Spoke at the Software Architecture Meetup at Bangalore Most often when you are discussing with customers on your requirements you end up donning the hat of a sales man displaying his ware with the intention of getting your ideas across and eventually the solution. What is the best way out there that you can be seen as a transformation partner instead of someone who pushes what you have in your kitty without understanding his/her true need. That is the wrong way to do the sales game whether you are peddling cloud,big data,AI or plain simple legacy migration into the shiny new thing out there.

1. CONSULTATIVE SELLING
AN INTRODUCTION TO

2. Consultant and Technology Evangelist
with companies to help them in their
business transformation and digital
transformation journeys
Training and mentoring Architects and
Technology leaders
Enterprise Architecture Expert with the
Digital India Initiative
Ex Vice Chair TOGAF® Standing
Committee
Governing Board Member CCICI
WHAT DO I DO ?

3. Consultative selling is a sales approach based on understanding each
customer’s unique needs and how the product or service being sold
can address them.
Reps act more like consultants than “traditional” salespeople. They
build relationships with prospects and work to find a solution that fits
each prospect’s needs, instead of pushing the solution that’s most
profitable, or the easiest to sell.

4. Transactional selling, or product-focused selling, puts the product at
the center of the sales process. When using this method, sales reps will
push a product’s features and benefits with little to no concern for how
these align with, or can help address, the customer’s needs.
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE IN THE PAST ?

5. Dell Computer’s build-to-order assembly system is regarded by
consultative sellers as a cost reducer

6. Consultative Selling’s critical success factor is its ability to free price
from cost and competition by relating price to an investment. In this
way, it can be compared to the value of the new profits that are to be
received by the seller—in other words, it can be compared to its return
instead of to its cost or performance.

7. Consultative sellers compare a customer’s current operating
performance with a future improvement. They differentiate themselves
by selling the difference.

8. HAT TRICK ADVANTAGE OF CONSULTATIVE SELLING
1.Compel customers to increase their use of the seller’s products or services.
2. Obtain a higher margin for it.
3. Provide customers with a higher return than by discounting price.

9. Consultative Selling concentrates on Tier One
Focus on Price
Focus on Value
Consultative Selling By - Mark Hanan

10. HOW IS CONSULTATIVE SELLING DIFFERENT
Instead of sitting across from a purchasing manager—or a manager of information services or telecommunications who has a purchasing role—
consultative sellers sit side by side with a midlevel operating manager who runs a profit-centered line of business or a cost-centered business
function.
Instead of selling the added cost of a product, service, or system feature by feature and benefit by benefit based on price and performance,
consultative sellers sell the added value of an improved contribution to profits.
Instead of asking for money, they offer money in the form of a return on their customer’s investment.
Instead of a spec sheet with line-item prices, they specify the value they can add on a costs and benefits analysis of line-item cost savings and
revenue benefits.
Instead of talking down their competitors, they talk up the enhanced competitive advantage that customers can seize over their own
competitors.
Instead of paying lip service to the concept of partnership, they create the new streams of cash flow that pay their entry fee into true
customer partnerships.
Instead of professing added value, they propose it in quantified, time-framed terms, measuring it milestone by milestone, selling it, being
evaluated on it, and being paid for it.
Consultative Selling By - Mark Hanan

11. CONSULTATIVE VERSUS NORMAL SELLING
GOOD
BAD

12. Consultative Selling By - Mark Hanan

13. TRADITIONALLY WHAT COMPANIES DO
This is what we have
Been trained to do and
What we have been doing

14. STEREOTYPED MESSAGES

15. Product Selling
Focuses on taking about the product
All about me approach
Assumes that every prospect needs the product
Tries to sell the product to every prospect
Focuses on seing products to prospects
Tries to sei the product at every sales process step
Salesperson does most of the taking
Pitch centers around explanations and descriptions
Talks about the product to try to make the prospect
interested
Focuses on the salesperson interests
Tries to overcome objections
Consultative Selling
Focuses on taking about the prospect
AIl about the prospect' approach
Questions if the prospect needs the product
Tries to find prospects that are a good fit
Focused on providing solutions to prospect s needs
Trying to sei the next step in the sales process
Prospect does most or equal amount of taking
Pitch centers around probing sales questions
Talks about benefits, problems, client examples
Focuses on the prospect s interests
Tries to redirect objections

16. CONSULTATIVE SELLING IS NOT EASY
What questions to ask?
Can be a lot of different types of customers
It can be difficult to have business conversations
Can be unclear what pain points to look for?

17. CONSULTATIVE SELLING
A BETTER WAY TO SELL

18. Stage Goals
Pre-Qualify
Gather high-level information Build interest in having conversation
Schedule an appointment
Pre-Qualify (Cont.
Hard Qualify
Gather detailed Information (Discovery) Build interest in meeting
Schedule a presentation
Sell Product
Map out Next Steps
Close (Sale or agreement to move
forward)

19. NO MATTER WHAT CONSULTATIVE SELLERS MAKE, THEY
SELL THE VALUE IT ADDS.

20. Vendor suppliers sell computers because they make them. Consultative sellers may make computers, but they
sell the value they add by reducing a customer’s downtime.
Vendor suppliers sell packaging because they make it. Consultative sellers may make packaging products, but
they sell the value they add by increasing customer revenues and reducing shipping costs.
Vendor suppliers sell wireless telephone systems because they make them. Consultative sellers may make
wireless telephone systems, but they sell the value they add by allocating manufacturing labor more cost-
effectively.
US FROM THEM

21. Starter Level Discussions / Conversations
Hello I am trying to connect with the IT Operations head.
Put Your Value Statement Across
Once you get a nod then
We help business build highly scalable data centers
We offers solutions on Azure , AWS and GCP.
We offer solutions that are high faulty tolerant and highly distributed in nature
Our data centers offer very low turn around time in case of a out of service situation
We offer to build databases that use a hybrid mix of cloud solutions and products.
We help data centers make use of virtualization and container based capabilities
Pre Qualifying Questions
What issues do you have with regard to your data centers ?
Are you happy with the uptime , patch update and fault tolerant times currently ?
How does it work at peak hour web traffic ?
Do you see choking as a pattern if so on what days and times ?

22. Slightly digging Deeper ?
Are you having tablespace issues due to increasing loads ?
In a hybrid cloud are all licensing issues managed or who is the assigned owner for the same ?
Could see that on a N node cluster the best optimization is with X % CPU and Y % Memory foot print is
that true for you ?
How important is data availability versus data consistency for your business ?

23. CONSULTATIVE SELLING FRAME WORK
- A STRUCTURED WAY TO DIG DEEPER
& BUBBLE UP THE PAIN POINTS

24. Consultative
Selling – S-SPIN

25. DAY TO DAY LIFE EXAMPLE

26. Building Trust
Build Camaraderie and then move forward
SITUATION
PROBLEM
IMPLICATIONS
NEED PAY OFF
Interviews
Presentation
Close
Do not go to the presentation until
the interviews reveal their problem
STAY IN THE FUNNEL
Identifying needs
They will be honest if trust is built well

27. SITUATION QUESTIONS
General small talk.
Confirm what you already know.
What football clubs you support ?
How do you stay fit ?
Nice curio did you go to Kenya ?

28. Find out if there needs to be a decision maker
who needs to be present today once we decide to
move forward.

29. Cost
Taste
Convenience
How to ask these questions and go through the funnel ?
SWITCH FROM TAP WATER TO BOTTLED WATER

30. PROBLEM QUESTIONS
Where do you buy water from ?
How many bottles a day ?
How often do you have to go the grocer to buy them ?
How many litres will you buy ?

31. PAIN
SPIN+
- S
P
I
When you ask the implications
the Pain shoots to the Stratosphere
PAIN DIAGRAM
Chris Derry - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rujrUDuwZW0

32. IMPLICATION QUESTIONS – GROW THE PAIN
How do you lift the bottles and then put it in your car ?
What if you get a car parking space far away?
What if you are not well some of these days?
Do you have stairs to your apartment ?
No Pain no gain ?
What if the lift does not work on certain days ?

33. NEED PAYOFF QUESTIONS
I can show you a way to go through the supermarket ?
You do not have to go to the parking lot?
Never have to do the heavy lifting again?
What if you can get the same quality water at home at lesser cost ?
Would you be interested ?
Customer : Never knew that until you came in
With our system we shall put it under your sink and then with a touch
of a button it shall stream it upward.
Cost balance : You said you drink three bottles a day which is about a case a week
30 USD which is 30 * 4 USD a month . 120 USD
520 USD on a water purifier will pay off within approx. 4 month

34. WHAT IF WE ARE NOT ABLE TO MEET THE NEED AT ALL ?
Smile and thank them for the time but however at this point
we do not have a solution to help you with

35. Once the trust is established you can just ask if someone they
know may need this solution
So you do not appear to be a slimy sales person post winning the
trust
NEEDS BASED SALES PERSONS

36. We have two ears and only one mouth !

37. CRM & Cloud EXAMPLE explained
using SPIN Technique

38. Typical Situation Questions
Examples of Situation questions:
How do you currently manage your customer’s contact details?
How do you keep track of what’s happening in your sales pipeline?
How do you maintain an overview of how your individual sales reps are
performing?
The information obtained from these questions is used throughout the
remainder of the sales cycle.
Of course the more research you do prior to the initial conversation,
the more intelligent and precise your questions will be and the more
useful data you will gather.

39. Situation Questions for a Cloud Storage
Provider
Vertical or horizontal scaling?
What thresholds are appropriate for scaling up and down?
How will inventory management adjust to system volume changes?
Images new systems are spawned from Where new systems will operate (network locale)
Host-based security + licensing
When looking into storage options in the cloud, here are things to consider and evaluate:
Does the storage option work for operations and development?
Does the storage option have appropriate SLAs and uptime?
Does the storage option have adequate redundancy and archival?
Does the storage meet performance requirements?
Does the storage option provide native encryption capabilities?
Does the storage option provide access controls?
Does the storage option allow for adequate logging and event generation?
What does the storage option cost? Consider all the benefits and drawbacks of each before choosing!

40. The purpose of these questions is to develop an understanding of the
prospect and their precise situation

41. Consultative
Selling – P-SPIN

42. Problem questions is to bring the prospect into an awareness that
there is a problem or problems that need to be solved. These
problems and issues are what you will gently but firmly use to drive the
sale forward.

43. Typical Problem Questions Examples for the CRM Product
1. Are you satisfied with your present CRM Solutions?
2. What are the disadvantages of the way you’re doing it now?
3. How difficult is it to process orders with your present system?
4. What reliability problems does your CRM solution have now?

44. Typical Problem Questions Examples for the Cloud Storage Provider selection
1. Downtime history ?
2. Data accessibility, including what bandwidth they have within their data center, between
their data centers and to the Internet ?
3. Their pricing structure, including fixed charges and bandwidth charges to move data in
and out.
4. Familiarity with your industry vertical. Choosing a storage provider that understands your
business

45. Consultative
Selling – I-SPIN

46. Implication questions are designed to shine a light on the potential
impact of the problems and issues named in the Problem questions
are not addressed.
Correctly phrased and asked, Implication questions clearly demonstrate
to the prospect in their own mind that the problems really need to be
solved, sooner rather than l

47. Typical Implication Questions for CRM
Product
Examples of Implication questions:
If leads don’t get input into your CRM system, what’s the impact on your sales
outlook?
If training on your CRM is costly and time-consuming, what does that mean for
new reps when they start?
If you can’t accurately see your performance to date, how much response time
do you have to implement a fix if you anticipate your sales are falling short of a
target?

48. Typical Implication Questions for
Cloud Storage Provider
Examples of Implication questions:
What if Backups May Be Slower ?
Restores May Be Slower ?
Higher Internet Utilization : If backups are running during business hours or
times of heavy internet use, you may find internet-related activity performance
suffers.?

49. Consultative
Selling – N-SPIN

50. Now that you’ve brought your prospect to the realization of how the
situation will only deteriorate if it isn’t solved, you then want to get
them considering how valuable a real solution to the problem or
problems would be. That is the point of the Need-payoff questions

51. Typical Need Payoff Questions for CRM
Product
Examples of Need-payoff questions:
Why is being able to have a big picture overview of your sales pipeline important to
you?
If you could cut the amount of time spent training new staff on your CRM, what impact
would that have?
If you could see the opportunities in your pipeline at a glance, how would that help
you achieve your sales targets?
The secret to getting results with need-payoff questions is to ensure the buyer
specifies the benefits themselves. Encourage them to visualize, and imagine the
difference with that problem solved.
The beauty of these questions is that if you get them right, your customer will tell you
how your product will help.
Need-payoff questions need to evoke positive emotions. After all, it feels good to
know that a pressing problem can finally be solved.

52. Typical Need Pay Off Questions for the Cloud
https://cloud.google.com/storage/pricing

53. HOW IBM DOES IT ?
Courtesy : IBM

54. HOW IBM DOES IT ?
MEETINGS AND WORKSHOPS - I
Courtesy : IBM

55. FEAR , UNCERTAINITY &
DISINFORMATION
MEETINGS AND WORKSHOPS - II
Courtesy : IBM

56. CSF / DS : DISCOVERY MEETING
Courtesy : IBM

57. CSF / DS – INSIGHT MEETING
Courtesy : IBM

58. CSF / DS – SYNERGY WORKSHOP
Courtesy : IBM

59. Courtesy : IBM

60. ESTABLISHING THE RAPPORT
Hello Mr ABC, this is Bob with Max Financials. How are you doing?
We provide bookkeeping, Accounting, and Tax services.
I would like to schedule a meeting with you to discuss your bookkeeping and taxation needs.
Are you available on Tuesday morning?

61. VALUE PROPOSITION
Thanks for connecting A lot of new things are going on with
my company and I would like to share them with you in the
near future
We help business owners acquire financial freedom in their
business through coaching, training and personal
development. I welcome the opportunity to work with you.

62. We also are into
Mobile App Development
Cloud Data Centers
Big Data & Analytics
ERP Solutions and Integration
EMAIL TEMPLATES
Hi
I would like to introduce myself as a part of XXXX - A leader in data center solutions.
If you're looking to migrate legacy databases or new users to a newer data center .
Do, let me know a good time to connect over the Phone and Email to discuss further
solutions for your business.

63. TYPICAL EMAIL TEMPLATES
I hope everything is going great and thank you for connecting with me! I wanted to
reach out and ask how you are handling your data operations and IT operations for
your company? I am sure you have everything taken care of, but if there is any
opportunity for myself and XXXXXX to earn your business,
I would love to talk with you about what myself and XXXXXXX has to offer a business
your size.
I can be reached at XXXXXXXXX or XXXXXXXXX. What is the best way to reach
you? I look forward to hearing from you!

64. PWC AUDITS WERE NO LONGER SOLD ON
PRICE AND MANAGEMENT LETTERS WERE
POSITIONED AS VALUE PROPOSITIONS.

65. CONSULTATIVE VERSUS NORMAL SELLING
Consultative Selling By - Mark Hanan

66. At a workshop designed to help sales reps develop an effective approach to consultative selling, a financial adviser pipes
up with a problem. They state that they’re having trouble winning the business of an elderly woman, whose husband
recently died.
The woman was reasonably wealthy, but had never taken steps to manage her finances. As a result, she was at risk of
leaving her children with a significant financial burden.
A roleplay ensued between the conference leader and a colleague (the first adopting the role of the financial adviser
and the second, the role of the elderly woman).
After much back and forth, and increasing frustration, the conference leader exclaimed
“Don’t you see? I care more about your money than you do!”
ROLE PLAY

67. EVERY DAY LIFE EXAMPLES
OWN NEED TO GO FOR A KINDLE AND ENDING UP BUYING THE ACER TABLET

68. Later in the day, I ended up where I often spend hours on Saturdays, the bike
shop. I was just returning from a long ride, and decided to swing into the shop
to see all the cool stuff. My favorite bike mechanic came out to see me and
shoot the bull. At some point in the conversation, I started to complain about
some bike shorts I had bought not long ago. I was wearing them and had
worn an embarrassing hole in the shorts on my inner thigh. I went on to tell
him that the three pair I had bought at the same time, all had the same hole in
the same spot. I complained the shorts were bad and I’d never buy another
pair. He started asking me some questions. He asked me to go out to the
parking lot and ride a few circles while he watched. He was a little confused,
saying, “Dave, I don’t see anything about the way you are positioned on the
saddle that should cause the kind of wear you are experiencing, but we’ve not
had problems with those shorts before.”
BIKE STORE EXPERIENCE AND TORN SHORTS

69. We took the bike to the back of the shop, he put it on his bench rack and
started looking at it. In a moment, he discovered the source of the
problem. The saddle was several years old and was starting to wear. A very
small part of the saddle frame was projecting out a fraction of an inch from
the surface of the saddle. You could barely see or feel it, but it was enough
that with the thousands of pedal strokes I made on each ride, the constant
abrasion wore a hole in my shorts. The problem was solved by buying a
new saddle.
BIKE STORE EXPERIENCE AND TORN SHORTS – EVERYDAY
LIFE EXAMPLES
DIG DEEPER TO BRING OUT THE PAIN

70. kiran@eturnti.com