody gives a crap about your process or your methodology nobody cares they don't even care about your skills or your knowledge or your experience they care about getting what they want out of this relationship you will win if you focus on that outcome the outcome for the client always focus on the outcome for the client when you do they will want to be around you if you're thinking about consultative selling and you're wondering what is consultative selling it's getting to an outcome in a way that is diagnostic getting to an outcome in a way that helps people move away from their pain and toward their goals focus on the outcome that's step five step six in consultative selling is simply to offer to help mr client i'm here to listen today so tell me what's going on in your business and let me see if there's something that we can do together to get you to a better place they'll tell you and you'll say i understand so and then you recap and you repeat what they said to you and you say would you like some help with that that's the closing statement that's the money statement would you like some help with that offering to help is step number six and it's critically important in consultative selling all right now we're at the part in our video where i share a secret with you and i learned this secret through the school of hard knocks i learned this the hard way when i first started selling consulting services when i first started with consultative sales processes i thought i had to go out and ask all kinds of questions and then jump to conclusions but that's not what we need to do first and foremost sure asking questions and diagnosing and prescribing that's all part of a consultative sales process but the real secret is to think third sale first that means think about the work that you can do with your client over the lifetime of that relationship i've had clients that have worked with me for 15 and 20 years and the things i'm helping them with today are more advanced problems it's achieving even greater goals how did i get to that place by helping them up front and not trying to make a quick buck by helping them solve problems even outside of the scope of what i normally do i solve problems every day by introducing my clients to people who can help them and i don't make any money off of that why because i'm thinking about the long-term relationship so when i solve a problem for someone who's not my client they will come back to me over and over again and they will look for ways to spend money with me and that's why i have clients that have been with me for 20 plus years these are the seven steps in a consultative sales process you asked what is consultative selling and i delivered this is a video in a series of videos on consultative selling and then selling consulting services join me for our next video all you need to do is click on the video that you see over there and we will be together in another video just go ahead and click on that right now thanks for joining me i'll see you in the next video