Misc. Ramblings: The Challenge of Consultative eSelling – Part 1

This is not intended to be an exhaustive essay on the history or components of consultative selling. My goal is to address the challenges of this effective sales model in the virtual medium; it is hard enough face to face to make it work.

The assumptions you must operate under:
1. You are hired to be fired!? In other words, your job is not to tell them what they want to hear, your job is to tell them what they need to hear. If you are selling expertise, then you must be brave enough to risk losing the sale. They have staff on salary to reinforce their opinions.

2. Usually, you are being presented with both the problem and a solution. If you accept this as truth, it becomes a relationship sale. Clients typically do not have a handle on the real situation because of issues beyond this commentary. They need the expertise you bring plus a new and unbiased set of eyes to move upstream until the real source of the pain is identified.

3. The essence of consultative selling is collaboratively assessing and diagnosing the situation. The sale is really made when you and the client become convinced that the true problem has been identified. Solutions now become simple.

4. Argue against your own interest!? First, your analysis must be independent of recommendations otherwise, it is tainted. The client must believe that the results represent the truth without agenda. If your work can achieve this end, sufficient credibility exists to compete for the next stage in the sale. Also, if you are not the best provider – pass it up and/or help them find someone else. Delivering where you are incompetent is a recipe for death (margins and reputation).

One note on item 4. If you consistently find you lack the right deliverable, one of two problems exists.

Problem One: wrong value chain. Your target accounts do not fit the offer and the solution is to revise your marketing campaign – continue to micro segment until a fit exist.

Problem Two: Your offer (products & services) lack the breath or depth to service these clients, the solution is to build these deliverables and improve the offer.

Now for the online challenge, without an ongoing relationship where clients know you, questioning their decisions will lead to the end of the opportunity. You must create the perception of credibility and integrity; you mean them no harm and are their number one advocate.

Next Step – Building a Relationship that allows for truth.

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.

My 7 Rules of Marketing

A quickie for all:
1. Marketing-Sales-Service are distinct functions but are a single, integrated process, the customer always suffers from inconsistencies
2. Always mobilize resources around targeted campaigns, never throw it against the wall. Resources (time, money, energy, people) are too scarce, lack of working capital too dangerous to be risked
3. Targeted campaigns always focus on a market and its entire value chain: clients, their clients, suppliers, distribution channels, producers, etc., never just clients
4. The essence of any offer is uniqueness: in consulting & training = understanding client issues, new ideas, quality of sales and delivery team, prior results, and value for price - what is your uniqueness?
5. Integrate the message - the look and feel of all materials, packaging, web sites, etc.
6. Minimize the risk by never over burdening any single event - sales success is incremental, not about turning cold calls into immediate sales - it doesn't happen!
7. Nothing is good or bad, it works or it doesn't, if it doesn't test - change it

Startup @day 17

Man do I hate talking on the phone. However, building a virtual business forces me to deal with this strange personality quirk.

The majority of todays calls were on the problem of identifying: markets, services (products), channels, and pricing. A long term virtual friend (we met for the first time last month after 5 years of online business) and I pooled our resources to frame the brand promise and products and services for delivery.

He reviewed my powerpoint presentation on market research and agreed on a brand statement:

"provide eMarketing & eSales services to small consulting and training companies"

Not catchy, but concise and accurate for now. What to do with my portfolio of products and services was postponed to a later conversation on immediate cash flow. We have 17 days before something has to be sold.

The under 20 person firm represents about 60% of the market. Their business is one huge sine wave - very busy delivering with no sales activities then no work with very reactive selling to pay the bills. The end result is a crisis of working capital and the spoilage of resources. Spoilage because selling calendars (time) is like selling milk - it spoils and is no longer available. You can't sell yesterday!

I finished up the day contracting former business partners (outsourcing companies) on building a working eMarketing & eSales model for our industry. I'll report on that design tomorrow. Ciao for now.

Countdown to startup - 18 days for Stage I

Day 2
Spent yesterday organizing and assembling all of my notes, ides, files, etc. to assemble the startup for 2005. I also spent part of the day on the phone requesting participation or following up on previous commitments. I will post in a separate location a downloadable file the rules of Stage I, however the following is a quick overview:

• research the market and validate under/unserved markets with attractive economics for potential solution
• solidify brand promise and products/services for delivery
• business and marketing plans in place
• assemble the best possible team of associates for a blend of expertise and products/services to round out the portfolio - goal is breath and depth that is congruent
  
• have the absolute minimum viable product/service offer for execution (sales) in the shortest period of time
  
• ensure infrastructure and resources available to delight the customer (and suppliers) early for improvements and referrals
• personal selling from the executive team
  

We have 18 days to complete all the steps required to be ready for sales on Monday, 24 JAN 05. - stay tuned.

pryvateer.biz

How many of you rented the movie "startup.com"? It was a great movie about a real startup that didn't make it for a host of obvious reasons and I cite it now to describe what will happen over the next 8 months - the anatomy of a startup.

pryvateer.biz is the culmination of 26 years in the consulting/training industry, 6 startups in the last 17, and thousands of research hours all with one end in mind; how can the risks of starting a successful business be minimized?

I will chronicle that process with all the good, the bad, and the ugly for your edutainment. But I'm not doing this to be a good guy or demonstrate a need for exhibitionism. I have a significant piece of the puzzle, your puzzle for sustainable growth, and will build a very successful consulting practice delivering services (and products) the Fortune 500 paid $5k a day to receive.

My passion is the entrepreneur, the startup business, the dream of market dominance. If you share the same dream, the same fears - saddle up.