Traditional sales models take the rep through a series of steps culminating in the customer signing a contract. In these sales-driven models, the close is positioned as a discrete action where the rep pushes the customer to make a commitment. This is very old school and no longer fits into 21st century customer engagement models.
Customers don’t want to be tricked, coerced, guilted or otherwise pushed to act against their own better judgment. We have all been in these situations as customers ourselves, and we don’t remember those incidents fondly. When a rep forces the close before the customer is ready to commit, the relationship rarely ends well. In the best case, the client regards the rep as pushy and overbearing, and meetings with the rep as something to be endured. Worst case, the deal gets cancelled “with prejudice” and the rep (and sometimes their company) is banished and blackballed. The company gains a reputation as a hard-sell service provider with reps that are to be avoided at all costs.
In the consultative solution sale, the rep invests time in discovering a client’s needs by taking a deep dive into really understanding their business. Every step in the sales process includes soliciting feedback from the customer to secure buy-in to the direction of the solution to be proposed. Every customer interaction includes qualifying for buying intent, decision authority, need and timing. The rep takes the client through the proposal step by step to secure agreement that the solution on the table will meet their needs and goals for the project. When the rep says “can we go ahead and get the process started?” the customer’s signature becomes the natural result of the engagement.
Customers don’t want to be pushed or tricked into signing, they want to be educated, informed and above all, listened to. Take this approach and you will be very successful at sales for years to come.
