Basketball and the art of
consultative selling
By Marty Bauerlein
Vice President, Sales
Tech Data Corporation
When it comes to sales advice, one
of my favorite truisms was never
actually intended for sales at all.
It was coined by the late, great basketball player and coach John
Wooden who liked to tell his players to never confuse activity with
achievement. When I translate this to sales, it means that merely
having a lot of transactional-based deals doesn’t get you to the level
of consultative selling that makes you a true partner with your
customer. It might be where you begin dribbling the ball, but it
won’t ensure you put points on the board.
The first step in partnering in sales is developing a relationship with
your customer to help you learn their strengths and weaknesses,
which, in turn, will help you become more consultative. To do this,
you need to learn about their business. What kind of challenges
do they face? What’s their position in the market? Who are their
competitors? What are their short- and long-term growth goals?
Once you can answer some of these questions, you’re on the right
path, but you still have to move the ball down court.
Start being proactive and move into a more consultative role from
there. Look for trends in their purchases. This will enlighten you
about which promotions and discounts might help them with
an upcoming purchase, and it will give you a great reason to call
them. Sharing market trends is another way to open the door to a
partnership. When you show them you understand their business,
they’ll quickly realize you have a vested interest in their success.
Once your customer knows you’ve got their back, they’ll come
to rely on your advice. And, after all, that’s the goal—to be their
trusted advisor, i.e., their partner.
Developing a great sales partnership can take time, so you need to
keep your options open. Getting back to the basketball analogy,
it’s like the triple threat. This is when the player has three options.
Pass the ball, run for a layup or shoot from the line. It allows you
to choose the option most likely to help you score. Developing
partnerships with your customers works the same way. Keep your
options open and choose the play that’s most likely to help you win
more business with them.
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Sample Consultative Selling Questions
- What affect is the economy having on your business?
- What is your biggest IT challenge?
- Are you happy with the way your products and
services are reaching your market?
- What has the most impact on your competitive
position?
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Most sales relationships begin with simple product transactions, but
as you work cooperatively with your customer, you’ll build rapport,
which is what leads to a stronger partnership. This can’t be faked or
forced; it needs to follow a natural evolution. Your customer needs
to trust you enough to share strategies and long-range business plans,
and then accept your recommendations to help them achieve their
goals. When you get to this point, you’ll have moved beyond the
transactional relationship into a truly consultative one.
As your partnership with each customer grows, word will get
out that you have your customers’ best interests in mind. Your
best marketing partner is a satisfied customer. When you provide
consultative selling, you can expect to see your customer’s business
grow and, in turn, so will yours.
About the Author
Marty Bauerlein is Tech Data’s Vice President, Central/West Sales. Marty has been with
Tech Data for 5 years and has 12 years of distribution channel sales experience.