Conversations That Sell

COLLABORATION IS CONSULTATION PLUS

Consultative selling, which has been the norm for many years, positions you, the seller, as the expert in your field—the authority on your product or service. Your role has been to uncover your buyer’s wants and needs, go off in a silo and develop a solution, and then return to explain how your solution matches the buyer’s need. It’s a “them and us” mindset, not a “working together” approach. Although the approach has been extremely effective for decades, it only addresses wants and needs, and misses opportunities and problems. Collaborative selling provides an opportunity to add much more value, as I’ll explain later in this discussion.

Collaborative selling is also a more efficient sales process. Today’s buyers ...