What is consultative selling? What about transactional selling? What’s the difference, and which one is best for you? This video will answer these questions and make a case for which 99% of businesses should adapt and adopt.
Video Transcript
Hi, I’m Dean Mercado from Online Marketing Muscle, and welcome! I recently talked with my favorite coaching clients about the Consultative Sales Versus Transactional Sales concept. I’m using the term sales very loosely because it is more of a business approach, whether you have a consultative business approach versus a transactional business approach. Now, let me preface this by saying that neither one is right. It depends on your feelings and what your thoughts are – whatever is suitable for you. Probably 99 out of 100 of you watching this need to think about the consultative approach to business. And I will explain. I will make my case, and then I’d love to hear what you think about it!
Okay, so a quick shout out to one of my mentors, Jay Abraham, who instilled this concept in me many years back, and I am very grateful. Consultative selling has a lot to do with going deep with your clients versus broad, right? Transactional is more of the one and done, the slam-bam-thank-you-ma’am approach – I sell a widget, buy my widget, and next, right? I sell another widget; you buy my widget… “next!” right? There is nothing wrong with that for certain kinds of businesses. But, for most of you, if you offer a service in particular or even if you have a product. If you want to play a little bit of a bigger game, check out Amazon – how they do it – they can very quickly sell you a book, sell you a video camera, sell you a this or a that, and be done with it. However, on their webpage, you will notice that they will say “people who have looked at this will also check out this” or “ people who have bought that also bought this,” and then they will send you an email later on following up on it – that is consultative, right? It is helping you buy more. It is helping you make better decisions. It is helping guide you – painting a yellow brick road for you, so to speak – consultative. The thought of consultative, everything you see – even the search engines are looking for more relationships. Social media has exploded on the scene. Why? Relationships… and it is no different than what I am talking about here with business. The level of relationship you have with your clients dictates a lot! It dictates:
- Whether or not they are going to do more business with you
- Whether or not they are going to jump ship when that sexy franchise pops up down the block and says, “Hey, we can do this for about $5 cheaper. Why don’t you do business with us?” and then you are wondering, I’ve been serving them for five years, how come they would jump? Well, the reason is there is not enough relationship there. There is not enough foundation, so think about that.
The consultative approach is about helping your existing clients buy more and buy more often because it is the right thing for them to do and not because you want to make another sale. Think about what I just said because it is the right thing for them, not because you want a quick sale. However, often, that does work hand in hand. When you are thinking of them and genuinely focused on helping others, it typically comes back to you. I will not get into how that works – it is just how the universe works. Believe it or not, it is what it is.
The idea here is that you are finding ways to add more value to your existing clients. This develops relationships. They do not jump ship very quickly when they generally have that warm and fuzzy feeling. They become more loyal when you are more loyal to them because you are taking on more of a consultative persona versus “slam-bam-thank-you-ma’am, please step out of the way because the person behind you wants to buy”
I want you to think about this for your business: Are you consultative or transactional, and what steps can you take to make your business more consultative? And, I will give you a slight hint: it has a lot to do with your marketing. It has a lot to do with the content you provide your audience to read, watch, to listen to – this video is an excellent example of that. It is part of my consultative approach to you – my audience watching this. If I knew it was just one of you, I would call you by name because, yes, this is meant for you! But, again, it is a consultative approach, so think about it. What is your approach? Are you easily replaceable? Are you genuinely looking to help your target market – your audience because it is the right thing for them?
Dean Mercado with Online Marketing Muscle would love to hear your thoughts on this… Here’s to your success!
