Sofema Aviation Services (SAS) www.sassofia.com considers the following selling methods – Transactional, Solution, Consultative & Provocative.
Introduction
Essentially to successfully engage in the selling process it is necessary to understand what Sales process will engage the target group in the most effective and rewarding way.
Consider the following questions as part of your decision-making process:
- Is the potential customer actively searching for solutions on the Internet?
- Do we need to create the demand for our product?
- Is there a need to provide education regarding the product?
- Is the client aware of their problem and its effect/impact?
- How competitive is our market?
- How do we differentiate our product from our competitors?
- How do you articulate your value proposition?
The key feature that separates solution selling from transactional selling is the involvement of the customer in the process.
Transactional Selling
Transactional selling is a strategy that focuses solely on making a sale. It emphasizes competitive pricing, social proof, and purchase urgency. The goal is to make the greatest number of individual sales possible.
Transactional selling typically has very short sales cycles and low customer lifetime value.
- It’s product-oriented. The focus is on selling the product.
- The goal is short-term sales (meeting sales targets month on month). Transactional selling does not rely on repeat business.
- The sales often depend on the price point.
- The customer knows exactly what they are looking for.
- There are competitors in the market who offer the same product at higher or lower price points. The customer selects a seller that offers the lowest price.
- The customer is interested in the ease of buying and wide availability of the product. They can approach multiple sellers to crack the best deal possible.
Solution Selling
Solution selling is a sales approach that focuses on your customers’ needs and pain points and provides products and services that address the underlying business problems.
- It’s customer-oriented. The focus is on understanding the customer’s problem and finding the right solution for them.
- The goal is to retain customers for a long time. The strategy relies heavily on repeat business and retainers.
- The sales depend on the right mix of solutions offered to the customer. They might be willing to pay a premium price if the mix of products and services the company offers is better than the competition.
- The customer knows the problem they want to resolve but doesn’t know which solution will resolve it. They may not even be aware that a perfect solution exists.
- There are competitors in the market with different price points, but the sale still depends on the right product mix rather than a low price.
- The customer is interested in resolving their problem, even if it takes slightly longer. They may not approach multiple sellers because they don’t know the options that exist.
Consultative Selling
Consultative selling (also known as needs-based selling) is a sales approach where reps act more like advisers than salespeople. Instead of pushing a specific product, sales reps recommend various solutions to potential customers based on their needs and pain points.
- This is similar to solution selling in that it focuses on the customer’s needs rather than the product to be sold. However, it is a little more difficult than solution selling because you need a skilled salesforce that is exceptionally good at holding conversations.
- Moreover, they must know how to intuitively open and engage in a conversation with customers to understand their exact needs and pitch the perfect solution to them.
- Furthermore, it is also important for the salesforce to have domain expertise since this type of selling usually happens in a consulting environment rather than on the field. This strategy works for high-ticket solutions where the customer may not acknowledge the severity of their problem until they are convinced of the right solution.
Provocative Selling
Provocation-based selling focuses on finding a problem in the customer’s blind spot that is in critical need of attention. In other words, the customer isn’t aware of the problem, but once informed, is eager to address it, it focuses on bringing the customers’ attention to a problem they didn’t know they had.
Once they see the problem, your salesforce needs to convince them that your product is the solution to their problem. Your salesforce needs to establish that not paying for the solution you’re offering is a greater loss than paying for it.
- Furthermore, the focus in provocative selling is on the outcome after the customer makes a change rather than the product or their problem. You have to show them that their way of doing things is not the best anymore.
Next Steps
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Aviation Leadership, Consultative selling, Corporate Solutions, customers satisfaction, Decision Making, Provocative selling, SAS, SAS blogs, Selling, Selling Methods, Solution Selling, Transactional Selling
