This article describes a foundation for the consultative sales process and gives readers some ideas for how to make this process work in their enterprise.

1. winter2017
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winter 2017
Business Dynamics
BY TOM SIKO
Sell naked: An introduction
to consultative selling
Protocol introduces a new sales and marketing business column—
let us know what you think at BizDynamics@esta.org.
How did your last sales call
go? Too many people with the title “sales”
are professional visitors these days, not
salespeople. You’re a sales professional and
your routine should be effective. Regardless
about experience there’s a proven method
to sales that can raise your game and give
you an edge on your competition who
uses the “visitor” approach. Many sales
training courses, circa the 1990s (which
were products of companies such as Xerox
and the pharmaceutical industries), teach
salespeople a product approach to selling.
In today’s world, a product-based sales
approach has limited success with the power
of a resource we all take for granted, the
Internet.
Consultative selling is a new approach
to selling that puts a spotlight on the
prospect’s needs, not the product being
sold. It’s a solutions-based selling
approach which has proven success over
a product selling approach which many
salespeople mistakenly use. In today’s
hyper-connected world, if buyers want
product specifications the Internet is their
primary source of information. A study
by the Harvard Business Review revealed
that most buyers age 24-36 will go out to
the Internet before calling a salesperson. In
the selling market today, buyers expect a
new routine from selling professionals. The
goal of consultative selling is to specifically
connect buyer’s needs with your products
or services.
The last time you went to a sales
call, I bet you planned for the call with
everything you wanted to talk about. You
had product samples, brochures, data
sheets, and websites all ready to go and your
presentation walking in the door was 100%
geared around the products or services you
have to offer. Imagine planning a different
way and sell naked! Plan your meeting with
a prospect or a customer completely around
asking questions and say nothing about your
company’s services. It’s an uncomfortable
thought and requires a different level of
preparation. The goal of the meeting is to
find out as much information about the
prospect’s business and issues within. For
example:
Salesperson: “I see you’re re-configuring
your warehouse operations.”
Prospect: “Yes. We’ve just won a bid for a
very large, multi-year project.”
Salesperson: “Wow! Congratulations. Can
you tell me more about that?”
Prospect: “Sure it’s a contract to build
5,000 widgets for XYZ company.”
Salesperson: “Will you be using the ABC
method of manufacturing in the process?”
Prospect: “No, we can’t because it’s too
costly. This is a problem and we’re working
on re-engineering the manufacturing
process right now with lower costs.”
Boom! You’re a pro and you are
uncovering information. At this point
you’ve learned a lot by asking questions
and not even talking about a product or
service. What if your company could solve
their re-engineering problem? This example
is simplified but demonstrates the core
consultative process.
When you’re selling naked you must
prepare for every sales meeting. Research
needs to include as much information about
the prospect’s company, its current state,
and the products/services offered. It can
include information about recent projects.
Often the search engine becomes a big point
of research, however I’ve found social media
. . . people want to buy
solutions to their problems, not
products. Products are expensive.
Solutions are invaluable.
“ “
Consultative selling . . . puts a
spotlight on the prospect’s needs, not
the product being sold.“
“
BUILDING THE BUSINESS OF SHOW BUSINESS
www.esta.orgt g

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55
PROTOCOL
Business Dynamics | Sell naked
more effective for identifying services and
projects. Based on research, a salesperson
should identify 20 or so potential questions
for use in the meeting.
Keys to success:
n Take a sheet of paper and fold it a third
down the left side of the paper, then
unfold. Use the one-third left side of the
page to write questions leaving three to
four lines between each question. On
the right side of the page is space for the
salesperson to note the prospects answers
to the questions. It may be helpful to have
extra space to accommodate additional
questions that come up.
n Prepare your prospect in advance.
Explain that the first meeting is just for
some information gathering and the
second meeting (a few days later) will
be to review some potential solutions.
Remember, people want to buy solutions
to their problems, not products. Products
are expensive. Solutions are invaluable.
n Facility tours are a gift. Any time a new
customer wants to show me around
their facility, it’s an invitation to see
the business end of their business, ask
questions, and investigate potential needs.
Gladly accept an invitation for a facility
tour and make sure you take your notepad
and pen.
n Create a customer research form that
can be used by every salesperson in the
organization. This form contains specific
points of research and sources (such as
search engines and social media). The
value of having a form, is to help develop
a salesperson’s planning process and a
routine. For sales managers, instruct your
salespeople to turn this form in to you
for a review against the outcome of the
sales call to facilitate a coaching session.
If you’re using a CRM (such as Salesforce.
com) these preparation forms are easy to
design and create a database.
Selling naked is a new way of life for
salespeople. By focusing more on the needs
of the customers and not your products in
the initial selling process, the salesperson
builds a relationship with the client at a
different level than someone showing up
with a trunk full of products. By connecting
the dots for the customer, the sales cycle is
shortened, and you can close more deals in
less time. n
Tom Siko is the Vice President of Sales and
Marketing for ILC, a lighting systems integration
and production company based in Chicago. Tom
has over 13 years of sales and sales management
experience in the entertainment, industrial, and
military markets. Tom can be reached at
BizDynamics@esta.org.