I hear this term more often than I care to admit.  So many companies and Sales Managers tell me “We have a consultative sales approach.” “We want our people to really take more of a consultative approach” The funny thing is that so few of the sales managers saying this actually know what that means.  I’m not saying that you have to have been a consultant to sell like one, but you have to understand what and how people want to buy.  They do not want to be sold and they are tired of the old way of selling.  Andrew Sobel said it best in his book “Making Rain”

“In today’s markets, you win by assiduously building relationships with clients , being willing to stick with them over the long term, and adding value every step of the way.  Golf and Lunch are nice, but they no longer represent real value to clients – they can get these from anyone.”

In today’s market, I believe that the real consultative sales person will have the lowest expense account on the team.  Bringing value to a meeting may mean a Latte or Coffee from Starbuck’s, but a nice lunch or dinner only adds a dimension of Dis-trust to the equation.  If you can afford to buy a nice dinner, round of golf, or fancy lunch… what does that say about 1) your prices, and 2) your business acumen.

In this economy, showing value is about understanding their business and the business challenges that they face. Once you understand that, you work diligently WITH them to help them solve these issues.  This will win more sales than any lunch or golf game.

So… What is your plan to know as much about your targets and key accounts as possible?

Trashing your competitor is viewed as “old school”

People want answers and solutions to problems.  Anything that sounds like sales hype and competitor bashing doesn’t work.  With so many sources of information available, it is too easy to get a different view and more factual data.  Buyers are past the scare tactics of the past (I am talking selling here).  Remember FUD?  (fear, uncertainty, and doubt)  FUD is less effective these days, since anything we say can be fact checked and researched in seconds. Trashing the competition among your base may work (see Salesforce.com @ Dream force), but without solutions to back it up, you are preaching to the choir.

More experience and time in the market does not equal immediate credibility

We have to earn the trust of the buyer everyday.  Every interaction that doesn’t talk about them and their problems and their issues, is an interaction that that is not getting new customers.

Some people embrace change and others do not

If your product or service changes the way an industry or company does business, or changes the behaviors in a significant way, look for those people that are more open to change.  (Especially if you are a new disruptive technology)

Conventional wisdom can be TOO conventional

Don’t be afraid to go after markets that you have never been able to penetrate before.  It could be your message and they may be receptive to a different message., especially if it is about them and their pain.

Anything stand out for you?

As I sit typing this, I admit that I have been staring at the screen for an hour. (well, maybe not a full hour, but..) With everything that is going on in the markets around the world, I just couldn’t decide what to post.  I finally decided that if I could offer some tips for surviving the fourth quarter and setting up the first quarter that would be useful.

Last week I made several suggestions including looking at past business and past messaging.  All of that applies still.  However, I would suggest a few more things for this quarter.

First, focus on the fundamentals.  Get back to basics. One of my favorite stories is about Vince Lombardi.  Every year the first day of training camp he would hold up a ball as say to the team, “This is a Foot Ball.”   By the way, by fundamentals I mean, Prospecting, Questioning, cold calls, customer follow up, research, and of course Strategy Planning.

What are you or you team doing to focus on the fundamentals?  Check out the about.com article by Darrell Zahorsky.  He has great experience and a nice write up on sales strategies.

Now is all of the focus on Q4, don’t forget about Q1.  I am fond of saying that as sales people we “Drain the swamp” every year end… But the most successful sales people plan for the first quarter.  They get out of the gate fast and don’t have to play catch up.  We as sales people have a big red RESET button that gets pushed on December 31^st.

One way to get a jump on the first quarter is to elephant hunt in the fourth.  Why?  Because you know that you aren’t looking for end of year business, and so do they.  You have time to build a relationship and sell at a slower pace that large enterprise companies need anyway.  For a good article on Elephant hunting, see Ray Silverstein’s article at Entrepreneur.com.

Last suggestion… Stop worrying about the 201(k).  I say to myself and always to sales teams… “Sell your way out of it!”