The Sales consultative process doesn’t end with information gathering and proposal delivery, but rather continues through the decision making process and into delivery of the product or service.
The Decision Process
Another place you may get stuck is after you have delivered the proposal. Often your prospect will say they need to think about it and you may leave the meeting asking if you can get back to them. You call back and say “Well, what do you think?” And you guessed it, the client has not made a decision and you don’t have any additional information to go on and so you hang up the phone and wonder what is going on and why they don’t make a decision.
Process For Making A Decision
A better approach is to give the client a process to help them make a decision. In my coaching I ask them to take out a sheet of paper and go to a quiet place and start writing a letter as if to a friend about all that they think they can accomplish in working with me and then to write what they are concerned about. If they are still unclear, I tell them to put the letter away for a day and ask for some type of sign as to the best approach.
Then I ask to set up an appointment for 2-3 days later at which time we will decide whether to go forward or not. The upcoming appointment creates some urgency in their mind and the decision is easier for them to make. There is some type of subconscious processing that goes on and helps them through the decision process by knowing that they have a date and time set up to deliver a decision.
In this way I am helping them make the decision and putting a timeline on it, so that they don’t have to try to figure everything out for themselves.
The sales consultative process asks you to put yourself in your prospects place and help move them through the entire process, not just throw a document into their lap and hope that they are thinking the same way that you are.
If you are reading this and have any questions feel free to contact me.
Related posts:
- Sales Consultative; Build Relationship Through Taking Action Together – Proposal Delivery Last week I talked about using a sales consultative approach...
- Sales Consultative; Build Relationship Through Taking Action Together – Continued There may be more steps in the sales consultative process...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Great series of posts! I never even had a concept that sales should be such a deliberate process. Many of the sales people I’ve worked with seem to operate by the seat of their pants. This seems like a much more desired process for small business people who are struggling with the sales process.
I would think that a deliberate process would help people who have difficulty with sales.