A silver bullet does not exist in the consulting sale. Selling consulting services is unique and remarkably different than selling a tangible product.  Products can be physicially held and touched.  Quality and value  can be assessed by mere observation and touch.   Consulting services are intangible and  inherently more complex.  The dynamic of winning a sale require proving trust and demonstrating a high degree of business process competency.  In this post I’ve outlined five elements that I leverage to assess when approaching a consulting opportunity:

1.  Tell a compelling story – paint a vivid picture of what your customer will achieve and articulate how they will get there but.  Focus on what you will do to help achieve that vision.

2. Develop trust -  Prove to the client you are an expert in your field, be honest and dependable. Always ensure your interests in the client are genuine and real.

3. Create a business case for change - use the story you developed to demonstrate why they need to change today by leveraging stories, testimonials and data.

4.  Look for opportunities to leverage value – Listening to your customers needs is critical.  Ask well thought out questions that speak to business problems and  the potential implications those problems can have on both a micro and macro level.

5. Look for every opportunity to help mitigate your clients risk – Put yourself in your clients shoes and think through all the area’s of concern they may have.  Consider talent, finanancial, operational risks.

This is a very highlevel list and I am sure we can collectively create a much larger list of potential elements that contribute to a winning consulting relationship with your customer.  What elements do you consider when developing your sales strategy and approach?

1. Shadowing/Observation – Job shadowing allows an observer to study an end user perform their work in order to understand workflow.  Some business analysts will actually do the work to gain a solid understanding of the work.
2. Use Cases – a method that tells a story about how a system will be used to achieve a goal from the perspective of a user of that system.  The goal should be to help a technical expert and non-technical people alike understand how the behaviour should be.  Use cases should be used to organize and document the functional requirements of an automated system.
3. Storyboards – Stake holders and developers working together by drawing up the elements that are believed to be a part of the application.  By leveraging story boarding along with probing questions you will gain a good thorough review of your customers workflow.
4. Prototyping – capture the look and feel of the user interface by drawing screen shots, screen flows and so on.
5. Structured demonstrations – If your purchasing an application, getting the end users to use the system for normal tasks is a very effective way of finding out what is missing in an application.

Use a variety of these techniques and ask a lot of questions.  Gathering requirements is often tedious work, but is the most important activity that ensures your customer get’s what they want every time!

Image by RandomESHG on Flickr

I love the Sales and Marketing profession. I’ve been in the game for 15 years.

No other career gives an individual the freedom, flexibility and reward than Sales.  A sales colleague of mine likened the sales profession to being the chairman of the board, general sales manager, chief financial officer, executive vice president, janitor and chief cook.  In short being a sales professional gives you the independence of being your own boss.

Yet sales professionals are big problems for customers, prospects, bosses, and spouses.  They are cussed at parties, gossiped about behind closed doors, miss family time, travel a lot, work long hours, work flexible hours.  Sales people make a lot of noise, they interrupt, make mistakes, listen to complaints, respond positively to grievances and sometimes waste peoples time.

Yet no profession moves more freight, loads & unloads more ocean liners, freight trains and transport trucks, introduce new products, open new factories and keep the wheels of the economy rolling than any other profession.

I am proud to be a Sales Professional.