Consultative Selling Vs Traditional Selling

I’d like to spend some time talking to you about the consultative selling process, but I think we first need to define exactly what consultative selling is. For most new sellers, selling is selling, but it just isn’t.

In a traditional sales environment, you as a salesperson have a product that you need to sell. When you approach a potential customer, you are prepared to share all the benefits of the product itself and convince your customer why they should make a purchase. Your job is to manipulate the customer into thinking they want your product, even if they don’t really need it.

During the traditional sales process, the salesperson remains in control of the conversation from start to finish. He asks questions and then makes assumptions about what the customer needs. At the end of the conversation, he may try to determine whether or not he has done a good job of convincing the customer that he wants the product.

The consultative selling process is very different. Consultative selling is not as manipulative as traditional selling, if you can call it that. A salesperson who participates in a consultative selling process takes the time to get to know the customer and their needs. He asks a lot of questions and gives the customer plenty of time to answer them instead of trying to corner the customer with his own train of thought.

The goal of the consultative salesperson is to determine what needs the customer has and then present ways to address those needs. Again, the focus here is on need, whereas the traditional salesperson relies on a customer wanting something. They are two very different concepts.

Now that we’ve defined both types of sales, we’ve laid the groundwork for future discussions. Until then, think about your sales methods and let me know: do you do traditional or consultative sales?