Transactional and Consultative Selling
Ali Sherlock & Philip Bourne
Thursday 8th November, 2012
Objectives
In this session we’ll explore how to balance the
need for high value ticket sales (Consultative)
versus the requirement to fill schedule classes
with run rate (transactional) business. We’ll
discuss the challenges associated with deciding
on who sells, how they sell and what typical sales
strategies you can consider implementing.
So what do we mean by consultative versus transactional selling ?
Summary Comments
Transactional
Simple, short-term & customer typically knows what they want
Minimal product knowledge required on sales side
Buying criteria usually price or ease of acquisition
Customer knows what they want
Could be off the shelf or customised
Consultative
More complex long-term process
Involves collaboration of both buyer and seller
Seller must develop an understanding of the customer’s business, industry, and needs
Craft a solution to help the customer achieve their objectives.
‘Sales people are not needed to quote prices. They are the bridge between the
selling price and the perception of value provided to earn the sale ‘
Does it make any difference to distinguish and why?
Summary Comments Transactional
• Buyers focused on today’s transaction and give minimal thought to future purchases.
• Sales activity based on “price seller” who highlights costs; “content seller” who emphasizes features, often without linking them to benefits for the customer; “professional visitor” who wins with personality.
• Sales activity volume based, low ticket value from $3K to $20K
Consultative • Relationship based sale comprising different types of approach:
– Looks deeply at customer’s critical needs and customizes offerings
– Applies in-depth industry expertise to meet those needs
– Has deep insight into the customer’s business and industry need
– Uncovers and meets needs, and provides advice and assistance
• Sales activity account management based, high ticket $50K+
• Chance of repeat business is higher
How would you decide to organise your GTM strategy at your company?
Depends on what GTM model exists ?
• Enterprise Account Managers
• Product sales specialists
• Territory Account Managers
• Inside sales
• Professional Services
• Education sales
• Education Customer Care
• Sales Engineers
• Partner Account Managers
• Resellers
• Distributors
• Alliance Partners
• Education Partners
• Training Resellers
• Service Partners
• VARs
Marketing
Direct Channels Indirect Channels
Take a clear
view on the role
of marketing
Training Passport or equivalent
• Enterprise Sales/Trng.sales
• Consultative Sale
• Executive Target
• Large Enterprise
Training Courses
• Inside Sales Reps/Trng.sales
• Transactional Sale
• Technical Target
• Good for Mid-market/SMB
E-Learning
• No Touch/Inside Sales / SMB
• Easy Purchase Decision
• Requires no/little sales involvement
• Suitable for all markets
Each offering type targeted to specific direct sales profile
And what offerings makes sense to position
So what do you see or have been the key challenges for implementing your
GTM Strategy?
Key Challenges
• Value of training
• Extended sales cycle
• Compensation plan
• Establishing a committed relationship
• Commitment at senior and executive management
• Product quota attainment shortfalls ( priority switched to product )
How do you motivate your sales teams? • What incentives ? • How do you drive them ? • How do you show what opportunities
are out there ? • What value selling education
provides ?
What strategies / tactics do you consider a sales team should take?
Summary Comments
Transactional
• Promoting training as the one item you do not take off an order.
Consultative
• Making sure that Customers have thought about training.
• Engaging Training at inception of Sales cycle so that budget is placed on the amount of training required.
How do you manage and control the sales cycle?
Summary Comments
Transactional
• Make sure that Sales and Marketing are aware of who you are and what you offer.
• Issue Sales with a key list of offerings
• Ensure that they have details of costs for standard courses
• Reaching out to them for any additional need
Consultative
• Placing a Needs Analysis on every order as standard
• Meeting with Sales staff at quarterly kick off meetings
Have spent time this morning discussing pro’s and con’s of
Transactional versus Consultative selling – trust you found it
informative
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