Effective Selling Skills

presented at

Lorache Consulting, Lagos Nigeria

Daniel Chinagozi

PalmNet Consult Ltd.

5 Indicators That You’re a Transactional Sales Professional

• Over the past several years we have been hearing how our industry continues to become more and more commoditized.

• There are a number of reasons for this including low barriers to entry

• But another reason why the industry has become commoditized-one that is hardly ever mentioned-is how sales professionals in the training and Consulting industry sell services

Indicator One

• This classic transactional sales tactic is by far the most common and most deadly. “Hi Mr. customer, it’s Edith Orji from Lorache Consulting, I was calling to check in. Do you have any training needs?”

• This transactional statement (and close ended question) kills a conversation in seconds. I could go on and on about all of the reasons why you need to avoid this. If this is part of your Sales Approach, do everything in your power to stop it ASAP.

Indicator Two

• Sales Reps who push for face to face meetings on cold calls (and/or before they have earned the right for a meeting) is another classic example of transactional selling.

I get it; • we all want and need face to face meetings in order to

build relationships. But you can’t ask for a face to face meeting before you have earned the right to that meeting..

• When sales reps push and push for that meeting they inadvertently make the prospect uncomfortable. And that makes selling to that prospect even more challenging because you set the expectation that you’re a transactional sales rep. Sales is about establishing credibility and building trust.

Indicator Three

• “Mr. Customer, I saw on Punch/Thisday/The Sun that you’re currently looking to hire a….” This approach (along with all of the others) tells the customer you know nothing about their business and that you have no interest in learning about their business. It also demonstrates that you’re lazy and invested zero time into the sales call.

• Worse of all, you sound like all of your competitors. What this approach does tell your prospect however is that you are interested in only one thing, making the transaction.

• Ask yourself, are you out to make the “one-time transaction,” or are

you out to build a long term relationship? • I suspect you want long term relationships. Assuming so, make

sure your sales behavior reflects that.

Indicator Four

• Accepting a job description via email (or without actually talking with the client about the requirements) as a QUALIFIED job requirement.

• A job description (training description) is simply the launching point for having a conversation with your customer about their project goals, objectives and challenges they face. If you’re relying on matching buzzwords with a job description and buzzwords on a resume, you’re a transactional sales professional. Taking a client’s training and Consulting requirement is actually one of only a few opportunities to differentiate yourself from your competition, take advantage of it

Indicator Five

• Leading with and/or talking about a “broadcast message” is another classic example of transactional selling. A “broadcast message” is when the sales professional goes on and on about their products and services, or their “unique value proposition” and their explanation of why they think they are so different from their competitors.

• And remember, all the information contained in a broadcast message can be found on your web site. If your customer has questions they will go to your web site or they will ask you. You don’t need to tell this information until they ask.

The worse thing of all about transactional selling is the message it sends to your prospects. Customers need to hear and feel that you actually care about them and their business.

You can’t do that when you sell transactionally.

Five Tips & Examples For Consultative Selling

• Truly superb salespeople have an intimate knowledge of the structure of a sales call. They are in complete control … they know where they’re going and what they want to accomplish at every point in the dialogue. They take nothing for granted and never lose direction as they focus on probing, learning, and intimately understanding everything possible about a client’s needs before discussing any product – so that their response to client needs is truly consultative and adds real value.

• PalmNet’s Consultative Selling Skills Program takes an in-depth look at the critical structure of a sales call or client meeting and provides a powerful roadmap for a successful, need-based dialogue.

Example Number One-Adjust Your Mindset

The first thing to understand about applying a consultative sales approach is that it is as much (and maybe more) about adjusting your mindset than it is about applying new sales skills. Consultative selling is a TWO-WAY conversation, it’s not a monologue, it’s not scripted, and the sales person certainly shouldn’t be using “tie down” questions such as “do you want to meet on Tuesday or is Wednesday better?” There is no manipulation and there are no “steps” to complete (as you see with traditional sales methodologies). Consultative selling is a real, open, honest and transparent conversation with your client about their challenges and how you and your product or service may be able to solve those challenges. Consultative selling is often counter-intuitive to “traditional” sales approaches and tactics. It’s an old cliché but oh so true-if you truly care about your customer’s business and they know it, good things will happen.

Example Number Two-Identify, Diagnose and Co-Create

• Consultative selling is not about leading with or talking about your products and services and internal processes. It’s about identifying the critical business issues your customer’s face and diagnosing those challenges through the effective use of probing questions while simultaneously expressing empathy for their situation so that they feel understood.

• After you identify and diagnose their challenges the next step is to understand the impact of the problem and then collaborate with the customer and co-create a solution. Keep in mind, to do this you must first establish credibility and trust with the customer so that they feel comfortable in sharing this information with you.

Example Number Three-Building Credibility

How do you build credibility and earn the trust of executive stakeholders you ask? This is not an all-inclusive list, but here are a few things that you must do. Executives EXPECT you to know this… Situational Knowledge-You must be able to demonstrate that you

understand what is going on in your customers business. This is the ticket to admission.

Functional Knowledge- You must be able to demonstrate that you understand what is going on in your customers industry and functional role they serve.

Technical Competency-You must bring some technical competency to the conversation

Fresh Ideas & Insight-You need to bring some ideas to the table that your customer would benefit from

Benchmarking Data-Executives love benchmarking data. You should know what kind of data they would be interested in and share it with them

Example Number Four-Understand What Your Customers Think About & How They Think

• You need to understand how your customers think and what they think about. Selling becomes so much easier when you understand these two things. As a general rule, all business executives are thinking about their “current state” and their “desired future state.”

• Your job is to uncover what those are and what gap or pitfalls lie between their “current state” and their “desired future state.”

• This is accomplished through the use of effective probing questions. The gap you identify between the two is your sales opportunity.

Example Number Five-Impactful Story Sharing

• All customers love to hear good, impactful success stories, especially those that are related to their desired future state. It’s the job of the sales professional to understand all of the success stories their company has to offer.

• More importantly, when the sales person is engaged in a conversation with a prospect it is their job to recognize which success story should be shared with the client based on their knowledge of that prospects “current state” and “desired future state.”

• Lastly, an impactful success story should detail the specific challenge(s) the client faced, the solution your company offered and the business benefits (quantitative preferred) the client achieved as a result from your solution.

• Again, these are just a few examples of consultative selling. There are certainly numerous others but hopefully this can provide a few new “tools” for your tool box.

Happy Selling!

Other Sales Chats

• Five Tips & Examples For Consultative Selling • Three Tips For Planning Your 2014 Sales Kickoff Meeting

• Developing Your Business Acumen: What it is and How to Develop it. • 4 Prospecting Tips-Keys to Opening New Accounts Quicker • 5 Tips for Running Successful Sales Meetings • Four Tips for Objection Handling • Your Sales People Should Be Doing This at Your Kickoff Meeting