Creating a Consultative Sales Process

Problem

A Fortune 500 consumer products company that sold many variations of its core product line was losing market share to competitors. To encourage customer loyalty and repurchase frequency, the company wanted to ensure that its customers were buying the right product variants to meet their specific needs. They needed a consultative sales force to make this happen, but their existing sales process was geared toward their historical model of transactional selling. Go To Market Partners was asked to develop the backbone of a new consultative sales force.

Action

After observing a cross-section of their sales force, we interestingly discovered that the company’s top salespeople were already employing consultative sales techniques with great success. Our consultants studied these salespeople’s activities to isolate their best practice behaviors. Based on this information and extensive customer research, we designed a new sales process that included a customer needs analysis—a stage that wasn’t present in their old selling model. This allowed the salespeople to identify the customers’ preferences and match them with the best available product. To support this stage in the process, we developed some simple decision-tree tools that helped the salesperson with the product selection.

We deployed the consultative selling model company-wide by designing a customized training program that included the new sales process and tools. Over the course of several months, the entire sales organization of 300+ people was transformed from transactional sellers into ‘product consultants’.

Result

Almost immediately, the client realized improvements in its sales performance. Close rates increased by 10% and customer repurchase rates increase by 14% in stores where the new consultative selling process was in place.