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Posts Tagged ‘Consultations’

Do you often make your best sales presentation, only to be shown the door without a contract? The problem may lie, not with your presentation skills, but with your approach. Offering yourself as a consultant can be a great strategy for setting more appointments and finalizing more sales. Here are three basic steps to follow when setting appointments, pitching your product and closing the sale, all from a consultation standpoint.

Step One: Set a Consulting Appointment

To make time spent on the phone setting appointments more productive, skip the sales pitch and offer to review their current product use. You could say, for example, “I’m glad to hear you’re currently outsourcing your payroll. That’s a great way to save your company time and money. What I’d like to do is review your payroll services and help you identify any additional savings opportunities.”

Notice that I didn’t say, “I think we have something you need to buy.” Today’s business managers are swamped with sales calls, and their first response to your hard sell will be “No!” Offering your services as a consultant, instead, lets them know they’ll benefit whether or not they become your client. That’s a very effective way to gain access to business managers already buying from your competition.

Step Two: Be Ready to Serve

How can not making a sale be of benefit to either you or the prospect? Here’s an important concept to learn as you build your business: Once you acknowledge that not every person you meet will become a client, you’re free to serve them in ways that will make them remember you.

In other words, take the pressure off yourself to make every sale and start looking for ways to serve the people you consult with. Can you help them save money? Do you have industry-specific knowledge that will help their business become more productive?

If you’re able to think creatively about problems plaguing their business, you instantly gain credibility with frustrated owners and managers. By removing the need to “sell, sell, sell!” your mind is free to create solutions of real benefit to prospective clients.

Here’s the takeaway: Approach your consultation appointments with an attitude of service to decrease client skepticism and open doors to future business. Help prospects without demanding a sale to keep yourself front-of-mind when they’re seeking new vendors.

Step Three: Lead Them to the Best Solution

It’s possible your product or service really is the best solution for their business. By honoring your promise to act as a consultant rather than a sales rep, you position yourself to lead them to that solution. Here’s how…

- Ask questions designed to uncover their current solution and its cost.
- Find out how well the solution is working and what they would like to change.
- The information you gain automatically tells you if your product or service will be of benefit.

Here are the two possible scenarios for completing your consultation appointment:

1)    If you can truly be of service, let them know you have ideas for significant savings and set a follow-up appointment to present them.

2)    If you find their current solution is sufficient, leave them with helpful information about their industry, market or business processes.

Whether you make an immediate sale or not, you’ve cemented yourself in their minds as someone willing to help. When issues arise that their current vendor can’t resolve or they’re required to rebid services, your name will naturally come to mind.

When sales stagnate or your client list keeps fluctuating, try using the consultation approach to set the stage for new business. Skip the hard sell and learn to ask questions that allow you to create solutions. By positioning yourself as a consultant, you’ll soon be seen in a whole new light by those in need of your services.

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