16.05 – Consultative Selling & Account-Based Marketing 101
Consultative selling focuses on advising prospects on making wise decisions rather than pushing a sale immediately. Consumers and clients prefer to be informed and involved rather than feeling sold to. Consultative selling involves providing information and insights that help your customers achieve their goals for costs, performance, outcomes, profits, and more.
Tactics for Consulting with Consumers
Consultative selling includes actions beyond providing information to help prospects and customers make objective decisions. Key tactics include:
- Consult first, build trust second, and sell third.
- Listen to your prospects’ and customers’ needs and act in their best interests, not your own.
- Offer suggestions and solutions that meet their purchasing goals, not your sales quota.
- Address their fears and demonstrate how you can help them avoid setbacks.
- Ask thought-provoking questions that inspire prospects and customers to consider their problems and solutions from new perspectives.
Following these steps builds value that your competitors can’t match.
Tips on Consultative Selling
Here are some effective tips for consultative selling:
- Gather information about your customers and prospects to identify:
- Specific issues and needs related to their job level and current market environment.
- Competitors likely contacting them, so you can address their messaging and build your case.
- Share industry data and insights that validate the need for your products and show calculations of how products in your category can impact a client’s bottom line.
- Anticipate questions your customers and prospects are likely to ask and be prepared to answer with confidence, validation, and facts.
- Ask what criteria drive their decisions about products and partners they choose. Don’t assume you already know the answer.
Consultative selling extends beyond the initial closing. It’s about nurturing the account for a lifetime and continuously adding value. Always:
- Follow through after the sale to ensure all expectations are met.
- Conduct periodic reviews to identify issues for improvement and new opportunities.
- Continue sharing insights to assist contacts with all aspects of their job.
If you lose a sale to competitors, contact those leads after a few months to check on their satisfaction. If they’re not happy, you may have an opportunity for a second chance with fewer competitors.
Relying on Account-Based Marketing
Even after gaining a customer, continue selling yourself and consulting them. Customers may decide to look elsewhere at any time. To prevent this, develop an account-based marketing (ABM) program for your sales team and customer service reps to follow.
ABM involves several tactics to identify risks and create opportunities. Here are three effective ABM activities:
Account Reviews
Meet with your clients at least once a quarter, ideally in person, to ask how you’re doing. Request them to score your team on responsiveness, service, and added value. Allow them to score your team members confidentially to obtain objective insights.
Job Personalised Offers and Rewards
Customise offers for new services and reward loyal customers with added value. Show how you reward their loyalty over time and how the added value can boost their bottom line.
Assessments or Audits
For larger accounts, audit the ROI they’ve experienced with you as their partner. For example, if you repair manufacturing or medical equipment, show them how much they saved with your repairs compared to the cost of a new device or machine.
Demonstrate that working with you has positively impacted customers’ revenue and profitability. This is a powerful marketing story when asking for more business or increasing your pricing.
By focusing on consultative selling and implementing ABM strategies, you can build lasting relationships, enhance customer satisfaction, and drive revenue growth.
