Benefits of a Consultative Sales Approach | Sales Executive Search
      Benefits of a Consultative Sales Approach | Sales Executive Recruiters

      Benefits of a Consultative Sales Approach

      At the risk of stating the obvious, it might be essential to start with the fact that buyers want to be understood in today’s marketplace. Historically, this was not always so. At some point in time, buyers were content with basics like quality service and fair pricing.

      These days, modern buyers have higher expectations for things like:

      1. Proactive service
      2. Personalized interactions
      3. Connected experiences across multiple digital channels

      A deliberate approach to meeting these expectations is a significant differentiating factor for many in sales. As a result, buyers are more likely to go with sellers who make an effort. According to this Salesforce Report, 66% of 15,600 business buyers surveyed expect companies to understand their needs and expectations. In addition, about 85% stated that they are more likely to buy from sales reps who do so. 

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      Regrettably, until technology allows us to read minds, developing a critical understanding of the customer is not so straightforward. So positioning is important. Salespersons must be capable of selling not only their product or service but also of selling themselves as strategic advisors capable of helping solve customers’ business problems. 

      This requires considerable investment in developing personal ties and dialogue with customers — just enough to gauge their backgrounds, lifestyles, and preferences and use those insights to offer solutions for specific needs.

      The entire sales pipeline utilizing these principles is known as the Consultative Sales Approach.

      Building Blocks of Consultative Sales

      As you may have surmised by now, the consultative sales approach is, by design, a customer-centric sales methodology rooted in problem-finding, education, and problem-solving. Rather than taking a transactional approach that merely emphasizes pre-rehearsed pitches, consultative sales involves garnering up-to-date insights on your customer’s pain points. 

      In this manner, the customer’s needs take precedence over the sale. Ironically, this method is proven to improve your deal-closing rates substantially more than if you prioritized the deal over the buyer’s needs. 

      A consultative sales approach begins with:

      1. Research: the point is to gather enough information to allow you to form insights into the prospect’s pain points, goals, and potential objections. 
      2. The Sales Pitch: The next step is to use this information not to construct a sales pitch for the prospect but to build a relationship.
      3. Dialogue: Also vital to the consultative approach, the dialogue and conversations that ensue should be even less about closing a deal and more about building trust. The trick here is to guide the conversation, actively listen, and ideate the best solutions that meet the prospect’s needs, and then provide them with the guidance to make an informed buying decision whether or not that results in a sale with you or your company. 

      Usually, the fact that you have done most of the work for your prospect, making it easy for them to navigate the sales process, positions you more compellingly and effectively. That eventually can translate into:

      1. Stronger retention
      2. Better conversion rates
      3. Higher ACV. 

      4 Key Benefits of a Consultative Sales Approach

      Here is a closer look at the primary advantages that can come with a consultative sales approach.

      Consultative Sales Benefit #1. Build indispensable trust & relationships.

      Cultivate essential trust and relationships with prospects while increasing your customer base with empathy and precision. With the right consultative sales approach, you can leverage key insights to:

      1. Understand a customer’s business challenges.
      2. Identify the solutions that best meet their needs.
      3. Develop strong customer loyalty and a solid foundation for repeat business.
      4. Increase your ACV, conversions, and/or customer retention rates.  

      Consultative Sales Benefit #2. Improve your sales process and keep pace with market changes.

      The ups and downs of the modern marketplace demand agility. To survive, businesses are paying more attention to business flexibility and adaptability, and all the success stories in sales are usually aligned to making agility part of their approach to selling.  

      Consultative selling is one approach that utilizes flexibility to significant effect. By design, the consultative approach seeks the most up-to-date reading of the customer’s needs. As these needs change more frequently, the sales professional is also able to:

      1. Keep pace with market changes.
      2. Make better decisions.
      3. Create the foundations that drive sales.
      4. Ensure customer satisfaction. 

      Consultative Sales Benefit #3. Increase customer confidence in your brand.

      You are not wasting your customer’s time asking them questions about their company; you can find out with a quick Google search. Instead, you are using your research to frame their problems in a way they had not yet thought about or found an answer to. This then helps you help them answer the question together. 

      Customers are more knowledgeable than ever, and it is highly likely that your customer already knows about your product, your competitors, and your pros and cons. Taking a consultative selling approach allows you to help them consider an issue they perhaps had not yet considered.

      This has the very beneficial effect of transforming you from a supplier/vendor into a solution-based strategic partner and increasing your value in your customer’s eyes. 

      Consultative Sales Benefit #4. Garner a competitive market advantage.

      In a world where it is effortless for competitors to quickly duplicate even the most unique product features, taking a consultative approach to sales makes it possible for a seller to create a differentiated offering by creating individualized customer value competitors cannot quickly provide. 

      Cowen Partners Executive Search | National Executive Search Firm

      At Cowen Partners, our sales executive recruiters are exceptionally skilled at delivering in-demand candidates, no matter the need and across all industries. Backed by a proven executive recruiting process, we have been the partner of choice for startups, corporations, small businesses, non-profits, and more, meeting unique and critical recruitment needs across the entire C-suite, including CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CMOs, CIOs, CTOs, CHROs, VPs of sales, other VPs, directors, and several other leadership roles. 

      With our executive recruiters, you get senior partner-led searches, due diligence-run networking, meticulous candidate vetting, and so much more, all geared towards one goal — placing the very best talent as soon as possible, all while ensuring a seamless fit with your company culture, your big-picture objectives, and other factors. Plus, we have one of the highest candidate retention rates in the industry while consistently delivering world-class talent faster than the competition. 

      That’s how Cowen Partners has become a leading executive search firm nationwide, and it’s why our executive recruiters have a reputation for excellence and success.

      Contact us to see why we are continually ranked as one of the best executive search firms around and why we have so many repeat and long-term clients, as well as referrals.

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