Consultative Selling Approaches that Create Long Term Business Relationships Course

Consultative Selling Approach provides the sales personal and team with a toolbox of effective business to business selling techniques. The course is designed to provide approaches to build long term relationships with customers by avoiding ‘hard sell’ and instead pushes towards finding out about the customer’s needs through effective conversations.

Course Objective

By the end of the training, attendees will:

• Be able to build rapport with customers or clients
• Know the right questions to ask to fully understand the customer or client’s needs without putting on any pressure
• Be able to analyze the information got about the customer or client and how these would lead to sales acquisition
• Be able to match products and services to the customer or client using the information they have gathered
• Be able to influence customers’ buying decision effectively
• Know how to position companies’ products and services appropriately
• Know how to stand out from competitors

Day One

Introduction

What is Consultative Selling?

• Difference between a normal sales approach and consultative selling
• Beliefs about selling
• How will buyers respond to consultative selling?
• Preparing for the Sales Meeting
• Researching the organisation and person/people you are meeting
• What do your customers or clients need or want?  What are they buying?
• Preparing yourself for the meeting

Key principles

• The four principles of solution selling
• How solution selling differs from ‘transactional’ or ‘relationship-based’ selling
• The stages of the customer’s buying cycle
• The Sales Process
• Understand and apply a proven selling process to create partnerships
• Learn how to make customers eager to talk with you
• Establish immediate credibility to build alignment with customers
• Learn effective networking techniques
• A structure to follow to help the conversation along
• Moving into the sale

Prospecting skills in a solution sale

• Strategic prospecting
• How to establish your competitive position within an account
• How to set, monitor and track key objectives for accounts
• Skills and processes for up-selling and cross-selling
• Making new contacts and appointments
• Selling against the competition

Day Two

Generating Interest and Identifying Needs

• Generate initial interest
• Uncover and appeal to different customer interests
• Use powerful open questions to get the information you need
• Widen the customer expectation gap to create interest
• Find out the primary buying motive

Appealing to Motive and Gaining Commitment

• Evaluate customers to move the sale forward
• Use "Language Movie" to engage the customer's emotions
• 6 ways to ask for the sale with confidence

Resolving Objectives

• Find points of agreement to lower customer resistance
• Learn special processes to resolve objections
• Ask the right questions to uncover hidden objections

Uncovering Opportunities

• Explore existing accounts
• Prospect for results to fill your sales pipeline
• Create a referral network of champions who bring business to you

2   Relationships

• How to build and manage key relationships within an account
• Qualifying and managing key influencers accurately
• Approaching and developing new contracts strategically
• Utilizing CRM tools and networking sites

Day Three

• The four key skills of consultative selling

Connecting

• Key skills and approaches for this stage of the customer’s buying process
• The first five minutes – ways to gain instant rapport and setting the foundation for a consultative approach in a first call
• How to structure an effective consultative sales call
• How best to differentiate your solutions and build credibility?
• Overcoming initial buying resistance
• Opening the meeting

Consulting – influencing needs

• Key skills and approaches for this stage of the customer’s buying process
• Understanding the power of high-impact and third-level questions
• The importance of body language and other personal communication dynamics
• Creating a ‘disturb’ approach
• Defining and agreeing comparative advantages
• The six principles of unconscious influence

Convincing – helping the customer choose you

• Key skills and approaches for this stage of the customer’s buying process
• Mapping customer needs and preferences on to your solution
• Using the alternatives assessment tool
• ‘Decision making criteria’
• Key communication skills for this stage
• Creating and presenting a compelling proposition

Commitment – closing the sale

• Key skills and approaches for this stage of the customer’s buying process
• Isolate, prioritize and answer objections and concerns
• Deal more effectively and profitably with price objections and reduce buyer’s remorse
• Ways to ask for commitment professionally and pleasantly
• Managing the transition from prospect to customer