What would you use to describe your selling style?
Do you take the initiative to have solutions? Is it possible to have a consultative service? Maybe you’re the type who likes to elicit a response from your prospect by invoking some data-driven drama.
What sort of selling you use as a basis for the tactics, methodologies, and messaging you use to persuade customers to make a purchase decision determines how you answer that question.
“Selling” applies to any transaction in which money is exchanged for goods or services at the most basic level. More precisely, it refers to the method of persuading a customer to make a purchase through a set of carefully orchestrated and customized persuasion strategies.
When done correctly, selling assists consumers in determining their needs, creating a demand for products or services, and resolving buyers’ most pressing problems.
1. Complex Sales
Enterprise sales is the process of procuring large contracts with longer sales periods, multiple decision-makers, and a higher degree of risk than conventional sales.
To put it another way, business sales are sales involving large-scale corporate solutions. It’s worth noting that many startups start with transactional sales because they’re lower risk, have shorter sales cycles, and are motivated by marketing and sales.
2. The Transactional Sale
Transactional selling is a straightforward, short-term sales tactic that prioritizes closing deals quickly. Neither the buyer nor the seller is interested in maintaining a long-term partnership in this form of sales model.
Although transactional selling has gotten a bad rap in today’s relationship selling era, it’s still a viable strategy when used correctly. For example, if the customer prefers self-serve alternatives or if the company offers low-cost, generic goods and makes a profit by selling large amounts as quickly as possible.
Although the “sales” aspect of transactional marketing is largely automated, customer-centricity is critical to success. Sales and marketing departments will collaborate to develop a self-service knowledge base, product presentations, blogs, guides, and other content in this case.
Customer reviews and observations gleaned from sales experiences can answer common questions and identify key issues. The ultimate aim is to provide customers with all they need to make a decision and take action without encountering any roadblocks.
3. Selling a Solution
Solution marketing abandons the transactional approach in favor of selling results rather than goods and features.
Reps in this sales model start with a dilemma and then use various strategies to show how the buyer’s life will improve until the problem is solved.
To be effective, a solution sales strategy must include some key elements. Sales associates must build real relationships with potential customers and create specific value propositions and creative solutions. Draw a simple image of the solution’s overall market value–not just the product but also the service and experience. Align the whole company, not just the sales team, around the solution.
4. Sales Consultation
Consultative sale and solution selling tend to be the same approach on the surface.
Despite certain parallels, there is a significant difference. Instead of discussing features and benefits, solution sales focus discussions solely on providing a solution to the buyer’s dilemma.
Solution selling was a successful tactic in the days before consumers had the tools and know-how to solve their own problems. Before Google, there was a whole world of high-end B2B content to be found.
Solution selling is incorporated into a wider approach of consultative selling, which caters to consumers capable of finding possible solutions to their issues on their own.
Reps use a consultative approach to the sales process here, combining user data, market analysis, and feedback gleaned from interactions with the customer (in this case, the more connected data sources the better).
These perspectives are then used by sellers to create a story that places the bid in perspective for the buyer. This strategy necessitates a well-trained sales team that knows how to analyze data, ask probing questions and uncover key insights during conversations.
This style of selling is ideally suited for high-ticket offers, long sales periods, and a high-touch, multi-platform buyer’s journey because it takes a lot of effort on the seller’s side.
5. Working Together to Sell
Collaborative selling is similar to consultative selling. It focuses on building relationships and identifying consumer needs, challenges, and goals–but it goes a step further by putting the customer at the center of their own story.
The customer takes an active role in the sales process, collaborating with sales reps–yes, several reps–to find and execute solutions that help them meet high-level strategic goals.
The aim of collaborative sales is to establish long-term partnerships that resemble strategic alliances rather than one-time transactions.
To accomplish this, all customer-facing teams–sales, marketing, operation, and support–must be aligned around the same data, priorities, and metrics and collaborate to continually generate value for the customer.
Whatever form of selling you choose, having a comprehensive toolkit that spans the entire sales cycle will put you on the path to consistent revenue.
