Biz Dev = Education First!

It’s interesting. I was having a conversation with a colleague the other day. We were discussing transactional vs. consultative selling.

Our conversation was sparked as a result of sharing our experiences as change agents. We have both been tasked with guiding team members into a new era within our company. We are leading them away from the traditional model into the full on consultative sale.

Interestingly, my colleague does not have a sales background. She comes from the world of education. She shared that when in meetings with clients, she states right up front…”I’m not here to sell you anything, I’m here to educate, and build the best over-all solution to fit your need.”

I LOVE THIs! I love it so much; I am going to set it apart in quotations! It was just brilliant!!! I can’t think of a better way to communicate a consultative sale.

Transactional selling is just that “outright” selling! You are looking for a close, with a sweaty brow and will jump at the very first glimmer of opportunity. And unfortunately, that opportunity might be the small one. The big nut may be hidden well below the surface. And because we jumped and panted at what looked like the quick close…that was all we got. If we actually walked away with anything at all.

But with the consultative sale, the long haul…we really are educators and solutions builders. We have to set our clients minds at ease first. Let them know that we partner with them in their over-all fiscal responsibilities. That is why we will help them build the business case they need to sell the vision internally. Because whether we like it or not, often times we have to teach them how to sell our solution up their chain.

I’m not here to sell you anything, I’m here to educate, and build the best over-all solution to fit your need.

And then we will have to execute on that solution. Solutions take time. They don’t magically appear. And in this we have to educate or set expectations around time lines, full scope of work, degrees of difficulty in execution, etc.

While we are in the implementation phase of the over-all sale, we are always tasked with keeping the client up-to-date. Here again is another chance to educate. This is really exciting to me. I know some of you are laughing at me right now.