Sales Training: Transactional vs. Consultative Selling

How to Shift From Taking Orders to Selling Solutions

Danita Bye

Shift your sales team from taking orders to selling products.

When you sell, do you conduct a transaction or do you place one more Ace on the fragile house of cards that is a business relationship? In short, are you a salesperson or are you a sales consultant?

Your answer says a lot about your prospects for long-term survival in the profession.

You’ve most likely run across the terms “transactional” and “consultative” in regard to selling philosophies and might know that the former is a lot like The Simpsons’ Apu Nahasapeemapetilon’s approach (“Thank you! Come again!”), while the latter emphasizes a mutually beneficial and ongoing relationship that would appeal to socially conscious Lisa Simpson. But it goes a lot deeper than that. To see how deep, let’s first focus on the customer – always a good move in sales – and discuss some of the distinctions between the transactional and consultative types.

The Customer Within the Customer

When many salespeople think of a customer, they picture the transactional type: Price-obsessed, commodity-minded, and fickle in the extreme. These customers want it fast, they want it cheap, and they don’t care who gives it to them. These customers love products of the fast-food variety – what they buy may taste like cardboard, but at least they’ve got a full stomach to show for it.

On the other hand, the hand that doesn’t get as much attention, you’ve got the consultative sort of customer. This guy or gal sees beyond the product to the solution they need. They’re looking for expertise, customization, and a face to turn to when things get hairy. To them, “good enough” is neither “good” nor “enough.”

Here’s the thing, though: Transactional customers know they don’t need salespeople; they need order-takers. But here’s another thing about transactional customers, something they don’t know about themselves: Inside each one of them is a consultative customer clawing its way to the surface.

One of the first and most important jobs of the salesperson – or should I say “sales consultant” – then is to convince customers who don’t know it that, deep down, they want more than they’re asking for.

The Salesperson as Advisor

The key trait of a consultative salesperson is they take the time to read between the lines, to listen as hard to what a customer is not saying as what they are saying. Then, with this information in hand, the consultative salesperson expands the customer’s thinking, helping them to see that although their problem might be adequately solved by a transactional sale – at least in the short term – solving their real and utterly unique problem in a lasting and highly satisfactory way demands a consultative approach.

Let’s say you sell cars, typically a very transactional sort of sale. A customer comes up to you, with four squabbling kids in tow, and says “I need a car.” Now, think for a moment about what this customer isn’t saying, which might go something like this: “What I really need is a way to get these kids to school, play practice, Chuck E. Cheese, and sundry while maintaining my very loose hold on sanity and with enough money left over to buy earplugs.”

Or something like that. You’ll uncover what the customer secretly wants when you ask your qualifying questions. But notice that you’ll never hear that the customer wants a car – what they want is a solution, the best solution that fits into their budget and gives them the least trouble in the long haul. A car has nothing to do with it.

Here’s your chance to feed the consultative side of your customer’s nature. After rooting out what they really want, you’ll advise them how best to get it. You’ll point out that the Wagon Queen Family Truckster – not the cheapest vehicle on the lot, by far – has more than enough room for the kiddies in back – way in back – and optionally comes with flip-down DVD players, commercial grade child restraints, and a soundproof barrier between the front and rear seats. You’ll tell them that the Family Truckster’s gas mileage, while not the best, is more than offset by the above benefits, plus the peace of mind of a 10-year bumper-to-bumper warranty and your dealership’s 30-year history of high customer satisfaction. And by the way, if you have any problems after you buy the Truckster, head on back here and I’ll see to them personally. Heck, I’ll even watch the kids during the test drive.

Some Sales Strategy: The Salesperson as Solution Finder

Your customer’s not buying a car, or whatever it is you sell. They’re buying a solution, often to an ill-defined problem. By helping them define that problem, then advising a solution seemingly – or actually – tailor-made to address it, you’ve become more than a salesperson. You’ve become a sales consultant, someone who’s in the customer’s corner, and the sale has become a collaborative effort between the both of you.

Even more than that, though, you’ve become a sort of customer farmer, instead of a shoot-to-kill hunter. Because you’ve made it your business to sell the customers what they really need, as opposed to what they’ve asked for, you’ve planted seeds of trust that will bear fruit over the customer’s lifetime.

Now, since you’re probably asking right now: Isn’t all of the above just good selling? If you think so, go to the head of the class, make your sales, live long and prosper. The best selling is consultative selling. And the best salespeople are actually sales consultants, no matter what they choose to call themselves.

So ask questions. Note the answers you hear and those you don’t. Create a solution that solves the customer’s real problems, not those they’ve been told they have or would like to think they have. Advise your customer, partner with your customer, make it your business to be there at every point of the sales process and beyond.

Do all that and you’ll be in business for a long time to come…

For more insights on Sales Strategy and Sales Process, visit Sales Growth Specialists.

Bio: Danita Bye

Nationally recognized sales management and leadership expert Danita Bye built her reputation on building and inspiring process-oriented, no excuse, high-performance sales teams that deliver bottom line results. With her unique Fortune-100-turned-entrepreneur perspective, Danita helps CEOs and company presidents take their businesses to the next level. Her practical, no-nonsense approach to sales management, combined with her leadership acumen, enables sales leadership to increase sales, creating predictable revenue streams.

As a 10-year veteran of the Xerox Corporation, Danita consistently achieved award winning sales performance before leaving to become an equity partner and national sales manager for a Minneapolis-based medical device company. In this capacity, she increased annual revenues from $300,000 to a run rate of $20 million in just ten years.

Danita has authored numerous articles on sales management and leadership. In addition, she was a featured as a sales development expert on the TV show, “The Ruthless Entrepreneur,” which is currently airing on the Oxygen Network. Leadership Shift, Management Acceleration and a library of eBooks on critical sales management issues are available on the Sales Growth Specialists’ website.

Danita can be reached at Danita@SalesGrowthSpecialists.com, 612-267-3320 or 800-256-2799.

For more insights on Sales Strategy and Sales Process, visit www.SalesGrowthSpecialists.com.