many went out of business faster than competitors following consultative approach, too :)

posted September 3, 2008

If all your customers were the same you could adopt one approach but they are not. Commodity is usually code for price sensitive, consultative is necessary when your customer needs more from you than the best price. The best companies and best salespeople adjust their approach to what they see before them.

posted September 4, 2008

Consultative approach and commodity selling - two different sales styles, applicable for different situations.

There are many types of products and services and for each different selling techniques apply, depending on the situation and on the preferred style of the salesperson.

A one-trick pony of a salesperson advocating one single sales technique as fitting all sales situations, while not crazy, is certainly wrong.

Or just plain LAZY. :-)

posted September 4, 2008

You'd better have a lot to spend on marketing your brand.

posted September 4, 2008

Hey Carson,
Having come from a division of AT&T and being exposed to telecom and the Advertising & Publishing side, the commodity approach in your industry usually does not work very well. There will always need to be a good needs analysis before even suggesting what type of product or service will work. What happens after that needs analysis is a bit of a different story as there are some customers that you will be able to close by pointing out the obvious, that you have established the need and a logical solution and then there are some that you need to be a bit more forceful with, but neither will work unless you start with a consultative approach. You are, by no means crazy and most talented sales & business development people will question methodology. Being a trainer, you know that the tried and true will inevitably work for you. Don't compromise!!!!

posted September 5, 2008

Here's a copy of an article we published earlier this year from an author who speaks to the sales and buying process.

Link below to PDF file:

Links:

• http://www.networkabundance.com/f/Sharon_Drew_Morgen_on_Sales_Paradigms_NoN...

posted September 5, 2008

I think more importantly, you need to find the sale approach and style which works best for you. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that there are A-type sales drivers who work a gazillion hours embracing the commodity sale and figure it is all a numbers game. They do well and love the thrill of the sales "sport."

On the other hand, there's another breed of sales people who are focused on the customer-centric approach to selling. This requires more investigation/intelligence even before getting on the first sales call. However, these folks do use the consultative approach and do so by finding the money that is left on the table when a commodity approach is unsed incorrectly.

Do both methods work? Absolutely. Are both methods viable options? Yes. But I agree that you need to understand what it is that you sell and need to know your audience.

If you're selling pencils and tablets, the commodity sale may work for you. But if you're talking about re-designing an office structure, use the commodity sale approach and they will boot you out the door.

Personally, I'm not a fan of the commodity sale. I don't like playing by numbers, but then again, I don't buy lottery tickets either. I also don't like decisions which are price driven because I'm a firm believer that people get what they pay for.

I believe that having a servants heart and looking to what problems/pain points your customer (or prospect) is dealing with-- or better yet, being savvy enough to uncover what the trigger points are before the pain even hits-- are a large key to success. I've won accounts when others were turned away, simply by listening, being in tune to the needs of my client and making forward-thinking suggestions. It doesn't mean that I converted sales faster, just that when I did, my sales were always bigger.

So, to summarize, it's really a combination of finding your own style of selling (what works best for you), knowing what you audience really wants or expects from you, and finally knowing your product/service.

As a general rule, however, the consultive approach is generally effective in ANY situation, especially when used properly.

If you can't answer the question -- "What are your top three value propositions or your product/service/offering?" Then you're likely selling via the commodity approach anyway.

Good luck!

posted September 6, 2008

Hi Carson,

It's easy to get fed up with the effort required in consultative approaches, as well as to be irritated by the lack of sophistication of commodity sales.

While other contributors are exactly right to state that the two techniques have specific areas of success, I am also sure that they agree that it is better for the seller to be able to make the customer happy to take something off the shelf rather than made-to-measure. The consultative approach can be regarded as the process needed to convince the customer to buy what you have to sell, rather than to convince him that he is unique and you can develop something perfect. The commodity approach doesn't have this flexibility; taken to its limit, aiming to close a sale in one meeting is proven less effective for larger sales. However, consultative approaches often mask the idea of closing the sale, and it is easy to find those who don't recognise that the time has come to stop negotiation because some customer specifics are left unresolved.

My experience on both sides of the fence (selling electronics to automotive OEs and fasteners to pretty much anyone) shows that the commodity experience can be a real eye-opener. Commodity is undervalued - "carpet salesman" is among the epithets I have had - but it's far more effective. I recommend to anyone to add both strings to their bow.

JNW

posted September 6, 2008

Carson,

There's no question that this approach would significantly shorten your sales cycle...

"Hi Mr. Prospect. I'm from ABC Company and we sell XX for $$. You want to buy? No? Okay, thanks." Click.

Your reps could make hundreds of calls every day using this strategy. Plus, you wouldn't have to waste money on sales training either.

"Okay, New Hire, here's our sales philosophy. Call your prospects. If they use a competitor who is cheaper than us either drop your price or move on to the next call. Ask them questions so you can better position a solution? Don't waste your time; it takes too long. Product knowledge? Nah, you don't need that either. Just keep dropping the price until they agree to buy."

Your timing for this question was interesting. I just posted a comment about this topic on my Sales & Marketing Management blog . See the link below.

Cheers!
Kelley

Links:

• http://vnutravel.typepad.com/soundoff/sales_strategy/index.html

posted September 7, 2008

Hey Carson - you sure are stirring up a hornet's nest here with this question :-)

I went through your other blogs - and was realyl interested to note one on perception and how what really matters is how you/ your product and brand are perceived by the buyer - and I am an advocator of this completely. Now, if you want to answer this divide between the 2 ends - I would look at taking a step back and asking how would you manage perception to your advantage by either of these approaches, given a specific situation. That would be your answer.

Personally, I don't think commodity selling can work in the long run, and generate sufficient value - it will ultimately taper off on the value curve.

posted September 8, 2008

Carson,

Rethinking the sales process is certainly necessary with today's consumer. Things are changing rapidly. The fact is that with the overflow of easily accessed information and guidance from sources that both business and individual prospects consider to be unbiased, objective experts, they really no longer need salespeople. For a great number of prospects--and that number is constantly growing--salespeople are no longer the source of guidance, much less information, because prospects are more comfortable doing their own research than trusting a salesperson. In many cases today, the prospect knows more about their needs and issues and the pros and cons of the various solutions than the salespeople calling on them do. This is driving the commoditization of products and services.

That being said, it isn't a forgone conclusion that the the alternative is moving from solution based selling to commodity selling. And I don't think some sort of melding of the two is the answer either.

It's much more comprehensive and difficult than that.

Certainly there will still be industries and individual salespeople that survive on consultative selling, just as there will be those that survive on commodity selling. But I think those who wish to become--and stay--top producers in the future will have to create and maintain a public reputation and image as an expert in their field and niche within their local area. They will have to develop the public profile, the name recognition, and the status of a known quantity to their prospects and customers in order to compete with experts the prospect is reading and listening to while doing research. Depending on what they sell and to whom, that profile and reputation may have to be very public in the sense of getting local media coverage, giving educational presentations to the membership of organizations and associations, writing articles, and using other PR strategies to build their public image; for others, the same process will have to be employed, but their image and reputation--their name recognition--will be limited to the prospects within a defined niche market.

Top salespeople will have to learn to take selling, turn it into education, and then turn that back into a sale.

I agree the sales process is changing--I just don't see it as an either or. Consultative sales will survive, it just won't be the way to becoming a top producer. The same for commodity selling. Those seeking to become top producers will have to learn a whole new set of skills that position them as the experts in their local area.

This change won't be overnight. It will take years--and obviously it won't be true in every industry or with every product or service, but it will, I believe, become the dominate process of decommoditizing a commodity; and most goods and services--even those that just a few short years ago were considered to require expert guidance from highly skilled salespeople--are quickly becoming commodities.

posted September 9, 2008