(Consultative Selling)

Summer Internship Project at Agape Business Solution to Be

Submitted in Partial
Fulfilment of The Requirements For The
Degree Of
Bachelor In Business Administration
From
CCS University, Meerut

Submitted To Submitted By
prof. Deepika Varshney Student Name: Prashant Upadhyay
Assistant/Associate Professor Roll No. 211203105132

GNIOT Institute of Professional Studies

Plot No-7, Knowledge Park II
Greater Noida
 aCknowledgement
I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to all those who gave me the possibility
to complete this report. Special thanks are for my Superior Mentor prof. Deepika Varshney,
Assistant professor Ashutosh Singh, Alok Mohan whose help, stimulating suggestion and
encouragement helped me in all time of fabrication process and in writing this report. I also
sincerely thanks for the time spend proofreading and correcting my many of the mistakes.

I would also like to acknowledge with my appreciation the crucial role of the staff in
Operational field in the office, who gave me the environment and their knowledge about the
logistical work, and also the authorization of the necessary permissions to use and to
command. My Special thanks is for my manager Anuja Bharadwaj who supported with the
never give up attitude on me. She literally supported me with my work helped me with late
night MIS reports. I was also supported by my Senior Co-Worker Rahul Shivraj Soni, he was
the backbone for me. Many a times he covers my mistakes and supported me as his little
brother.

Many thanks go for the lecturer and supervisor who have given their full effort in grooming
the team and achieving the goals as well their encouragement to completion of project. My
aggregate thanks go to all my classmate, especially to my friends for sharing their time in
helping and giving support which, I need to fabricate my project.
 DECLARAATION

I PRASHANT UPADHYAY, S/o MR. ANIL UPADHYAY, ID No. 321047 Roll No.
211203105132 a bonafide student of B.B.A. in GNIOT Institute of Professional
Studies, Greater Noida, would like to declare that the class project entitled
consultative selling submitted by me in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
award of the Degree of BACHELOR IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION is my
original work.

Place: HOD OFFICE

Date: 18/10/2023 Signature of Student
 Table of Content

Preface
Acknowledgement
Internship Certificate
Institute Certificate
Student Declaration
1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………….
2. Theoretical Background………………………………………………………………………...
a) Industry profile…...........…………. …..………………………………………………….
b) Literature Review……….……………...………………………………………………….
3. Research Methodology…....................................…….……………………………………….
a) Objective of study...............................................................................................................
b) Scope of work.....................................................................................................................
c) Period of study....................................................................................................................
d) Data Collection....................................................................................................................
e) Sample Area & Size ..............................................................................................................
f) Sampling Technique............................................................................................................
g) Tools of Analysis................................................................................................................
4. Data Analysis............................................................................................................................
5. Findings....................................................................................................................................
6. Conclusion...............................................................................................................................
7. Recommendations and Suggestions………………………………………………… …...
8. References...............................................................................................................................
CHAPTER
--
 introduCtion
According to Harvard Business School study, 25% of all salespeople cause 75% of
all sales. That leaves 75% of a sales force fighting over the remaining 25% of
business. Assuming the above statistics to be right, it is very important to be in that
top 25% of sellers in the company. What makes these top 25% of salespeople
different from the 75% of the salespeople? Clearly, there must be numerous factors
that separate superior sellers from the inferior sellers.

As we see from the customers' point of view the demand of salespeople have
increased in today’s marketplace. Finding the right prospects is only half the battle
of an effective sales force. The biggest challenge is to win the customers. To do so
requires a focus on the needs of customers - consulting with customers rather than
strictly selling to them in order to help solve their problems. Salespeople must
effectively utilize their time with customers, shaping conversations that directly
address customer needs and expectations to take the selling process to advancement
and shorten the cycle time to close business opportunities.

This research report aims at differentiating ‘successful salespeople’ from the rest of
the inferior sales group in the business. The report explores the attributes of
successful salespeople in a Business to Business selling scenario

The concept of consultative selling has been proved successful and effective in the
B2B selling environment. This concept has come as a relief to B2B sales which had
earlier been following the traditional method of selling, that may work in small sales
but often proved lethal in case of large sales like B2B. Consultative selling
emphasizes customer needs thus meeting those needs with solutions combining
products and/or services. A consultative salesperson typically provides the best
solution that meets these needs. When done well, consultative selling takes place
that range from creating oppurtunities to do business to closing sales, as well as
stages in between.

Traditional selling focuses on single interaction or transaction. Salespeople don’t

take into account a buyer-seller relationship that exists prior to (and after) the sale.
Traditional sales techniques work for selling in the retail environment, where a
customer comes and buys the required product, but they don’t work in the world of
B2B selling.

Relationship selling techniques within itself is not enough either. Relationship sales
training usually requires communications techniques. But while buyer-seller
communication training is great, it’s still only part of the equation. Most salespeople
in the B2B world are terrific. They’re easy to get along with. But being comfortable
when communicating with someone on the other side of the desk is not what
influences a buyer to make a purchasing decision. Instead, when it comes to B2B
sales, it is the seller’s actions that make (or break) the sale. What matters here is the
salesperson’s behavior. Buyers evaluate seller behavior in order to make predictions
about the service levels provided after sale. Relationship selling is about business
relationships, not personal relationships. It’s something beyond the relationship in
business that influences purchasing decisions.

Consultative selling involves deeper questioning of the customer, about

organizational and operational issues that can extend beyond the product itself. This
leads to greater understanding of the customer's wider needs, (particularly those
affected by the product), and the questioning process itself also results in a greater
trust, rapport, and empathy between sales-person and buyer.

Thus, this research has been undertaken to study the application of Consultative
Selling in B2B environment. This has been achieved by studying Praxis-EL wherein
the research studies the sales team of Praxis-EL, which has been trained on
Consultative Selling.

The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the
determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to
the task at hand.

-Vince Lombardi

“Sell the way prospect likes to buy”

Insanity, by definition, is to do the things again in the hope that those things will
miraculously achieve results differently. If that is the case, then dissatisfied sales
managers must make changes. Organizations that want to increase their sales need
to approach sales differently.
Organizations should fully focus on how to do things differently to achieve their
desired results. On the other hand, to put this way, if their desired effect is
improving business results through increased sales revenue, what will consistently,
effectively, and reliably achieve this goal?
Millions of rupees have been spent investigating and pursuing ways to grow sales,
and no wonder; after all, sales are the lifeblood of any organization. Yet only a
handful of companies have been able to grow their sales diligently not just in good
times, but in lean times, too, and in the face of ferocious competition. A careful
study of the vast majority of companies that have been less successful than these
few superstars have shows that they fall prey to a number of common mistakes. By
contrast, the few that have been consistently increasing their sales have succeeded
because they have found ways to avoid these same traps. What have been such
companies doing differently is the question to be asked.

Sales Transformation Survey by Accenture on December 2003 states that a critical

need today is to move a sales force away from its traditional selling to consultative
selling solutions. Such a strategy can lead to a greater level of engagement with
business customers. Yet 30% of executives say that their salespeople are not
adequately focused on solution selling and too focused on selling products.

Selling has been replaced by new selling technique, Consultative Selling. The
formula mostly used by salespeople is ineffective, as it has became predictable to
businesses and consumers.

Today the world of B2B gained so much of attention. The traditional methods,
which are applicable to B2C, do not work for the sales force in today’s scenario.
The simple fact is that Business-to-Business sales differ significantly from Business
to Consumer sales. The differences are many:

B2B B2C

 Relationship driven  Product driven

 Maximize relationship
 Focused target market is small
 Multi-step buying process, longer
sales cycle
 Brand identity created on personal
relationship
 Educational and awareness building
activities
 Rational buying decision based on  Emotional buying decision based on
business value
 Maximize transaction
 Target market is big
 Single step buying process, shorter sales
cycle
 Brand identity created through repetition
and imagery
 Merchandising and point of purchase
activities
status, desire, or price
Therefore, today we need a consultative type of selling, introduced in the 1970’s,
which promotes a better understanding of the dynamics of how to sell. Although
many organizations appreciate the importance of being customer-focused and talk
about their "Consultative sales process," surprisingly few sales leaders invest the
time and energy required to develop a formal sales process—a sales process that is
at once detailed and resilient enough to guide their salespeople and permit effective
management of their efforts.

This Research report talks about business development executive of Praxis-EL..

Praxis-EL has been following, and training its salespeople on the techniques of
Consultative selling. The report aims at finding out the reasons behind the
consistently successful sales performance of its business development executive.

In Praxis, when a consultative sales process was defined, sold to the sales force, and
supported by other departments within an organization, the stage was set for
transformational performance improvements. The company believes that just as one
needs to put in a solid foundation when building a house, the sales process is the
key for future sales success. One must remember when selling to companies,
however, one must keep in mind that they are selling to an indefinite number of
people. Selling to a company involves many decision makers, each of whom must
be convinced of the advantages of the same product or solution. Decision makers at
different levels in an organization do not necessarily have the same needs and
requirements. Each of these individuals has its own agenda and reasons for buying.
Each one will always have two reasons for buying i.e. personal or emotional
reasons. They will also keep their company’s interest at heart, as this will help their
personal benefit. One should always keep these factors in mind when selling to the
clients’ organization. These are the reasons why Consultative Selling concept must
be understood and applied rationally in a large sale or B2B sale. Thus, report further
discusses this in detail.
 CHAPTER 2

THEORITICAL BACKGROUND

a) Industry profile
Agape Services, established by the Organization’s Agape Business Group, is a social
enterprise offering services such as cleaning, moving and disposal as well as minor
renovation works. It also aims to provide meaningful employment and benefits to people with
disadvantaged background, as a demonstration of the love and teachings of Jesus Christ.

Agape Business Group was established in 2015 to tap on synergies and leverage economies
of scale with Far East Organization’s substantial base of real estate operations. Its objective is
to drive consistency in quality, service and fulfilment for our customers. Apart from Agape
Services, the Agape Business Group’s portfolio also includes Store-Y, a self-storage facility,
and Agape Laundry, a commercial dry-cleaning and laundry.

The basic principles of sales management had been clearly constituted by the
beginning of the last century. Needs of the buyer were well experienced by the
managers, hence developing suitable strategies to make a sale perfect. However now
the selling environment has considerably changed. In the current commercial
context, everyone in business knows that it is necessary to build a relationship with
the customer. The selling organization must behave like a consultant to the buying
organization. .
COMPANY OVERVIEW

This chapter provides a presentation of the case study, Praxis-EL. The chapter
attempts at giving the readers a brief overview of the company’s business and
services offered by it. This has been considered important for the readers to get a
thorough understanding of the analysis following this chapter.

Since its conception, PRAXIS-EL has positioned itself in the domains of Activity
Enabled Learning and is one of only three organizations in the country that has the
knowledge and the technology to deliver such unique programmes. Its trainers have
delivered training to
organizations like AMERICAN EXPRESS, IBM DAKSH, STANDARD
CHARTERED
BANK, HSBC, MARUTI UDYOG, EICHER, HERO HONDA, SEAGRAM, CSC,
BIRLASOFT, SONY ETC.

Mission Statement
"We at PRAXIS-EL understand that realizing the potential of an organization's
human resource capital...constantly upgrading their skills and learning towards
harvesting their latent abilities to the fullest is easier said than done."

The single greatest challenge in an adult learning environment is to constantly arrive

at creative and new methods of delivering your message.

Be it lessons in:

• Train the Trainer

• Sales effectiveness
• Breaking the silo mentality
• Team building
• Bonding
• Leadership development
• Time management
• Managerial development
• Effective communication
• Negotiation skills
• Effective customer service
• Effective decision making
• Psychometric profiling

Praxis-EL partner’s you in identifying the appropriate concern areas and addressing
them with the requisite inputs using our high energy activities and high impact
learning modules in indoor as well as outbound environments.

Activities at Praxis-EL
In the domain of experiential learning and outbound learning programmes, names
like rappelling, trust fall, seek and destroy, river traversing, cave rescue, confidence
walk, obstacle course, gunnery school, one world, river rafting, etc. are easily used
and often repeated with minor variations by most trainers.

Details of outbound activities conducted by Praxis-EL:

1. Seek &Destroy:

Trained in the craft of war and armed with camouflage, satellite

imagery, wireless equipment, navigational aids and 45 mm.

Praxis rocket launchers your team of specialists will

follow its mission brief as a part of
“Operation Shatru Vinash” to take out the assets of an opposing force braving live
booby traps, enemy snipers,
wireless jamming and rough terrain. Victory will come only through

careful strategy, trusting every function of your team, effective leadership,

appropriate deployment of your assets and team work.

An exceptionally high energy and action packed intervention involving navigational

aids, guns, explosives, walkie-talkies, camouflage & concealment, (in a relatively
safe and controlled environment) aimed at delivering an understanding of the need
to strategize, leadership, conscious adaptability, realizing potential, back-up
planning, effective communication, resource utilization, bonding and teamwork.
2. One World:

"ONE WORLD": This is a business simulation that is a combination mind game as

well as physical movement.

The scenario talks about the "ONE WORLD

FORUM" which in the future has replaced a defunct

United Nations.

The entire group is divided into small teams

representing the leadership of different nations which
are members of the "ONE WORLD" forum.

Each team starts off with an inheritance of certain resources and relationships. The
objective of each country is to arrive as a true "ONE WORLD" nation by the end of
the activity while keeping the interests of their own nation secured.

The simulation uses a complex matrix of resource allocations and

relationships delivered to each team in the form of accounted props and
expendables for use during the simulation.

This module has the potential to deliver learning in the domains of trust, teamwork,
pro-active collaboration & breaking the silo mentality and works equally well with
group sizes ranging between 20-200 participants where time might be a constraint.

3. Gunnery School:

This is a Military Academy scenario which gives all participants an opportunity to

be heroes and can be adapted into half or full day interventions.

The intervention starts with creation of teams which

have to create identities for themselves which include
team names, team flags, team anthems and a battle cry.
Teams will also be given berets to wear (take aways).

The Gunnery School format will focus on the various

aspects of a Military Academy which will include:

1. Physical Stretch aided with the usage of Walkie-

talkies
2. Learning the intricacies of Field Artillery & Engineering and applying them
The scenario will culminate in where both the teams will build their Operational
Command HQ, use linear maps and magnetic compasses to locate the opposing
force’s HQ, field assemble 45
mm. PRAXIS cannons and use them to shoot down the opposing force’s HQ from a
range of approx. 300 ft.

An exceptionally high energy and action packed intervention involving field

artillery (45 mm. internal combustion Praxis cannons), explosives & booby traps,
walkie-talkies, camouflage & concealment (in a relatively safe and controlled
environment) aimed at delivering bonding and an understanding of the need for and
effectiveness of team work. Simultaneously the de-brief also talks about trust, roles
& responsibilities, realizing potential and the importance of putting learning into
practice.

4. Armada:

A hard-hitting simulation, the “Armada” is a half-day indoor activity where the

entire batch is divided into teams of 4-6 members each. Each team is allocated some
resources that will help
the team through a journey at sea that
lasts 21 days (simulated into 02 minutes
per day). Each team has to complete the
journey and successfully reach back to
the starting point.

Each team has a choice of multiple

routes to reach the destination and to return. Each route has its
unique set of challenges and the teams will need to strategize and plan on the usage
of resources based on the routes that they will follow.

Each team member is given a set of

responsibilities to enable the team performing
optimally.

The key to success will lie in how effectively

the teams collaborate, share knowledge and
resources, plan and strategize on the usage of
resources.

Part board game and all fun, “ARMADA” is a simulation using lots of props,
costumes and collaterals with a fair amount of physical movement generating very
high levels of energy while impacting serious learning in the area of collaboration,
teamwork & breaking the silo mentality.

Details of few classroom interventions conducted by Praxis-EL:

1. Leadership:

CONTENT OF THE WORKSHOP:

• MANAGER AND LEADERSHIP

• LEADING AND GUIDING CHANGE

• COMMON FEATURES OF LEADERS

 Leading By Example

 Self Management
 Stress Management
 Time Management
 Task vs. Relationship Orientation
 3 Circles of Leadership

 LEADER EFFECTIVENESS AND ADAPTABILITY

 LEADERSHIP STYLE

 Your Leadership Style / profile

 ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Paradigms of Management and Leadership

• ‘SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP’ - Model

• WORKPLACE LEADERSHIP

 Building and Maintaining the Team

 CHARACTERISTICS OF HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS

 High Performance Teams

 Building and Maintaining the Team
 Components of Effective Teams
  DEVELOPING THE INDIVIDUAL

 Coaching
 Mentoring
 Counseling
 Motivation
 SUCCESSFUL LEADERSHIP WITH PEOPLE

 Manpower Planning
 Performance Standards
 Review & Monitor
 Training & Development
 Reward & Recognition
 Employee Welfare

 PROBLEM SOLVING AND DECISION MAKING

 The Six Step Problem Solving Process

 LEADERSHIP AT WORK

 Putting stress to work

 Signs of negative stress
 Common causes of stress
 Dealing with stress

LITRETURE REVIEW

FOCUS OF THE PROGRAM / DELIVERABLES:

• Establishing personal responsibility and accountability in the midst of

change.
• Increased self - awareness
• Improving relationships for greater personal and professional success.
• Realizing untapped potential
• Pro-activity
• Creating an open environment
 • Focus on escalation
MAIN TOPICS COVERED IN THE WORKSHOP -

(With key messages for the delegates):

• Effective Listening
Key Message To The Delegates

 Your ability to be a good listener is dependent on just one thing…

your attitude. You must want to be a good listener.
 You tell people what you think of them by the way you listen to
them. Competent listeners demonstrate a lot of positive behavioral
mannerisms- gesture’s, personality traits, posture, and movement of
the eyes, head, and mouth etc- all demonstrating a desire to listen.

• Developing Communication Skills

Key Message To The Delegates

‘Good communication is the key to harmony and motivation’

 Good communications inform, provide dialogue for ventilating, and

make a person feel important. As you make others feel important,
they respond positively to you. Releasing these feelings can be an
exhilarating accomplishment, career progress, personal victory, a
great idea of the future and an adventure in living.

• Attitude Awareness
Key Message To The Delegates

 Our success in life is directly linked to our self-esteem, which further

impacts our learning, goals and achievements.
 Studies have shown that successful people build on their strengths
rather than being overly concerned about their limitations (which
they have like anyone else). You should learn to create your self-
motivation thoughts like ‘I am’, ‘I can’, ‘I will’, or ‘I am able to’.
Personality is a reflection of your attitude. Turn your limitations into
strengths.
“Believe that you possess significant reserves of health, energy and endurance, and
your belief will create the fact”
• Dealing with emotions
Key Message To The Delegates

 The life of a tree is sometimes dependent on whether or not it can

bend with the wind in a storm. As human beings, it is important that
we accept and express emotions.

“ I can’t help the way I feel, but I can help the way I think and act”.

 Sharing and communicating our emotions can be one of the most

acceptable ways of relating to others and providing a healthy outlet
for our emotions. You are responsible for your own emotions. People
and situations might trigger them, but your emotions are your own, a
creation of your own making.

• Understanding People
Key Message To The Delegates

The foundation for all good human relations is UNDERSTANDING

PEOPLE

 Your treatment and the way you relate to others depend on your
attitudes and feelings about others
Be patient and tolerant towards others

Don’t expect other people to be perfect

Place yourself in the other’s situation

Control your attitudes

• Attitudes of Personal Empowerment Key Message To The Delegates

 Let us empower our lives with people to the degree that you give
others what they need and they will give you what you need.
 We only have to look into our own minds and hearts and have
sensitivity for others to determine the needs of the people who are
important to us.
  Life is more pleasurable, successful experience if those reactions to
you are positive. You should learn to motivate others.

• Creative Problem Solving

Key Message To The Delegates

 Life is not always easy. We all have problems. We also have a

tendency to put off facing your problems, hoping they would take
care of themselves. They rarely do. Taking action, working our way
through problems and getting them behind us will keep our lives on
track.
‘Problems are opportunities; it is this attitude that will help you
discover the solution faster’.

• Team Building Strategies

Key Message To The Delegates

 To be successful one needs to inculcate team values. Values build

inner character and outer personality. Mutual trust is the basic
ingredient of all honest and effective human relationships, which is
also true for a customer and a salesperson. While getting things done
with others, you need to develop mutual trust, have the ability to
admit mistakes and be easy to work with.

• Motivational Power
Key Message To The Delegates

 The ability to believe deeply about something is the core attitude for
a purposeful, stimulating life and achieving this ability is within your
power. Learn how to believe in whatever you do and be successful as
possible in the work you are doing today. Success then becomes a
habit, a way of living and being productive. If you are salesperson
believe in your company, your product, your job and you can
motivate yourself.

• Reaching Potential
Key Message To The Delegates
  There is considerable evidence to indicate that your expectations for
the future tend to shape your future. Deep within your consciousness
is the realization that your life has a purpose, a destiny, a meaning to
be discovered. To be working for a great purpose, a purpose larger
than you is one of the secrets of making life significant.

2. Effective Communication:
OBJECTIVES:

• To sensitize the participants the importance of communication process in

successful selling.
• To share with the delegates the relevance of one-way and two way
communication.
• To equip delegates with the skills required in listening and verbal
communication.
• To sensitize delegates on their individual communication styles while
influencing decision maker.
• How to make business communication more effective.

BROAD FRAMEWORK OF THE PROGRAM

 Introduction & Expectation
 Basics of Business & Professional Communication o Definition o
Communication Model

o Communication Channels

o Types of Formal Communication in Organization

 Barriers to Effective Communication

 Levels of Communication
 Culture & Communication – A brief insight o Appearance / Dress Sense o
Tolerance for Conflict
 Elements of Communication o Verbal Communication o Elements of
Verbal Communication
a) Clarity & ambiguity
b) Use of inflammatory language
c) Male & Female language use (Genderlects)
o Communication Steps
 a) Attending to your customers
b) Understanding customer & his needs
c) Offering solutions
d) Closing the process
e) Follow up
o Non-verbal
communication o
Definition &
importance o Non-
verbal elements of
voice
a) How to sound positive
o Non-verbal communication characteristics

a) Different Behavior patterns speak different languages

o Body language

a) Positive / Negative Personal signals in business

o Listening Skills

a) Definition & importance

b) Bad Habits Die Hard
c) Approach to Listening – Why & What?
o Written Communication Skills

a) Your Writing Style - Your Choice

o Know your audience – “Human Element in
Writing” o Techniques of Effective Written
Communication

3. Stress Management:

 Understanding Stress

 Pre program stress self-evaluation

 What, Why, Types
 Commonly held perceptions/beliefs
 Health impact of prolonged stress
• Mind/Body approach to healing stress

• Guided practice sessions – suitable in work environment

 Physical techniques
 Mental techniques

• Participants discussion or role-plays

• Q&A

• FeedbacK

4. Negotiation:

• Identify & negotiate the best deal/outcome possible

• Understand the key skills, processes necessary for successful negotiations
• Recognize the different approaches to the negotiating processes &
understand their implications
• Identify, develop & employ the interpersonal skills & techniques crucial to
negotiating proactively
• Work on individual strengths & weaknesses to develop a personal style of
negotiation
• Develop flexibility in negotiation styles to identify & practice
individual/group behaviors that are helpful in negotiation.
• Develop successful negotiation strategies that can be used acc. to needs &
demands
• An Overview
• Preparation Stage
• Establishing the climate
• Proposing
• Skills for bargaining
• Closing the deal
• Negotiation strategies
• Negotiation tactics
• Team negotiations

5. Time Management:
• Objectives & Goals of Time management
• Evaluate current usage of Time-keeping a Time log, identifying your personal time
wasters, dealing with interruptions.
• Organizing your daily work-Daily/Weekly Planning, effective time management
system.
• Managing meetings-Different meetings for different purpose, Structure & control
• Delegation-Leadership & Time management, How to delegate effectively, Developing
your staff
• Getting the best return on Time Investment

6. Selling:

• Communication Basics
 Enhancing persuasiveness while communicating
 Using tone to their advantage
 Aligning to the communication style of the customer
 Active listening
 Handling difficult /Irate customers (demonstrating empathy)
 Effective ending of the call

• Call handling o Sequencing the call (structure) while following the script o
Control anxiety and effectively bridge the sales call o Bring in the
consultative sales approach

• Gathering Customer information

 Fact finding
 Gather critical customer information before pitching a plan

• Recommendation
 Explaining the benefit to the customer

• Overcoming Resistance
 Effective Objection handling
 Positive attitude towards objections raised by the customers
 Emphasis on pitching “Benefits”
 Understanding the specific objection
 Agent’s belief in self/company and the services offered
  Confidently stating rebuttals to objections raised by the customer

• Asking for the order

 Effective Closing of the call
 Positive attitude towards closing
 Recommend benefits and wait for the customer to say “ Yes”

PRAXIS-EL has left all that behind. PRAXIS-EL has learnt and put into practice the
need for constant innovation in the domain of experiential learning. PRAXIS-EL
brings to its customers the next generation of experiential learning programmes
designed and created to assist them arrive at their objectives in the most innovative
and hard hitting formats.
 CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

To give the reader the possibility to invision this research and to make his or her
own perception concerning the quality of the results, the methodology used is
described below. This chapter begins with the research approach, the research
perspective and the research method. Then the method presents the case study and
describes the data collection method used as well as a discussion about the
credibility in this study. The research design ends this chapter.

RESEARCH APPROACH
Most of the research is done about the application of Consultative Selling in a B2B
environment. It has been a prevailing concept but not much has been practiced in
India. Consultative Selling is still at its very beginning stage in India and the Indian
researchers and management experts have contributed not much. However, off
lately, researchers have started to explore this domain more seriously. Largely most
of the literature on Consultative Selling has been written and published by the
foreign authors. A research report on this topic has been initiated, as the subject was
interesting and still not well researched.

Praxis – EL, a corporate learning organization, was approached to gain an

understanding of how a business-to-business selling is carried out while dealing in
intangible professional services, in this case, the training programmes. Praxis-EL
highlights the reasons behind the successful performance of business development
executive. Being a training organization, Praxis-EL tends to follow– Consultative
Selling – the most advanced method of selling.

RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE
A scientific approach explains how a researcher connects theory and empirical
findings in the research process. A comparison was made between the existing
selling theories with new one. This material was used as a frame in deciding what
information was collected, how the information was analyzed and how the
information was related to the already existing theory. After analyzing the material,
an attempt has been made to understand the consequences and potential
development areas of the theories. The intention is not to build a new theory but to
highlight the effectiveness of the published research in this domain and test it
against its practical application in Praxis-EL.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In investigating the Consultative Sales concept, a descriptive method in form of
personal observation has been chosen. The observations were carried out in order to
get a deep comparative knowledge regarding the different practices and processes at
the research company. Subjectivity that may creep into the research has been kept in
mind at all times and efforts have been made to make the research as objective as
the research methodology permits.

OBSERVATIONAL RESEARCH
A wide ranging set of research techniques aimed at observing consumers interacting
naturally with their surroundings including products and services in use. A key
advantage of observation research is that often the respondent or consumer is
unaware that they are being observed, allowing their behavior to be observed
naturally.

A personal observation was carried out to gain a vision into the behavioral patterns
of the business executive while on a sales call with the client, before and after
training. Consent was gained from the Industry Mentor to carry out the research on
such lines.

DATA COLLECTION

Both Primary and Secondary sources of data have been used in this research report.

1. PRIMARY SOURCE:

In primary data collection, you collect the data yourself using methods such as
interviews and questionnaires. The key point here is that the data you collect is
unique to you and your research and, until you publish, no one else has access to it.

Participants and Sample Size

This research explores the interaction between the business development executive
and 200 clients, 100 before training and 100 after training on Consultative Selling.
The behavioral patterns of business development executive from Praxis-EL, before
and after training, was observed and recorded. The clients comprised the Human
Resources and the Training managers of various organizations in Delhi, Noida,
Gurgaon and Faridabad. Praxis-EL currently operates in Delhi and NCR region
only.

Procedure and Techniques

The business development executive was observed during the sales meetings with
the clients through a viewing window for 20-30 minutes. A behavioral checklist was
used to record each instance of a listed behavior during the meeting.

2. SECONDARY SOURCE:

Secondary data is material that has been published before. Secondary data in forms
of published white papers, research reports and company website information has
been used in this report. Sources have been mentioned clearly in the References
section of the report.
DISCUSSION OF CREDIBILITY

This thesis has aimed at producing and providing results with high validity and
reliability. The results provided will be trustworthy in order for the researcher to
give potential recommendations.

VALIDITY
According to the definition, validity is “concerned with the idea that the research
design fully addresses the research questions and objectives you are trying to
answer and achieve.” This research has been concluded with a belief that the
research perspective and design matched the research objective and gave the
possibility to create a valuable analysis. In creating this match, the planning that was
done in advance was crucial.

RELIABILITY

Reliability refers to the ability to measure accurately. It is concerned with the

consistency, accuracy and predictability of the research findings. (Patel and
Davidsson, 1994)

The research was done under the guidance and with the approval of the Industry
Guide. It was carried out with the purpose of extracting some valuable information
on the team performance to understand the areas of improvement and to check the
effectiveness of the induction carried out on Consultative Selling. Since the study
was carried out using the disguised research technique, the behavior of the
participants was natural and not canned. Sincere efforts have been made to keep the
researcher’s personal bias at bay. In order to obtain reliability, behaviors have been
observed several times.
CHAPTER 4
 DATA ANALYSIS

This section aims at distinguishing the concept of Business-to-Business Sales and

the

Business to Consumer Sales. This section also differentiates major sales and low
value sales. The chapter also highlights some facts of Training industry in India.
Clarity of some elemental definitions will facilitate a better understanding of the
purpose of the Research Report.

High demand Medium demand

a. Leadership a. Breaking the Silo Mentality
b. Customer Relationship Management b. Conflict Management
c. Selling Skills c. Professional Assertiveness
d. Effective Communication d. Telephone Etiquettes
e. Decision Making e. Managing cultural divides
f. Team Building

This research report is based on the case study of Praxis-EL, a corporate learning
organization, which provides training solutions to the corporates. The above
literature connects well the research undertaken at Praxis-EL. The role of business
development team at the organization is to sell training to the various other
organizations, hence, qualifying as business to business sales of professional
services.
With various organizations laying down huge budgets to train their large pool of
human resources, the sales of training programmes comes under the domain of
major sales. Complex decision-making, long deliberations and multiple sales call
process characterize the sales of training solutions to the clients. With this
background, the emphasis on Consultative selling has been made in this research
report.

BUSINESS To BUSINESS SELLING :

Business-to-business sales is differs from Consumer sales in deep and fundamental

ways and this most certainly affects the way B2B selling should be carried out.
More often than not, it is perceived that since marketing is about the profitable
satisfaction of needs, the fundamentals of getting the right product to the right
person, at the right price is exactly the same in both the cases. However, there are
many remarkable differences in the way products are sold in a B2B and B2C
scenario.

What Makes Business-to-Business Marketing Different?

 B2B Marketers Experience Longer Sales Cycles

The B2B purchase cycle is an extended process, often
lasting several months. Marketing to B2B prospects
requires different actions, depending on what stage of the
buying cycle your prospect is in.

 B2B Products and Services are More Complex

B2B products and services are typically complex and
sophisticated, with many of the benefits or detriments not
readily apparent. B2B marketing needs to take the technical,
the implied, the intricate, and make it clear, understandable,
and persuasive.

 B2B Selling Propositions are More Complex

B2B selling propositions are complex that must present
value-based differentiated solutions that support rational
buying decisions of a customer. Fluff may get attention,
but it’s not going to influence the purchasing decision.
 Complex differences must be delivered through intelligent
and compelling communication strategies.

 There are Fewer Identifiable Buyers

B2C marketers know they can put their product in front of
millions and that a sizeable percentage of that market is
potential purchasers of that product. There are fewer
potential buyers of B2B product.

 B2B Pricing is Different

The pricing of B2C products doesn’t change very much
from store to store. Pricing of B2B products, are often
different for every buyer. Products in the B2B world are
less standardized, and pricing can be according to the
buyer. The price is determined on the basis of many
factors and specifications, all of which take significant
time to calculate and add greatly to selling costs.

 B2B Marketing Speaks to a Different Set of Buying Emotions

B2B marketing is not “emotionless.” While B2B prospects
are generally not moved by common B2C motivators, like
impulse or status, different individual emotional
motivators apply.

 Corporate Brands are Usually More Important

Corporate brands are usually more important to B2B
buyers than product brands. While there are many
purchase criteria that drive product selection, (i.e. product
performance, capabilities, price), the value B2B buyers
place on the corporate brand drives and completes the
actual purchase decision. “Can I trust them? Will they
deliver what they promise? ”

 B2B Prospects Conduct More Research

The risks and implications of making to make the
appropriate purchase decision are usually high for B2B
customers. Therefore, B2B prospects conduct more
research, seek more information, evaluate references, and
research alternative products, manufacturers, solutions,
 and providers. They do this not only for personal benefit,
but because they also need to “sell” the recommended
purchase to others.

 B2B Marketers Have Less Research Data

If Proctor & Gamble doesn’t put a product on the shelf
until they have spent millions to know that the product
will be successful. Few B2B companies have that luxury.
Sure, a lot of money may go into product research and
development, but little gets spent on market research. This
makes success a lot more dependent on the experience and
savvy of the B2B marketer.

 More People are Involved in the B2B Purchase-Decision Process

Most business purchases have multiple parties in the
purchasing organization influencing the decision-making
process. Therefore, you must identify and reach multiple
parties in multiple tiers within the prospect’s organization
with messaging that resonates to each individual’s interests
and concerns—for example, the "economic buyer"
concerned with ROI, the "technology buyer" concerned
with performance, and the “end-user” concerned with ease
of operation.

 B2B Requires Different Channel Strategies

For many B2B organizations, the “seller-to-end-user”
relationship is not exclusive or direct. Complex networks
of key publics require different channel strategies relevant
and appropriate to each channel member’s level of
involvement. In addition to end-users, many B2B
companies must also market to distributors, dealers,
independent representatives, outside consultants,
specifiers, and supply-chain partners, to name just a few.

 B2B Sales Rely Heavily on Personal Interactions

Unlike sales to consumers, B2B marketing doesn’t happen
through tightly controlled highly crafted communications
vehicles like television commercials or other mass media.
One-to-one customer relationship building, through
 interacting, demands sophisticated sales management and
an educated, knowledgeable, trained staff whose words
and actions are aligned with corporate brand objectives

 B2B Marketing Starts on the Inside

Most people working within a B2C company have little, if
any, actual contact with the customer. In B2B, countless
people within the company, not just marketing folks, have
access to and interact with the customer. All of those
people need to understand the brand, live the brand, and
deliver the brand every day. Therefore, the B2B marketer’s
first job is to market the product internally and align others
in order to create brand ambassadors.

• Multiple People from the Seller’s Organization are Typically

Involved Sales of complex, technical, or sophisticated B2B
products and services often include the expertise and
involvement of multiple people from the selling
organization. Sales and marketing may be joined by
representatives from executive management, design,
engineering, manufacturing, customer service—all of whom
have the ability to influence the sale. All of these people
need to be aligned with the brand to maximize selling
success.

• Third Parties have Greater Influence in the Buying Process

B2B purchasers often look to third party influencers for
opinions, insight, consultation, or referrals. B2B sellers must
market to and through industry experts, trade organizations,
trade shows, trade publications, peer organizations, and other
third party channels. B2B purchasers use information from
these sources to support and help sell their purchase
recommendations

Now lets us differentiate low value sales and major sales -

LOW VALUE SALES VS. MAJOR SALES – A CASE FOR
CONSULTATIVE SELLING :

• Traditional sales training is fine for low-value sale but they

cease to work, as the sales grow larger. It was this consistent
failure of sales training to improve results in major sales that
led to the research and finally the development of the
methods found in this model – Consultative Selling.

Traditional sales call steps:

1. Opening the call

2. Investigating needs-open and closed questions - these classic methods may work
in small sales but they certainly won’t help you in bigger ones.
Research showed no measurable relationship between the use of open ended
questions and sales success

3. Giving benefits - offering benefits can be very successful in the small sale, but in
the large one it fails entirely.

4. Objection handling - objection handling skills are fine when you’re making the
small sale, but in major sales they contribute very little to your sales
effectiveness. Successful sellers concentrate on objection prevention, not on
objection handling.

5. Closing techniques – most of the commonly taught closing techniques just don’t
work for major sales.

A small sale is a sale which can normally be completed in a single visit and
which involves a low rupee value.

 Major sales are different, mainly due to changes in customer perceptions and
behaviors.

Factors:

1. Length of selling cycle – simple, low value sales may be completed in one
visit, but a major sale may require many months. Multi- call sales have a
completely different psychology from single call sales. A key factor is that in
a single call sale the buying decision is usually made then and there with the
seller present, but in a multi-call sale the most important discussions and
 deliberations go on when the seller isn’t present, during the interval between
calls.

2. Size of customer’s commitment – as the size of the sale increases, successful

salespeople must build up the perceived value of their product or services.
The building of perceived value is probably the single most important selling
skill in larger sales.

3. The ongoing relationship – most large sales involve an ongoing relationship

with the customer. In a small sale it’s relatively easy to separate the seller
from the product. With the larger decision, seller and product become much
harder to separate. Because large decisions usually entail an ongoing
involvement with the customer, they demand a different selling style.

4. The risk of mistakes – in a small sale, customers can afford to take more risks
because the consequences of mistakes are relatively small. Customers
become more cautious as the decision size increases. Purchase price is one
factor, but fear of making a public mistake may be even more important.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE TRAINING INDUSTRY IN INDIA :

India's growing employment market presents an opportunity for the budding

training industry in the country.

-The Hindu Business Line

If India's demographic advantage is an opportunity for organizations to ramp up

their workforce numbers quickly, the same resource is also presenting another
window for the growth of the budding training industry in the country. Though no
exact estimates are available, the country's training industry, imparting both
technical and non-technical knowledge, is now worth around Rs 5,000-Rs 6,000
crore (source: NIS Sparta).

The Training industry in India is largely dominated by individuals and consultants

who form nearly 85% of the industry pie. The balance is divided between the big
players (eg.NIS Sparta, Bharti Comtel) and the business schools across the country.
Mostly, these big players engage in low-value but a mass training rollouts at a time.
These players boast of impressive budgetary layouts in form of overhead cost that
contrasts with the small individual consultants. However at the same time largely
their credentials, certifications, and years of experience as a trainer govern the
earnings of the trainers. Also worth noting, is the fact that many companies do a
considerable in-house training through their line managers. But it's also true that
companies generally outsource about half of their training needs to various training
organizations and individual consultancies.

In a country where the knowledge economy is booming, training budgets are

estimated to be low and restricted to certain `progressive' companies. Traditionally,
Indian companies spend anywhere between 0.5 and 2 per cent of their turnover on
training their employees. IT and ITES companies, which are essentially people-
oriented businesses, spend about 3-5 per cent of their revenues on upgrading
employee skills. The American Society for Training has estimated the spend to be in
the range of 2-2.5 per cent of company turnover on employee skill development
programmes, though progressive companies are known to spend up to five per cent
of their turnover on training.

Globalization has increased the pressure on companies, with an increasing need felt
to effectively manage oneself properly, and also manage clients. Apart from IT and
ITES, sectors that are booming and therefore looking for training programmes for
their employees are retail, automobile, sales, service, financial services and banking,
telecom and manufacturing. The Government has also realized the need for training
its employees in the areas of soft skills like customer service and responsiveness.

In India, however, more importance has been given to technical training than
behavioral or soft skills training. Experts point out that in spite of the critical need
for soft skills training, most companies have not got down to making it a regular
affair, with the acceptance ratio of technical to soft skills standing at a dismal 70:30.
The reason behind all this focus on technical training is the return on income
associated with it, as that leads to immediate business and revenue generation.

Often, it has also been seen that majority of the soft skills trainers are not formally
trained. They usually are the “home- grown” variety of trainers who have a
considerable amount of experience as a Human Resources or Organizational
Development managers.

Training industry in India is still at its nascent stage and this leaves a lot of room for
innovation, especially in the soft skills training arena. What is needed is a deeper
understanding of and greater adaptation to different customs and manners across the
globe. Issues like interpersonal behavior, communication, presentation, client
handling and client management, business development and negotiation skills,
which were hitherto considered not very important, have now become essential for
companies. In a study conducted by the Stanford Research Institute and Carnegie
Melon Foundation, among Fortune 500 CEOs, it was found that 75 percent of long-
term job success depended on people skills, and only 25 percent on technical
knowledge.

Besides, there are other drawbacks like individual reluctance, whereby most
employees do not like to undergo training in etiquette or communication skills. This
is especially true in the case of middle and top managers who already have a
relatively good amount of experience in doing things. In addition to this limitation,
a most important roadblock for soft skills training to spread its wings is the
mentality that training is an “event” and not a “process”. Thus, many fail to realize
the long-term positive effect of such training.

Some very strong modules on team building, collaboration, breaking the silo
mentality, sales training, negotiation skills, effective communication, leadership
skills etc. can work wonders for any company. Soft skills are also honed through
some very hard-hitting formats of simulation and outbound trainings. Outbound
Training has been identified as being part of the field of experiential education and
uses an experiential approach to physical and mental development of an individual.
The term outdoor education has been used in a variety of contexts to describe a
range of experiences and during the last century there has been tremendous growth
in outdoor education due to its effectiveness. Experiential learning is based on the
belief that the process of personal growth occurs through change because of direct
experiences. It is an active process involving the learner being placed in unfamiliar
environments, outside their positions of comfort and into states of dissonance. This
lack of harmony requires problem solving, inquiry and reflection.

Sadly, though, outbound training is considered merely as fun with no serious

learning. This dilutes the very purpose of sending the teams out for trainings and,
therefore, in the end the entire blame is posed on the inefficiency of the soft skills
trainings. This problem is further exacerbated by a crunch of good trainers in the
country.

SOFT SKILLS

Soft skills is a sociological term which refers to the cluster of personality traits,
social graces, ability with language, personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that
mark people to varying degrees .
 CHAPTER 5

DATA ANALYSIS

In this chapter, empirical research on traditional methods of selling and Consultative

Selling, which is an improvement over the former, has been put to use to analyze the
sales process at Praxis-EL. The objective of the analysis is to understand the
application of the sales process that should be carried out to achieve improved sales
conversion rate.

This report focuses on Consultative Selling Model that has been used as a device in
recognizing the critical indicators that distinguish a renown sales person from a
common sales person and emphasizes the most efficient technique of carrying out a
sales call. The research based on this model can be used as an evidence to prepare a
case for Consultative Selling Methodology.

At Praxis-EL the most intricated and improved technique is carried out which
results in an effective B2B sales. However, this commonly followed sales process
has been compared by the Consultative Selling Model.
Earlier in this report a comparison had been made between the low value sales and
the major sales. Since in the small sales the rupee value and the risk element
associated with the commodity purchased is low, the transaction period involved is
lesser and not much deliberation on the part of the buyer is involved.

Keeping aside the small sales and concentrating on the major sales, let us look at
two different situations.

SITUATION 1
A customer goes to a market and desires to buy an i-pod with a budget of Rs.10000.
Now he would qualify as a major sale prospect for the seller of an i-pod. The seller
interrogates about customer’s interest and then accordingly present the latest
models explaining all the features and the advantages. He even tries to up-sell and
persuades the buyer to give out an extra Rs.
1000 and buy the latest model.

SITUATION 2
The same customer approaches the seller of an i-pod with the same budget. The
seller inquires about his requirements from an i-pod. This way the seller consults the
buyer to help him serve the buyer better.

Let us compare both the situations and see which sale will be more successful?

On comparing we see the seller in the second situation would convert his sale more
successfully and conveniently than the seller in the first situation. This is because of
the simple fact that the seller in the first scenario skipped the most important step in
a successful sales process, that is, investigation. This step has a great significance in
a sales process and forms the underlying basis of the Consultative Selling.

At Praxis-EL, a research was carried out to investigate the two sales processes,
traditional and modern, executed by business development executive at Praxis-EL.

Each step of a sales process was observed according to the Consultative Selling
framework. An effort has been made to distinguish the sales process followed at
Praxis-EL before and after training.

As mentioned earlier, the executive was observed during their sales meetings with
the clients through a viewing window for 20- 30 minutes. A behavioral checklist
was used to record each instance of a listed behavior during the stated period
Now let us take a deep understanding of the steps involved in the sales process.

STEPS IN A SALES PROCESS:

1. PRELIMINARIES -

This research examines Preliminaries more closely. Generally, the larger the
prospect organization, the more research should be done before any sales call at
which the salesperson will be expected to present his company's products or
services. This is called pre-call preparation. The sales person must ensure that he
knows his company’s product/service extremely well, especially features,
advantages and benefits that will be relevant to the prospect he will be meeting. The
opening of a call begins with the introduction of the salesperson and the company
he is representing followed by the general benefit statement.

General Benefit Statement (GBS):

A General Benefit Statement is a statement that relates to customers buying motives

and briefly says what a seller could do for a potential customer. This should grab
customer’s attention and start to create interest in knowing more about seller’s
offering. The General Benefit Statement is very useful and can be used as an
opening at various stages during the sales process.

2. INVESTIGATING -

Investigating stage plays an important role in sales process. Success in larger sale
depends, more than anything else, on how the investigating stage of the call is
handled. Almost every call involves investigating-finding something out from the
customer that will enable you to sell more effectively and to investigate one should
ask more questions. This may be done to uncover needs or to gain a better
understanding of the prospects business. The main purpose of investigating is to
confirm or discover the strongest or unique perceived organizational benefit that
would accrue to the prospect from the product/service - it may be one (usually) or
two (occasionally) or three (rarely) key things, which may be obvious to seller and
buyer, or not obvious to either, in which case questioning expertise is critical.
Questioning must also discover how best to develop the sale with the organization,
that is, to find out when and how they decide, people and procedures involved,
competitor pressures, etc.

Good empathetic questioning also builds relationships, trust and rapport. It must
always be taken into account that nobody wants to buy anything from a sales person
who's only interested in their own products or company and who does not has the
time and skill to interpret and properly meet the prospect’s personal needs. The list
of questions or headings prepared at the Pre-call stage must be used at this stage.

Usually it is suggested to use open questions to gather information from the

prospects. The idea is to get the customers to give greater information.

A most important component in this stage is to listen carefully and empathically,

maintain good eye-contact, understand, and show that you understand, especially
understand what is meant and felt, not just what is said, particularly when you probe
motives and personal aspects. Interpret and reflect back and confirm you have
understood what is being explained, and if relevant the feelings behind it.

Questioning is traditionally treated by conventional sales people and conventional

sales training as a process to gather information to assist the sales person's process,
and this is how it is typically positioned in the conventional or the traditional style.
However, modern sales methodology, like Consultative Selling, treats questioning in
a radically different way as an essential part of a facilitative process whose purpose
is to help the buyer decide.

This report shares the view that the investigative stage is extremely important as far
as success of a particular sales call is concerned. It is particularly important in major
sales. An observation was made on the:

• Quality of questions asked

• types of questions asked – open-ended or close-ended
• Number of questions asked
• Subject matter of the questions
• Number of questions asked on a particular subject
• Sequencing of the questions

3. DEMONSTRATING CAPABILITIES -

In most of the sales calls the salesperson has to demonstrate that he has something
worthwhile to offer to the customer. Most of us, in the larger sales, are selling
solutions to the customer problems. In demonstrating capability stage the
salesperson has to show that he has the solution which makes a worthwhile
contribution to solve the organization’s problem.

Demonstration of capabilities may take a form of sales presentation, or actually

presenting the product, or stating some benefits of the product/service. The sales
presentation focuses on a central proposition, which should be the unique perceived
benefit that the prospect gains from the product/service.

During the questioning phase the sales person will have refined the understanding
(and ideally gained agreement) as to what this solution will be, however, the
presentation must now focus on 'matching' the benefits of the product with the needs
of the prospect so that the prospect is entirely satisfied that the proposition. The
sales person therefore needs an excellent understanding of the many different
organizational benefits that accrue to customers from the product/service, and also
why these benefits should accrue. These perceived benefits will vary according to
the type of customer organization (size, structure, market sector, strategy, general
economic health, culture, etc)

The sales presentation must demonstrate that the product/service meets the
prospect's needs, priorities, constraints and motives, or the prospect will not even
consider buying or moving to the next stage; this is why establishing the prospect's
situation and priorities during the questioning phase is so vital.

All sales presentations, whether impromptu or the result of significant preparation,

must be well structured, clear and concise, professionally delivered, and have lots of
integrity. The quality and integrity of the presentation is always regarded as a direct
indication as to the quality and integrity of the product/service.

Observations made at this stage were primarily focused on investigating for some
key points and behaviours that emanated during the sales calls. These were:

• At what point of the sales call did the salesperson proposed the solution
• What was the impact of the solution
• How was the solution showcased
• Number of objections raised by the customers (reasons for the obj)
• How were these objections dealt with
• Impact of objections on sales outcome
4. OBTAINING COMMITMENT -

This research shows that success in the Major sale depends, more than anything
else, on how the Investigating stage of the call is handled. This flies in the face of
popular sales training, which suggests that Obtaining Commitment, or Closing, was
the stage of the sale where the most crucial elements of success existed. No other
area of selling is as popular as closing. Closing is defined as a behavior used by the
seller which implies or invites a commitment, so that the buyer’s next statement
accepts or denies commitment.

The consensus on selling seems to be:

• Closing techniques are strongly related to success.

• You should use many types of closes re: assumptive closes, alternative
closes, test closes, etc.

• You should close frequently during the sale.

Initial selling research revealed that closing appeared to be negatively related to

sales success. Closing is a method of putting pressure on the buyer – this pressure
has a psychological effect. If the buyer is being asked to make a small decision,
then the effect of the pressure is to make it easier for the buyer to say yes and avoid
an argument. Consequently, with a small decision, the effect of pressure is positive.
This isn’t so with large decisions – the bigger the decision the more negatively
buyer’s generally react to pressure. The effect of pressure is negatively related to the
size of the decision. By forcing the buyer into a decision, closing techniques speed
the sales transaction. This is fine for low-value products, but it is not for larger,
higher-value sales where you normally want more time with the buyer, not less.
Closing techniques may increase the chances of making a sale with lowpriced
products. With expensive products or services, they reduce the chances of making a
sale. Closing techniques, like all forms of pressure, become less effective as
decision size increases.

The research goes on to point out though, that if the overuse of closing is a problem
in many industrial and capital goods sales, then it’s total absence may be an equally
severe problem in some service industries……like dentistry or training? While
most sales people fully accept that the most crucial part of the sales call is
developing needs, those in the professional services area justifiably want their
people to take a stronger role in obtaining commitment from customers. Sales calls
with no closing whatsoever are unlikely to be successful.
How to obtain commitment?

The research found four clear actions that successful people tend to use to help
them obtain commitment from their customers:

1. Giving attention to Investigating and Demonstrating capabilities : The most

effective sales people were the ones who did an outstanding job of building
needs during the Investigating stage.

2. Checking that key concerns are covered: Sellers who were most effective in
obtaining commitment from their customers would invariably take the initiative
and ask the buyer whether there were any further points or concerns that needed
to be addressed, versus using a closing technique to bring up any doubts or
unanswered questions the buyer might have.

3. Summarizing the benefits: Successful sales people pull the threads together by
summarizing key points of the discussion before moving to the commitment.
Summarize key points, especially benefits.

4. Proposing a commitment: Successful sellers don’t “ask for the sale” – they
“tell”.

These four stages, namely, Preliminaries, Investigating, Demonstrating Capability,

and Obtaining Commitment are present in almost all sales calls. However,
importance of all these stages would vary depending upon the type of call, its
purpose, and where it comes in the sales cycle. But most calls do include all four
stages even if some of them are very brief. Although this sales model is a very
simple one, it was found very useful in breaking the sales calls to a series of steps
that were further investigated individually.

RESEARCH FINDINGS
After doing the analysis of methodology adopted by the business development
executive, of Praxis-EL, of conducting the sales calls with the clients this study
arrives at the research findings. Each stage of sales call was observed and has
resulted in findings that explains the reason behind a sales call success. A better
understanding of each stage of sales call has been given explaining the success of
B2B sales and the gaps that must be averted , at all times, at each step of a sales call.

For research purposes, Praxis-EL’s executive has been thoroughly trained on the
modules of Consultative Selling. The research findings concentrate on arriving at
the success rate of the executive, in terms of sales conversion or escalation, and
explain the reasons behind such results.

PHASE 1 – PRELIMINARIES:

RESEARCH FINDINGS -

An induction program was conducted by Praxis-EL for 7 days. It was divided into
two parts:

Situation 1

The training was given, to executives, on all the modules of soft skills for 4 days,
except the consultative selling, and then the executive was asked to make an
opening call to clients. The number of calls made by an executive was 100 with a
window of 5 days.

Situation 2

Then later, 3 days training on consultative selling was given to the team. The
number of calls made by an executive was 100 with a window 5 days. The
escalation rate was observed.

Stage 1 –

Now the opening call was made and a comparison was done between both the
situations. In situation 1, I opened up with the same statement (not a GBS) which
resulted in lower escalation rate and in situation 2 I used variety of opening
statements (GBS) which resulted in higher escalation rate.

The results were -

• In situation 1, out of 100 opening calls I got 6 appointments.

• In situation 2, out if 100 opening calls I got 41 appointments.

Stage 2 –

After getting, the appointments in both the situations there were few engrossing
facts that were discovered after the training on consultative selling (situation 2).
They were:

• The customer knew which company I was representing.

• There was exchange of business cards.
 • The purpose of meeting was imparted.

In situation 1 the only fact that was discovered was:

• The customer knew which company I was representing.

The following points were deduced:

• Pretentious behavior does not work

• To open a call there are several many best ways i.e. changing GBS according
to the different client.
• Successful salesmen use a flexible approach

Telling the customer about the product was a weak way to influence him. A greater
elaboration on the same will be made while explaining the findings in the
Investigating phase.

A successful sale call is determined by a good opening. It was observed that first
five minutes of a meeting had a great significance on success (situation 2). However
it was seen that a bad opening did affect the sales outcome (situation 1).

In both the situations executive managed to move on the Investigating stage

without any denial.

PHASE 2 - INVESTIGATING

RESEARCH FINDINGS -

This stage includes finding out facts, information and needs. This is the most
important aspect of selling skills. Investigating the customer needs enable the
salesperson to make the sales more efficaciously. And to investigate the salesperson
must ask questions.

Investigating phase consists of two types of questions –

• Close ended questions are those which can be answered in a single word,
often yes or no.

Example:

“Do you make the training decisions in this organization?”

“Does your organization conduct Soft Skills Training?”

“Does your organization outsource training

programmers?” Close ended questions generally

involves Direct probing.

• Open questions require a longer answer. They involve Non Directive

probing.
Example:

“Can you give me a little understanding of your organization?”

“What are the challenges faced by your organization?”

Open ended questions are more powerful than the close ended ones because they get
the customer talking and results in some useful information.

The important part of Investigating phase lies here:

This highly proposed questioning and probing technique falls under SPIN.

S – Situation Questions

P – Problem Questions

I – Implication Questions

N – Need Pay-off Questions

SITUATION QUESTIONS
In this type of questions the salesperson collects facts, information and background
data about the customer’s existing situation. They help establish a context for
uncovering customer’s problems.

Given below are few typical Situation questions that I asked during the meetings:

Situation 1 Situation 2
  “Can you give me a little understanding
about your organization?”
 “Do you conduct Soft Skills Training in
your organization?”
 “Can you give me a little understanding
about your organization?”
 “Do you conduct Soft Skills Training in
your organization?”
 “How often do you conduct such kind of
training?”
 “For which level of employees do you
conduct training?”
 “How does your organizational structure
look like?”
 “Do you have in-house trainers or you
outsource them?”
 “Do you conduct both inbound and
outbound training?”
 “If convenient, can you tell me how
your training calendar looks like?”

The result –

• In situation 1, I asked too many unnecessary background questions

- Two meetings out of six moved to the next step of SPIN i.e. Problem
questions.
- Rest 4 meetings resulted with no sales.
• In situation 2, I asked less background questions and that too with a purpose
behind it.
- All 41 meetings moved to the next step of SPIN i.e. Problem
questions.

The following points were deduced:

• Effective influencers ask Situation Questions selectively.

• Salesperson should limit the number of situation questions (unlike situation
1) asked and still obtain the information they need.
• Effective Salesperson phrased the Situation Questions in such a way that
they help the customer see him as a problem solver rather than a prosecutor.

Now the executive moved quickly to the next level of questions – Problem
Questions

PROBLEM QUESTIONS
Problem Questions probe for problems, difficulties or dissatisfactions with existing
situations.

Each invites the customer to state Implied needs which further develop into Explicit
needs.
Now here we define:

• Implied Need - These needs are merely a statement of dissatisfaction.

Example: Prospect says “I am disappointed with the performance of middle
level employees in the organization”
• Explicit Need - These needs are the specific wants or desires specified by
the customer.
Example: Prospect says “I need to improve the productivity of my
organization”

The purpose of Problem Questions is to:

• Reveal the customer’s Implied Needs

• Clarify the customer’s difficulties and dissatisfactions
• Gain shared understanding of the customer’s problems

After the identification of problems or dissatisfactions by using Problem Questions,

it’s important to continue revealing and clarifying until seller and the customer share
a thorough understanding of the problem or Implied Need. Some useful ways to ask
follow-up Problem Questions are ‘Where? When? Who? How often? What
happens if / when? You can also ask about dissatisfactions or difficulties by asking
indirectly or by using linking phrases, as shown below:

How often do you conduct training programs in your organization?

Problem Questions are more strongly linked to success than Situational Questions,
especially in the smaller sale. In the larger sale they are not strongly linked to
success. Experienced influencers ask more problem questions. However, in the
larger sale, it is the Problem Questions that will provide the “raw material” on
which the rest of the sale will be built. In coaching in major sales, the starting point
is usually an analysis of how Problem Questions are being asked. Since Problem
Questions are designed to uncover Implied Needs and Implied Needs don’t predict
success in larger sales, then neither should Problem Questions.

As I moved towards the next set of questions i.e. Problem questions. Below are few
typical problem questions that I asked in meetings:
PROBLEM QUESTIONS

1. “According to your experience, do you perceive or visualize any kind of

problem when this merger happens?”
2. “Are you satisfied with the current Training Programmes in your
orgainzation?”
3. “What kind of challenges do you visualize as your company grows
exponentially?”
4. “What difficulties do you envisage when large scale recruitment happens?”
5. “Are you satisfied with the employee gestation period?”
6. “Does it worry you that there is a high attrition rate in the sector in which
your company operates?”
7. “What sort of dissatisfaction do you have with past training programmes
carried out in your organization?”
8. “Is there a risk of conflict between these two departments?”

The results –

• In situation 1, I kept on asking more of background questions and less of

problem questions and started offering solutions and moved straight
away to the next phase i.e. Demonstrating.
• In situation 2, I kept on asking more of problem questions and
developed the weak needs of customer into clear and strong explicit
needs and move towards next set of questions i.e. Implication questions.

The following points were deduced:

• Customer’s implied need was uncovered.

• The customer was more comfortable with this set of questions.

• Problem questions were more powerfully linked to sales success than
Situation questions

IMPLICATION QUESTIONS
Implication questions ask about the consequences or effects of a customer's
problems. This is the crucial line of questioning. Successful calls contain many of
these "implication" questions. The goal of using these questions is to persuade the
customer to explicitly state a need that seller can solve. Ideally, seller should ask
these questions to get a customer to admit a costly problem. The ultimate goal is to
increase the customer's perception of the value of solutions to be provided by seller.
Implication questions are so important that it's often helpful to break down the
problems of a specific customer.

Implication questions are strongly linked to success in larger-ticket sales, and yet
they're more difficult to phrase than either Situation Questions or Problem
Questions. But they are essential to moving larger sales forward, because they help
to make the customer (and the seller) conscious of hitherto hidden complications or
of potential difficulties that may arise if steps are not taken to remedy the immediate
problem. The virtue of this question is therefore also the risk: They make the

problem seem more acute to the buyer.

Scenario –

• Situation 1 part was over soon after the Problem questions.

• In situation 2, I started asking a set of Implication questions.

The following points were deduced:

• Asking lots of implication questions may make the customer feel negatively
or depressed or even irritated.

Thus, in order to avoid such stage executive from Praxis-EL moved to another set of
questions – Need payoff questions.

NEED PAYOFF QUESTIONS

Like Problem Questions, Need-Payoff Questions are linked to success in more
complex sales. They can be especially useful when a seller talks to top decision
makers, and they increase the likelihood that seller’s solution, if accepted, will
provide the payoff that answers the need. These questions focus the customer's
attention on the solution rather than the problem, and they encourage him or her
(with seller’s assistance) to outline the benefits that your solution will provide his or
her company. Thus a good Need-Payoff Question both pre-empts objections and
enlists customer buy-in.

A typical example of Need pay-off questions that I asked in the meetings:

“How do you think a better leadership situation at your higher level management
will benefit the organization?”

The result –

• All 41 clients were ready to answer all type of need-pay off questions.

.On asking the next set of questions i.e.Need pay-off questions, the following points
were deduced:

• It was observed during the research that the successful salespeople

developed the customer Implied needs into Explicit needs by asking two
types of questions.
- First they ask implication question to build up the problem so
that the customer perceives them to be more serious.
- Then they turn to a second type of question (need pay-off) to
build up the value or usefulness of the solution. It is the use of
this second type of question that built up the value of the solution
that removes any negative perceptions of the implications of the
problems.
- Need pay-off questions were found to create positive effect on
thecustomers and, therefore, were closely linked not only to
success of sales but also creating a better relationship with the
existing customer.

The following graph shows the number of appointments before and after training:

The following graph explains the investigating stage:

PHASE 3 – DEMONSTRATING CAPABILITIES

RESEARCH FINDINGS -

Features are facts, data or information about a product or service. They have a
positive effect on small sales and are neutral or unpersuasive in larger sales.
Features are low power statements that do little to help you sell. It’s better to use
Benefits than Features.

Benefits, which show how Features can help a customer, are a much more powerful
way to describe your capabilities. However, benefits, as traditionally taught, are
ineffective in larger sales and are likely to create a negative response from the
customer.

Benefits should be broken down further:

• ‘Advantages’ – show how products, services or their features can be used or

can help the customer. They have a positive effect on small sales and only a
slightly positive effect on larger sales.
• ‘Benefits’ – Show how products or services meet Explicit Needs expressed
by the customer. They have very positive effects on small and large sales. To
make a Benefit, you must have an Explicit Need. But in order to get the
Explicit Need, you normally must first develop it from an Implied Need by
using Implication Questions and Need-Payoff Questions. Using Benefits
can’t be divorced from the way a seller develop needs.
In major sales, the most effective type of Benefit shows how seller’s product or
service meets an Explicit Need expressed by the customer. To obtain commitment
the most effective way is to:

• Check that the seller has covered the customer’s key concerns.
• Summarize the Benefits.
• Propose an appropriate level of commitment.

The result –

• In situation 1, I was focused on the traditional definition of benefits and

considered them synonymous to advantages, which further resulted in
objections or no sales.

• In situation 2, I was aware of such differences and thus broke benefits into
two parts
i.e. benefits and advantages. Hence, in all 41 meetings the result was
advancement

The following points were deduced:

• Features created a low impact on the seller throughout the selling cycle
• A positive relationship between the benefits stated and the successful
outcome of the sales call.
• Advantages had an unusual behavior. It was observed that initially in a sales
call the advantages had a good statistical relationship with a success of sales
outcome and had a good impact on the buyer during the first call.
• Unsuccessful salespeople met with more objections from the customer than
the successful ones.

Objections occurred because of the heavy use of advantages used by the seller to
convince the customer into buying the service or solutions. More than half of the
objections occurred on this account. The research showed a relationship between the
number of objections and sales outcome. The higher the objections in the sales call,
less likely the sales was likely to succeed.

It was seen that the objections were a result of poor selling and poor probing.
Objections are symptoms of the mistakes one makes by offering solution too early
in a call. Therefore extra effort must be made to develop need of the customer
through better investigation of problem implications and the payoffs the solution
might provide. This way the successful salespeople built value of their solutions and
were less likely to face objections. Therefore, good questioning skills will lead to a
better sales outcome than any of the objection handling skills.

There are seven 'Weak Links' - along the selling chain where it's easy to make a mistake that
will reduce the number of Benefits which seller could make to the customer.

1. Failure to establish the buyer's situation

2. Too much concern with the buyer's situation
3. Failure to ask about problems
4. Failure to obtain Implied Needs: There are four main reasons why seller
might fail to obtain Implied Needs from the buyer. These are:
• No need
• Wrong questions
• Denial
• Restricted approach
5. Failure to develop implications
6. Failure to explore areas of payoff

7. Failure to make Benefits: If the buyer has stated Explicit Needs and you
have failed to
turn these into Benefits, it could be for one of three reasons:

• Seller doesn't recognize need

• Seller lacks applications knowledge
• Seller makes unclear benefits

IMPACT OF FAB OVER THE SALES CYCLE:

The figure on the next page shows the impact of FAB over sales cycle
PHASE 4 – OBTAINING COMMITMENT

RESEARCH FINDINGS -

It is often suggested by most of the sales experts that obtaining commitment will be
where most crucial elements of the sale would be found. For the research purpose,
obtaining commitment has been defined as a behavior used by the seller which
invites a commitment so that the buyer’s next statement accepts or denies the
statement. In other words, a close is any statement that elicits some kind of
commitment from the buyer.

The conventional method of selling postulates that closing or obtaining commitment

is directly related to sales success. Thus, it encourages the seller to close as many
times in a call and use as many closing techniques as possible.

The diagram below shows the steps involved in making an effective close:
When this phase was approached by me, an observation was made to check the sales
outcome of the call.

The result was –

• Out of 41 clients
- 29 clients asked to send the proposals for the key deliverables told
- 10 clients said that they will revert back after having a talk with the
decision maker of the organization.
- 2 client accepted the solution.

The probable reason behind this was given in the literature on Consultative Selling.

• The first reason was that the closing put pressure on the buyers and had a
psychological effect on them. Since the size of the decision is very large and
complex, putting pressure on the buyer affected the sales outcome
negatively.

• Secondly, since the rupee value of the transactions were very large, and the
fact that training services sold were high in value, asking customer to make a
quick decision proved to be a failure.

• Thirdly, large decisions were made by more sophisticated clients such as the
HR Heads and senior executives. These are the experienced lot and cannot
be coerced into buying.

Thus it was observed that when the sellers used pressure on the buyers to
purchase the services, the dissatisfaction grew on the part of the buyer. This
was because the buyer’s psychology worked to tell him that it was because
 of the persuasion of the seller that he bought the service, and not because he
wanted to.

However, this doesn’t mean that the sales people should never close the sale. It is
only being said that it should not be the old style persuasive 'closing' - this should
be modern collaborative cooperative agreement - using ‘consultative’ help where
appropriate, complex systems need help in arriving at good decisions. This is
possible when the salesperson has effectively developed the customer’s need and
the customer explicitly states that he requires a solution. This technique helps the
seller can obtain commitment from the buyer. This technique has an important
implication as well. Since the buyer feels that he has made a decision, he raises no
objections. This also gives rise to strong and long lasting personal relationship
between the seller and the buyer.

The graph below shows the result obtained:

 CHAPTER 6

Conclusion

1. SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS IN THE OPENING PHASE

When opening a call, successful salesperson tried to attain three main things:
  know who the salesperson is
 Know why he was there
 Answered the questions comfortably

Successful sales persons consider note-taking as very important aspect to the call
and therefore consider it a good idea to gain customer’s consent to take notes.

The General Benefit Statement used by successful salespeople was well in place that
helped to get the appointment.

In general, the successful salespeople are found to get through the Preliminary stage
faster to proceed to the Investigation phase of the call.

There is no single ideal way to open a call. Successful salespeople are flexible and
adapt themselves to the pace and style of the customer. They do not make the
mistake of getting into the detailed description of the product or service.

2. SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS IN THE INVESTIGATING PHASE

• The quality and relevance of the questioning is more important than whether
the salesperson chooses an open or a close ended question.

• Situation questions are used to check background facts to warm up the

call/meeting, and to give the seller a foundation of their Problem questions.
Successful sellers make sure that every single question asked has a clear
purpose and leads towards potential problem areas.

• Problem questions are more powerful than Situation Questions, because they
relate to issues of interest to the customer rather than to the seller. Successful
salespersons are observed to ask more problem questions than the Situation
Questions. They plan them and ask them very carefully in each call.

• Just because a customer states a problem, it doesn’t automatically follow that

he or she wants a solution.

• Strong needs, stated in form of want or desires by the customer, are called
Explicit Needs.
 • Customer needs do not usually start as Explicit, they normally begin in form
of problems or dissatisfactions which are known as Implied needs.

• Customers Implied needs were uncovered and the salesperson developed

them into strong and clear Explicit needs.

• It was observed during the research that the successful salespeople

developed the customer Implied needs into Explicit needs by asking two
types of questions. First they ask implication question to build up the
problem so that the customer perceives them to be more serious and then
they turn to a second type of question to build up the value or usefulness of
the solution, known as the Need payoff question.

• By asking an Implication question the seller took a customer problem and

explored its effects or consequences. Implication Questions built up the size
of implied needs and increased the size of the problem in the customers’
mind. Through them the seller was able to relate the problems faced by the
buyer with the implications and underlying consequences of such problems
and, thus, impress the decision maker.

• Need payoff questions focus the attention of the customer on the solutions
rather than on the problems.

3. SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS IN THE DEMONSTRATING

CAPABILITIES PHASE

• Capabilities can be mentioned through stating feature, advantages and

benefits of the service.

• Features created a low impact on the seller throughout the selling cycle

• Benefits on the other hand had a high impact whenever they were used

• Advantages had an unusual behavior. It was observed that initially in a sales

call the advantages had a good statistical relationship with a success of sales
outcome and had a good impact on the buyer during the first call.
 • Successful salesperson did not demonstrate their solutions too early in the
call. They first developed needs to the stage of explicit needs by using
implication questions and need payoff question before they offered
solutions. Presenting capabilities too soon in the call is one of the most
common mistakes by the inexperienced salesperson.

• Objections are symptoms of the mistakes one makes by offering solution too
early in a call. Therefore extra effort must be made to develop need of the
customer through better investigation of problem implications and the
payoffs the solution might provide.

4. SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS IN THE OBTAINING

COMIMITMENT PHASE

• It was found that the larger the decision the more ineffective the closing
techniques were. When the sellers used pressure on the buyers to purchase
the services, the dissatisfaction grew on the part of the buyer.

• Closing put pressure on the buyers and had a psychological effect on the
buyer. Since the size of the decision was very large and complex, putting
pressure on the buyer affected the sales outcome negatively.

• Modern collaborative cooperative agreement - using ‘consultative’ help

should be used to close sales where appropriate, complex systems need help
in arriving at good decisions. This is possible when the salesperson has
effectively developed the customer’s need and the customer explicitly states
that he requires a solution.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter provides with the conclusions based on research results and analysis.
Furthermore, this chapter provides recommendations for potential development in
the field of B2B selling as well as further research in the subject area.

Based on the research undertaken at Praxis-EL, the research concludes that the
Consultative Selling technique is much advanced and superior method of selling
than the traditional selling techniques. This is particularly true in B2B sales in any
industry. Developed by various sales gurus through the 1980's, Consultative selling
is widely practiced today.

Consultative selling involves deeper questioning of the customer, about

organizational and operational issues that can extend beyond the product itself. This
leads to greater understanding of the customer’s wider needs, (particularly those
affected by the service), and the questioning process itself results in a greater trust,
rapport, and empathy between salesperson and buyer.

The 'needs-generating' selling approach is a perfect example of Consultative Selling.

The process has been practiced instinctively in by many organizations for many
years by good salespeople, particularly since the 1970's, especially for concept
selling or service solutions selling, driven by competitive pressures, as consumer
started learning much about the sales process and techniques as the sales people
themselves.

Praxis-EL understood the importance and appropriateness of Consultative Selling in

B2B selling, consequently, training its business development executive on the same.
The results speak for themselves. On interacting with 6 customers before training
and 41 customers after training the Praxis-EL’s executive managed to get an
advancement 95% of the time as contrast to the untrained business development
executive which managed to secure an advancement less than 40% of the time. The
comparison itself brings out the importance and applicability of Consultative
Selling in B2B sales, in this case, sales of training solutions to the corporate.

In 'needs-generating' selling, the sales-person seeks to identify and then 'magnify' a

particular need or problem which a potential customer experiences. Obviously the
salesperson must assure that the selling organization is able to offer a suitably
matched solution (product and/or service proposition) once the 'need', with all of its
positive and negative consequences, are firmly established in the buyer's mind.
Sales-person's ability, experience and expertise, to 'consult' with the buyer in
developing a solution, involve the supplier organization provision of service. This
can be inculcated in the sales team through training on Consultative Selling, as in
the case of Praxis-EL.

This process is can be employed by professional consultants in all sorts of

'professional' and 'technical' disciplines. Change in philosophy and 'mind-set' of the
salesperson must be accompanied by the integration of ‘Consultative’ methods
within the traditional selling process.

Modern selling should not be accompanied by persuasion and influence. Modern

selling should focus on consulting the other person (buyer) to identify their
decision-making criteria, and to arrange the pertinent elements within their
organization, so as to assess options, actions, outcomes, so as then to make decision
and implement accordingly.

A research should have been made about the prospective customer’s organization,
prospect profile, and competitor threats, opportunities, past meetings, etc. This
should be followed by establishing rapport and seller's professional references with
the client typically by referencing their experiences for successful solutions
provided in similar markets and applications that are similar to those of the
prospective client.

The seller should ask 'strategic' open questions to identify, explore and develop
areas of potential problems, difficulties, aims and challenges within the prospect’s
organization. Normally identify and agree on a single primary issue, major concern
for the buyer, and a relevant area of product and/or service opportunity for the seller.
This could be a 'distress' or emergency pressure, priority, or threat, for example an
issue which the prospect is involved in 'fire-fighting' to resolve currently, such as
conflict between the leaders; or a strategic development opportunity for market or
business development, to which significant potential profit, cost-savings and/or
competitive advantage are attached.

It is extremely important to identify the area of opportunity or threat. The sales

person is effectively doing three things here:

a) Increasing the size and cost of the issue increases the issue's priority and
importance, andthus increases the buyer's feeling that action must be taken.
b) Increasing the size and complexity of the issue increases the need for
consultative advice the buyer increases his/her perception that exper opinion from
outside (from the seller) is required.

b) Increasing the costs associated with the issue naturally increases the buyer's
tolerance and expectations for the cost of the supplier's proposed product/service
solution - the higher the cost of the challenge, then the higher the cost of the
solution.

The final point referring to a buying organization's decision-making team provides a

clue as to the weaknesses of these traditional supplier-orientated selling methods.
Decision-making within the large organizations, is a highly complex process.

It is in light of above mentioned points that this research recommends a consultative

selling approach to be followed by all Major sales. Training the sales executive on
Consultative Selling is a profitable return on the investment. Currently most of the
organizations are spending a huge sum of money on sales training which still
focuses on the traditional methods of selling. This is witnessed because of the fact
that the popularity of Consultative selling has been very restricted which in turn is
probably because of the ignorance on the part of the organizations or because it is
still in a very nascent stage in India.

Consultative selling model is more suitable for B2B sales than consumer markets
because of the higher values and greater complexities involved with B2B selling.
However, some aspect of these ideas and methods are certainly applicable to
'consumer' selling (B2C) and will be more so where order values are significant, and
where buying decisions are more complex and time taking, for example in selling
large financial products.

It was discussed earlier in this report that, according to American Society, the
amount spent for Training (in India) varies from 2-2.5 per cent of company turnover
on employee skill development programmes, though progressive companies are
known to spend up to five per cent of their turnover on training. Thus, to attain
happy results the organization should conduct training programmes often. This is
because in many organizations training has been treated as an event and not as a
process.
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