Wayback

Way back in my selling days, a wise customer once told me that the value in what he buys is in the advice and counsel he gets as he is buying it. In other words, he derived value from the shared ideas and information exchanged during the selection processes and the quality of information that came form one sales person versus another was usually the deciding factor. Why bring that up now? No matter what your business model chances are your CSO is talking about consultative selling. Translated: put the customer’s needs first. Consultative sales people make proactive efforts to understand the prospect’s business model and market environment before making the appointment. Listen and probe for root causes during the call and only make a recommendation when they know the customer's rationale. Sounds pretty basic doesn’t it? Yet, the majority of sales people don’t do so effectively. Actually few come close.

Potential buyers say reps do not understand their business and make exaggerated claims. They are also put off by reps who don’t follow their buying process or are pushy and disrespectful. Companies looking to gain an edge in the marketplace through “consultative selling” would be wise to reinforce the process as much as the outcome. All too often incentive program designers set out to reward top performers with lavish trips or big screen plasmas but ignore the steady, ‘B” player in the process. I have talked before about the role of the “middle 60” and the economic justification of including them in your payout structure. However, one should also consider the mixed message sent when sales results alone are rewarded. If the push is to close the deal then the potential for exaggerated claims and all the other bad selling behaviors that clients detest are likely to reemerge in the selling process. Instead you may want to set aside a portion of your funding to reward innovative consultative approaches that some took while working to align your product with a customer’s need.