Consultative Selling – Speed Up Your Construction Sales Process
As an experienced construction product sales professional, “consultative selling” should be a very familiar term – but how well do you incorporate it into your client meeting?
Effective selling is all about using your ears more than your mouth. When pitching against strong competition, it is of course natural to want to shout about your product and customer service, so that you can be heard against the backdrop of promotional noise from your competitors. And let’s not forget, you have targets to be met, so you can’t afford to hang around and indulge in lengthy conversations with a potential new client!
If you’ve tried the consultative selling approach but find it just doesn’t close the deal as fast as you’d like it to, then perhaps you need to reassess your technique?
It’s all about helping the potential client to make a purchasing decision as quickly as possible. Put yourself in their shoes. Amidst all the cacophony of marketing speak and generic propositions; they hear a voice which seems to understand their company and its needs, to appreciate what needs to be done and is capable of fulfilling those needs precisely.
By listening carefully to (and often being able to interpret) exactly what is required, you can often circumvent the circus that is the pitch, and deliver a hard hitting solution which the customer will automatically identify as being the best answer.
How the customer divulges the information you need of course, is entirely up to you, and effective preparation is key to successful consultative selling. You need to be able to learn as much as you can about a company in order to at least expect them to meet you half way in developing any kind of solid working relationship. It is this relationship which will then encourage them to give you the information you need, so that you can prepare the best offering possible. Respect and trust must be in place between you and the individual, before you can realistically expect them to become a regular, repeat client.
The kiss of death in a construction product sales pitch comes when the potential client feels that you’re not in actual fact interested in their company, but in meeting your sales targets. Remember that what you’re really being asked to do is to invest yourself in their organisation. What they need is someone with experience and expertise who will help to pave the way for their company to grow, rather than someone who will forget them until the next time a sales opportunity arises.
Of course, retaining and communicating information about your product’s specific features, advantages and benefits should always form part of your pitch, but only in relation to your potential client’s individual needs and circumstances. In this way, rather than engaging in several non-productive meetings and waving a sad farewell as your sales target deadline disappears over the horizon, consultative selling will in fact help the person to reach (hopefully the best) decision in a much shorter time.
