What consultative selling is
Consultative selling is finding out what the buyer needs before you tell them what you sell. You ask, you listen, you check you've understood, and only then do you recommend something. Sometimes the recommendation is "we're not the right fit".
The opposite is the pitch: you open with your product, walk through the features and hope one of them lands. It's faster to prepare and it feels productive. It also leaves the buyer comparing your feature list with three others on price.
Most reps know this already. The hard part is doing it when you're nervous, behind on your number, or the buyer asks "so what do you do?" in the first minute. The six steps below give the call a shape, so you don't fall back into the pitch.
The six steps of a consultative call
1. Prepare
Spend ten minutes before the call. Look at their website, their recent news and, if you have it, what they said when they first got in touch. Write down three things:
- What you think their situation is.
- The problem you suspect they have.
- The one question you most want answered.
You'll probably be wrong about the first two. That's fine. Preparing gives you better questions, and the buyer notices you did your homework.
2. Ask questions in an order
Questions work best in a sequence, from the facts of how things are today, to what's hard about it, to what that costs, to what better would look like. Jumping straight to "what's your biggest problem?" gets a vague answer. Building up to it gets a specific one.
Situation questions come first. They're easy to answer and they get the buyer talking.
Situation
- Walk me through how you handle [the process] today, from start to finish.
- Who's involved, and where does it usually start?
- What are you using for it right now?
- What made you look at this now rather than six months ago?
Problem questions find where it hurts. Ask them once you understand the situation, and use the buyer's own words.
Problem
- Where does that break down most often?
- You mentioned [their words]. What happens when that goes wrong?
- What have you already tried?
- Who else on the team feels this?
Impact questions turn a problem into a cost. They're the ones most reps skip, and they're where the buyer starts to sell themselves.
Impact
- What does that cost you in a normal week, in time or money?
- What happens if nothing changes by [date that matters to them]?
- Has it ever lost you a client, a deadline or a hire?
What good looks like questions let the buyer describe the outcome. Their answer tells you what to recommend and how to describe it.
What good looks like
- If this were fixed, what would be different a month from now?
- How would you know it had worked?
- What would make this an easy decision for you?
- Who besides you needs to be happy with it?
You won't ask all of these. Pick two or three from each group before the call, and let the conversation choose the rest.
3. Listen
Ask one question, then stop talking. Let silences run a few seconds longer than feels comfortable; buyers often add the useful part after a pause. Take notes in their words, not yours. When they say "it's a nightmare every Monday", write that down, because you'll use it later.
A rough check after a call: if you did most of the talking before the recommendation, you pitched.
4. Play it back
Before you recommend anything, sum up what you heard and ask if you got it right.
"Let me check I've got this. Right now [situation]. The part that hurts is [problem, in their words], and it's costing you about [impact]. If it were fixed, you'd [what good looks like]. Did I miss anything?"
This is the most useful minute of the call. Buyers correct you, add the thing they forgot, or say "yes, exactly", which is the best sign you'll get. It also shows them you listened, which most sellers don't.
5. Recommend
Now recommend, and tie each part of it to something they said. Keep it short: what you'd suggest, why it fits their problem, and what it would take. If only part of what you sell fits, say so. If none of it fits, say that too, and point them somewhere better. You'll get referrals from people you turned away honestly.
"From what you've said, I'd suggest [one thing], because [their problem in their words]. It would mean [what it takes from them]. The part I'd leave out for now is [thing], because it doesn't fix what you described."
6. Agree a next step
End every call with a next step that has a date and a person. "I'll send something over" isn't a next step. "I'll send the proposal by Thursday, and we'll talk it through on Monday at 10 with you and your partner" is.
"What would be a sensible next step from your side?"
"Who else should be in that conversation?"
"Can we put [day and time] in the diary now?"
Write the date down straight after the call, somewhere you'll see it on the day. If the buyer goes quiet after that, follow-up email templates has messages for each stage. If you send a proposal, the consulting proposal template builds it around the problem the buyer described.
Step six only works if the date sticks. ActivityTracker keeps every callback on today's list, so the next step you agreed on the call is waiting for you on the day.
A made-up call, worked through
Made-up example: Ravi sells bookkeeping services to small online shops. He has a 30-minute first call with Sara, who runs a shop selling kitchenware.
Prepare (10 minutes): her site shows about 200 products and a new wholesale page. He guesses she's doing her own books and wholesale has made them messier.
Situation: she does the books herself on Sunday evenings, in a spreadsheet, with help from her brother at year end.
Problem: wholesale orders are paid on 30 days, and she's lost track of who owes what. Two invoices went unpaid for three months before she noticed.
Impact: Ravi asks what that cost. She works it out as a few thousand in late cash and "every Sunday night for a year".
What good looks like: she'd know who owes what without opening the spreadsheet, and have Sundays back.
Play back: Ravi sums it up. Sara adds that her brother is moving abroad, so year end is a worry too.
Recommend: monthly books plus a weekly list of unpaid invoices. He leaves out payroll, because she doesn't have staff.
Next step: proposal by Thursday, a 20-minute call on Monday at 10. He writes both in his diary before the next call. The details are invented.
How to practise without a course
- Record one call a week, with permission, and listen for one thing: how long you talked before your first question about their problem.
- Before each call, write your two situation questions, two problem questions and one impact question on paper.
- Practise the playback out loud with a colleague. They describe a made-up business for three minutes, you sum it up in thirty seconds.
- Count your next steps. At the end of each day, how many calls ended with a date in the diary?
Sales skills training covers how to practise one skill at a time over a few weeks.
Where it goes wrong
- Interrogation. Twenty questions in a row feels like a form. Play back what you heard every few minutes so it feels like a conversation.
- Asking and not listening. If your next question ignores their answer, the buyer stops giving you real ones.
- Leading questions. "Wouldn't it be great if...?" is a pitch with a question mark.
- Never recommending. Some reps get so comfortable asking that they don't make a clear suggestion. The buyer came for one.
- No next step. A great conversation with no date on the next step goes cold in a week.
- Arguing with an objection. When a buyer pushes back, go back to asking. Common sales objections has eight, with what each one usually means.