Startup @day 16

I serve as a pro-bono consultant or board member for a number of consulting and training firms. With out fail each have the same marketing and sales challenges. Several are looking hard at the virtual medium for a solution providing me an opportunity to review models, concepts, and theories.

I have gleaned a couple of quick lessons from this tower of babel on how to mix web with bricks and mortar selling. The virtual world challenges traditional approaches to selling. I have learned, practiced, and managed from the mindset that three basic models sales models exist and are mutually exclusive.

You can only use one approach to selling: transactional, realtionship, or consultative.

1. Transactional selling is nothing more than order taking such as catalog sales and the model for eCommerce sites. It works with products (not services) that require little or no support to purchase or use. This is primarily a "price" based purchase, the buyer usually at the lowest organizational level.

2. Relationship selling is based upon building a personal bond with the client to influence buying decisions. Typically it is found with buyers at mid-level and the ability to create uniqueness is limited to the buying experience, not the product or service. This is a "piece of mind" sale.

3. Consultative selling is about solving problems requiring the ability to assess or diagnose the clients situation, and have a track record of success. Typically it is found with buyers in the "C" suite (CEO, CFO, COO, CIO, etc.) in search of solutions to critical business problems. This is a "ROI" sale.

Given traditional and common approach to selecting a sales model, the web is crashing many of our prior assumptions. One is the transactional sales model. It should be perfect for the web environment and yet how many of you have put up merchant sites without the expected sales?

The reality of the virtual medium is all three selling models must be present in an environment built for transactional selling and with significant obstacles for creating relationships or consulting on problems.

My preliminary analysis (and it explains several unfavorable experiences) is an effective eMarketing and eSales process must do it all: RELATIONSHIP > CONSULTATIVE > TRANSACTIONAL.