My Consultative Selling

This is a critical posting because one area that about 90% of agencies struggle with is understanding the arena they are in and how it differs from other arenas. The sale of intangible time-delayed services is, as a fact, a very challenging form of sales and one which requires a great deal of mental dexterity but a lot less glitz and glamour than you might think.

It’s easy to watch seminars from gurus claiming to have an at-bat in sales that are incredible, they often feature money falling from the sky, claims of millions in cash, private jets and all manner of things: it’s really ridiculous, some of them. But you seldom if ever get a cogent, coherent and above all contextual explanation of their sales process.

The sales processes most of these people advocate are almost a recipe for failure in our industry. There’s a very apt saying which I first heard from a friend of mine who is the most outstanding salesman I’ve ever met. In discussions years ago, he said something to the effect: “If it exists, they can hate you and still love the product: but if they love you and hate the product, you’re probably getting a dinner date and not a sale” — truer words were never spoken.

This sage advice applies to our industry more than nearly any other: medical and dental aside: each circumstance is unique, and each situation must be handled on its merits — we are not selling toasters.

Guru Meditation (Hello!@Anyone who remembers Commodore here)

What’s advocated very frequently by these sales gurus, speakers, whomever – and I won’t single anyone out or name names. It is a process that places the blame for the lack of a sale upon a salesperson they have taught only high-pressure tactics too. They are trying to sell IT solutions like an insane doctor who declares every patient to have a broken leg and orders his staff to put a cast on each one and if they refuse the case, they blame the doctor for not pushing the patient hard enough – insanity.

While it may be true that sales can sometimes be dicey and take some guts, sales itself comes in various modalities with different needs and practitioner methods.

Romancing Sales

This method of selling is what realtors employ, they study their prospects, listen to them, choose listings which they feel match the needs and abilities of their prospects, and then they pair the two. Perhaps the realtor is smart and begins the process of painting a future at/on/in the property for the prospect as they show it to them, they point out how convenient it is or how beautiful the scenery is. The romancing sales expert is someone who projects confidence but is, above all else, a likable person who takes the time to let their prospects pick a home to buy – they are just (ideally) smart enough to have decided to show them homes that fit their needs.

One-Call-Close

This model of sales is considered by many to be the hardest of all, and it takes guts to do it. I know, I learned sales doing this exact type of selling. This is sales whereby you book an appointment or otherwise find a prospect who may BE ABLE to buy what you’re selling. The key to OCC is never take no for an answer! – I know because a crook said that! – but it works. The fact is, many people are weak-minded and can be manipulated and pressed into buying things they cannot afford or don’t really require or even want anyway. Note: The same principle is at work here as is in false confessions, the idea is to simply keep cycling back to the close that the prospect gives up resisting and just buys.

I have to say that my time learning this method of sales has strongly colored my views upon selling – generally. I was fortunate enough to be using such tactics to sell people something they genuinely require – at least in my opinion – clean water free of pesticides, herbicides and every other contaminant. This sandbar of a state (Florida) has to offer at every home’s water tap – be it well or otherwise.

Next I’m going to move on to talking about Consultative selling, but before venturing there, it’s important to take stock of a few more things.

Selling SEO, Websites, Software Dev & More…

Since we aren’t selling existing things, what are we selling? Efforts. Once you understand this basic fact that the scrutiny natural to sales has nowhere to focus but upon the consultant and take the form of questions. Those of us who have sold various IT solutions successfully all understand this, and we understand a more immediate implication of this: we are selling ourselves as much as our company and its efforts.

Service Salespeople

Often times I’ve bumped into very slick salesmen and women and pitchmen and women who could hop on a stage and wow a crowd or sell anything. To talk to them and speak with them, one would say they project an image of success and professionalism. However, when put in the field and in meetings to consult to sell services, they very often fail miserably as consultants: sorry, it’s true; but why? 

The reason is really baked into our conditioning of what we’re looking at. Imagine (try this, right now) the image of a used car salesman and alternately imagine a true “hacker” if you will, in a social sense in our society. The car salesman is that slick, polished, well-spoken huckster who will stare you straight in the eye and tell you a Yugo is a significant value .vs. a Toyota… right?

Then imagine the hacker, perhaps a wild haired person with odd interests, curious tattoos and many computers? – everyone has their ideation, but if we go by conditioning, it’s not the same as a used car salesman – the mental pictures of these two people.

Trust

Now let’s throw trust into the mix. Imagine your businesses future online is at stake – this translates subconsciously or consciously into your income, your children’s toys, your mortgage, your car, everything about your life is genuinely at stake. Who do you put your trust in?. The straight laced know-nothing whose good at playing squash or the person who can program?

Note: Remember, we haven’t even gone over what’s said yet, we’re just talking about two people, two – very different – IT consultants trying to sell you an intangible for your business, a service, a software, a development project – take your pick.

Why (IT) Failures Fail

People who appear to be the kind of nice guys and gals we would like to do business with so often fail to sell because they are trying to sell incorrectly – they truly aren’t computer enthusiasts and this is a job to them and they want to cut-to-the-chase and close, close, close: and prospects see this, feel this and are often disgusted by it.

If you find this next part preposterous, remember, my bald head isn’t what they are buying – it’s the time and effort of the thing inside it.

My Sales Style

I am ramshackle as could be, I wear t-shirts and jeans and I throw on whatever outer shirt I chose that day or maybe a blazer or sport coat at most. I don’t take my rings off or modify anything to speak to prospects – because I don’t feel I have to. Furthermore, I wear orange blue light blocking sunglasses and I have a beard (wow now I am weird) – the point is, I’m not an actor, I’m an IT professional and I enjoy what I do and this has a kind of radiance to it.

How do I Actually Sell?

Where I do my work is odd too, my office is a screen filled, server filled archetypal crypt, a jumbled mess of equipment and books of all kinds – cameras, lenses, things I’ve created, found, been gifted or, of course, purchased.  Not a mess or hoard or pile,  but put up relatively neatly; however, a message is sent by this – this is a person who is interested in many topics, subjects and things.

Sound

Something which I believe plays a gigantic role in successful selling is the quality of the audio the consultant uses.

I’ve actually run tests with different configurations and found an enormous difference between a low-quality audio setup and a higher end one. This difference manifests in a vital KPI – time. This difference in the time duration of meetings is a serious indicator of interest, clear audio is clearly understood, compressed audio gives level sound making it easier to listen, a good mic makes even a raspy voice sound good – or at least can with tuning and background noise can be utterly muted with minimal harm done.

I use analog audio and pump it into my computer via an audio interface from a tube amplifier running on a special isolation transformer I’ve modified. Everything about the ensemble is peculiar.

Video

I don’t think video is as essential today as it was ten years ago or so – why? – well, even if you broadcast at 720p/60fps you are still getting clear enough so that viewers – who are often on smartphones watching – get a very image once it’s shrunk down to the size of a smartphone screen.

This is not a suggestion that you go with an obsolete webcam by any means. I would strongly encourage anyone who runs a software company or web design agency or such to invest in a quality 4K webcam.

Note: A good cheap option here is to buy a security camera that’s USB 3.0 with a wide-angle lens. They can be had for about the price of a standard webcam, work much the same way, and typically give the added advantage of both controls on the camera and the ability to easily mount them upon desktop tripods.

Authenticity

So when I hop on camera and prospects see me, they see a person and environment very different from a typical office space – and it doesn’t (or at least hasn’t so far) hurt me one bit. The reason this isn’t a detriment to my ability to sell is very straightforward – it’s authentic.

 Why on earth would a serious company jump on a web meeting and see a person who looks like a crazy hacker, puffing a vape box with computers and fans buzzing around behind him, and decide to give that person’s organization money- I’ll tell you why!

I’m not a social scientist, I don’t pretend to have an academic background, but I am fairly well-read in my opinion, and I’ve been scrupulous in my studies of everything I know. I’ve spent a lot of time studying my chosen profession.

Research

Before every meeting I’ve ever held, I’ve always conducted as in-depth of research as possible – within a reasonable amount of time. Of every prospect, their website, the personnel, and the industry they operate in.

The reason I do research isn’t to have witty things to say – it’s to understand as much critical and pertinent information about the prospect as possible. The key though isn’t just to have this information in a bag ready to use, it’s to be able to articulate clearly and directly the relevance of my services to their business. All of this is critical to consultative selling because it conveys without directly saying so that you did your homework – engendering trust.

To juxtapose this for a moment, imagine going to a doctor who mistook your arm for your leg – seriously, that fundamental of an error – would you let such a doctor operate on you? I wouldn’t, and I wouldn’t fault anyone who felt likewise.

In our industry, the difference between say a CRM and a CMS is about as different as an arm and a leg is to anatomy. No one should give a dime to anyone professing to bring good results, who does not know this difference so fundamental – yet there are legions of people like this out there.

Premeditation .vs. Extemporaneous Wit

I was not always this premeditated. When I began selling digital services I made tremendous mistakes, embarrassed myself, said foolish things and was generally unprepared a few times – but I learned fast. As I was learning, it was during a time I was reading a compact version of C.G. Jung’s book on Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious that I realized I needed to sell myself on me first, then I could sell anyone else.

I try to instill into people I train – and I have trained many in consultative sales – that the key to being a successful consultant isn’t to pay someone to teach you a trick or two – it’s to actually be able to answer highly technical questions in a lucid, intelligible and comprehensible manner – period.

Final Words

If you want to succeed with your agency, learn your services. You don’t have to be able to win at Daytona to sell a Ferrari and in just the same vain you don’t have to be a Software Engineer, Designer, SEO Expert or anything of the kind to be an Excellent Consultant – but you have to know what those things are and how they relate to the prospects specific goals.

You two ears and one mouth for a reason – figure it out and remember to get sunshine once in a while, looking too pale and ghostly on camera is never a good look  😉

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