Consultative selling is a key skill required by European companies, particularly SMEs, operating in business to business at a moment when practices in this domain are impacted by several factors for change including solution selling, acceleration of the innovation processes, increasing needs for an entrepreneurial attitude and the development of e-business in business to business purchasing and customer relationship management. This type of sale is characterized by:
- A long and complex sale cycle
- A multi-members and complex purchasing group
- A strong customer and problem solving orientation
- A sale of solution, customized by several internal or external contributors
- A long term customer relationship based on confidence
Challenges
In such an environment, sales people are faced with many challenges which require for themselves a large spectrum of competences. Examples of challenges are:
- Getting to know profitable customers
- Creating superior value for these customers through the provision of solutions
- Understanding the managerial issues to which each of the member of the decision making unit at customer’s level is faced
- Setting the right sales process for themselves and investing efforts at the right stages.
Competences
Competences required to address these challenges are multiple:
- On one end of the competence spectrum, sales people should understand the economical and technical challenges of their customers through a sound knowledge of the industry in which they operate
- On the other end of the spectrum, they should develop close relationships with each decision makers at customers’ level through adequate attitudes
Competences required may be seen as a pyramid with at the bottom the basic knowledge: getting to know the fundamentals of business environment, of marketing and finance seen from a sales perspective. At the second level, specific knowledge associated to the context of customer-supplier relationship is required: understanding customer’s behaviour on the one hand and knowing how to prepare ones company to the sales relationship on the other hand. At the third level selling skills are embedded in the management of the sales process and the management of the sales performance. At last on the top correct attitudes are requested to establish adequate relations with the customers.