Increasing competition demands that every business hire and develop the highest performing sales professionals. Simply requiring salespeople to work harder and close more business will not in itself overcome the competition.

Highly trained sales professionals are needed who can communicate that the customer's interests are more important than their own and who can demonstrate the ability to solve the customer's business problems.

The Counselor Salesperson is a training program that focuses on developing a problem-solving attitude and teaches specific skills and behaviors to manage the sales process more effectively.

By developing skills as a "sales counselor," the salesperson remains focused on the customer and on addressing the customer's business issues. The Counselor Process increases the probability of a sale by keeping the focus on the customer and by addressing objections early in the sales cycle, rather than at the close.

The Counselor Salesperson teaches a win/win problem-solving approach to the sales relationship and views the purpose of selling as solving the buyer's problems. Because the selling/buying process is a dynamic interaction between a salesperson and a buyer(s), this program centers on developing the attitudinal basis for productive sales relationships.

The Counselor Salesperson is a proven program that equips sales professionals with the tools and techniques to continually win the business and achieve customer satisfaction by focusing on the buyer's perspective.

Program Overview

The Counselor Salesperson (CSP) is a three-day seminar designed to help experienced salespeople (six months plus) gain knowledge and skills about the dynamics of an effective, customer-focused sales process.

The Counselor Salesperson is enhanced by the optional use of the Customer Relationship Inventory. This research-based instrument provides salespeople with individualized feedback from their customers' perspectives along the four dimensions of Relating, Discovering, Advocating, and Supporting. It also provides a measure of overall customer satisfaction.

The Counselor Salesperson helps salespeople understand the buyer's point of view in the buying process and introduces skills that move the buyer-seller relationship forward.

The program consists of five distinct, yet integrated, units that describe the philosophy and processes of a sales approach from a problem-solving perspective.

The Counselor Approach

• Become aware of a process for increasing sales competence.
• Approach buyers with a problem-solving mindset.
• Describe the four phases of the Counselor Process and the obstacles that typically accompany each phase.

Relating

• Plan responses to buyer expectations for sales contacts.
• Open sales calls in a way that communicates empathy.
• Build credibility throughout the sales process.

Discovering

• Ask effective questions; listen with a focus on the buyer.
• Identify buying motives, buyer roles, and buying conditions.
• Verify and confirm sales opportunities with buyers.

Advocating

• Making effective presentations.
• Recommend solutions with benefits to buyers.
• Effectively respond to buyer resistance.
• Ask for the business.

Supporting

• Understand the importance of customer satisfaction in building future business.
• Apply four skills that support ongoing buyer relationships: support the buying decision, manage the implementation, deal with dissatisfaction, and enhance the relationship for future business.
• Appreciate the difference in expectations between buyers and salespeople immediately after the close of the sale.

Optional: Customer Relationship Inventory

• Gain valuable insight into customers' perceptions.
• Assist in focusing positive developmental activities in areas of perceived weakness in the sales process.
• Provide increased motivation to learn new skills to improve selling behaviors.

Benefits

Upon completion of The Counselor Salesperson, participants will:

• Quickly and efficiently win the buyer's trust by demonstrating credibility and communicating empathy for the buyer's situation.
• Use questioning and listening skills to conduct a thorough exploration of the buyer's needs and all the factors that influence the buying decision.
• Use a structured Discovery Agreement as the basis for presenting a solution.
• Communicate how the buyer's problem can be solved and make the strongest possible appeal to the buyer's personal motivation

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