The premise of conceptual selling is that people don’t buy a specific product or service on its face value; instead, what they buy is their own concept of how the product or service will resolve their problem. That’s what it looks like on the surface.
That’s the reason why beginning a meeting with a product pitch isn’t always effective. It’s more important for the salesperson to ask the right questions to understand the prospect’s decision-making process and problem he or she needs to resolve. The following is a set of types of processes salespeople should undertake to uncover the prospect’s motivations and needs:
- Listen to the prospect and then repeat back what he or she said to confirm it
- Clarify the prospect’s understanding of a product or service as well as what he or she hopes to achieve by obtaining it
- Discover common ground with the customer and understand him or her better on a personal level
- Determine commitment and readiness to move to the closing stage
This selling strategy works well for many people because it focuses on issues the prospect faces and his or her concept of a solution rather than a straight sales pitch. While salespeople in the past were more intent on talking, those who employ this strategy do a lot of listening. This is especially true early in the encounter because they want to understand the customer’s most pressing issues. This enables them to present their product or service as the ideal solution.
How to Use Conceptual Selling Effectively
One way to use this strategy effectively is to sell to people’s emotions. For example, a manager frustrated with the limitations of his or her company’s software needs someone to hear why he or she finds it so aggravating. After allowing the prospect to vent for a while, the salesperson paints a picture of how things could be with the software he or she is trying to sell. The time to move to closing the sale is when the representative has the prospect emotionally invested in an immediate solution. He or she has given the prospect hope that things can improve.
A major benefit of conceptual selling is that it meets both current and future needs. Salespeople using this technique ask prospects to envision where they could be in the future using their product or service. It requires a shift in thinking from solving an immediate need to one of ongoing growth. Those who can demonstrate that their product or service will help a company achieve its desired growth will have the largest percentage of closed sales.
The Customer is in Charge Today
The gradual transition to conceptual selling has occurred because technology has given customers more power than ever before. They don’t care so much about a product or service as they do about their own needs. They’re looking for salespeople who can demonstrate that they also care about these needs and have the solution for them. Customers expect much more personal service as well as salespeople who proactively know what they need. Conceptual selling helps today’s sales professionals achieve these ideals.
Article Submitted By Community Writer
