sales &seminar Martin Lee on 01 Sep 2007 12:54 am
Spike Humer on Consultative Selling
Here I am in China�writing at the end of the first day�of Jay Abraham’s Billion Dollar Marketing Weekend. It’s a huge event with more than 500 participants. Managing such a huge scale event can be a nightmare. Nevertheless, the people from China were certainly hungry for knowledge.
One point that Jay spoke about was on the use of consultative selling. If you are not using consultative selling but other forms of selling, you could easily increase your closing rate by 10% to more than 200% if you started adopting consultative selling. He recommended having your entire sales force trained in this area.
Spike Humer, Jay’s right hand man and the chief operating officer of the Abraham Group,�duly provided us with the shortest course in the world on consultative selling.
“Ask questions. Listen.”
Brilliant. That sums up the essence. Just remember these three words in mind and you can’t go much wrong. Most companies always start off by talking about their products and how it can�help you. The benefits. Why you should buy it.
In consultative selling, you first ask them questions to determine their needs. Then you offer them a solution to their problems.
Spike also provided us with his insights on the four elements of a business. This is probably�a�new�way of looking at these ideas for�most of Jay’s fans.
1) Gain the attention of the�market place.
2) Convey value.
3) Earn trust.
4) Motivate your prospect to take the desired action.
The first�two activities comes under the essence of marketing,�while the last two comes under selling.�
on 05 Sep 2007 at 1:35 am 1.Paul said …
Hi Martin
I was really looking forward to reading your feedback on the event as I haven’t yet attended one of Jay’s events live although I do have various recordings of past events.
I love the 3 word definition of the selling process. Perhaps a little simplistic but it reminds me of the Chet Holmes approach we have been discussing where the main focus is on building rapport and finding needs.
It also reminds me of the Jay quote – “to be interesting, be interested”.
on 05 Sep 2007 at 2:16 am 2.Martin Lee said …
Hi Paul,
I was actually quite involved in the organisation of the event, so I couldn’t really provide much points on the content.
Hopefully, I will be able to provide a better coverage of the Singapore event in the next few days.
on 05 Sep 2007 at 3:29 am 3.Arthur Rego said …
Hi Martin,
Those three words have a lot of value
I agree with respect to the importance of asking questions in order to find out the needs or problems of your client/customer and than provide them with the solution that best meets their needs.
Thanks
Arthur
on 05 Sep 2007 at 2:31 pm 4.Loi said …
Hi Martin,
The 3 words are what I’ve been practising since the day I’ve started my own business.
Listen to my clients
Ask questions
Listen
Fulfil their needs and desires ( sales normally closed here )
Wish more people really learn the 3 words!
All the best!
on 08 Sep 2007 at 1:20 am 5.marijke said …
simple and true.it’s psychology.