Sales have become a tough job for companies now, given the inflation. The customers need to see the need for the product before buying it. The companies need to create sales training programs for their executives so that they can meet the threshold sales levels to stay in the market. Today, consultative selling can only get the results for a business because of recession. Sales training can get the business the necessary cash flow when customers are not willing to spend due to inflation. 

So, these should be the key factors of such sales training programs:

What is Consultative selling?

Now what’s it all about. It’s about selling the right product to the customers based on their requirements. So, for making such sales, an executive has to be super-attentive and listen to what are the problems of a customer. The sales executive aims to make the customer happy and not sell any product to him. There are 6 stages of such a process and the executive as receive sufficient training to become adept in all of them:

• Stage 1:Choose the prospects carefully: 

The salesperson has to talk to the customer to identify his problem. Then he should suggest a product which can solve this problem as per his knowledge. Now, sales are not about telling customers which products have discounts, but about empathizing with them.

• Stage 2: Provide the customer with resources:

Then the salesperson should give a chance to customers to evaluate their problem. The customers should know how big the problem will grow in the future. 

Hence the sales executive can offer a solution to them and be helpful by sending them relevant content links. The customers must know how the advised product can help them in rectifying the problem. You can provide them with testimonials of customers who have faced such problems e.g., hair fall and used your product.  

• Stage 3:Let the customers know why your product is the best

Customers will only buy when they know how your product is the best. This is important because there are a plethora of products waiting for customers to shell their money on. Hence, the customers must know how your product will solve their problems. For example, you can provide customers with case studies of how your product helped solve the hair fall problem given the age, stress, diet, and other factors of the same demographics.

You must also enlighten the customer on why the products of competitors won’t be useful in their situation.

This is why sales training programs are crucial to justify to the prospect why they should choose you over others.

The sales executives must have sufficient information about why customers would benefit from their product. 

• Stage 4: Check with your operations team :

The customers who have ample knowledge of the market know the costs. Apart from that, they also know the delivery times, and all this knowledge is also required for B2B sales. Also, sales executives must know how the buying process happens especially in B2B sales which happens after the approval is taken from the senior like the finance team. After knowing about this process, you must ask your operations team to be prepared for supply. Hence before completing the deal, sales training must involve the production team i.e. ask the operations to be prepared with the supply till a certain time given by the prospective customer. 

• Stage 5: Sales training programs  teach being with the lead in the final stages: 

You should never abandon a lead when the sales are about to close. This is because the customer might still have some questions. In B2B sales, the customers can get objections from any department, and hence it’s the job of the executive to directly deal with the decision-maker. The senior management can raise some red flags and hence it’s the job of the sales team to pacify them. They can’t start focusing on another lead, till the sales are made for one. For example, someone from the senior management can have doubts about the costs, and hence it’s better that the sales team directly talks with them. 

• Stage 6: Provide adequate post-sales support: 

The customers need support when sales have been made. That’s why you must be in touch with them after the sales have happened. If the customer has any problem in using the product, the sales executive must get it remedied on time.

The future of your relationship with the customer depends on post-sales support too. If no post-sales support is there, no referrals will happen in the future. The sales executive must get sales training but the job of the marketing department is equally important too.

This department should provide the salespeople with the leads who are interested in a purchase. Once the sales department has good leads and ample insight into them i.e. their budget, they can use that information to make the buying process happen.