1. Develop education programs, seminars, or training events. Use these events to educate, but realize that you are actually selling yourself. It's
called education based marketing.
2. Identify advertisements in the newspaper. Look for ones that don't seem to repeat very often. This means that the business did not likely make
much money from that ad. Scan the ad and send a copy to the business along with a letter, asking if they want to be more effective with their
advertising. Focus on ads that do not have the core ingredients of a direct response ad. This is where you can help them find definite improvement.
3. Uncover the potential client's motivation by asking, "Are you working in your business or on your business?" Show them how you can help them
work on the business.
4. Use an audio business card on a CD that you can give to potential clients to play in their car. Keep it short -- no more than 10 minutes. Take the
time to educate in the audio and give the benefits of working with you. Also make sure you include testimonials and your biography on the cover.
5. Ask powerful questions. Ask questions that your client should be asking and have compelling answers. When you ask powerful questions, it
establishes you as the expert and people normally want to do business with the expert.
6. Become the expert at consultative selling. If I were to ask you, "What are the 8 steps of a consultative sale?", you should be able to tell me
instantly what they are and how you apply them using specific examples. Here are the basics you should understand:
1. Bond with them.
2. "Let’s be honest or not continue."
3. Need compelling reason to use my product or service. Or are they receptive enough to explore with me?
4. What do they think a solution looks like? And are we a match?
5. What are they willing to invest to solve the problem?
6. How are they going to make a decision? (risk reversal helps them)
7. We build a plan together so that we maintain trust.
8. Give as much proof as they need.
And finally, there are two governing rules for consultative selling:
a) Your intention is more important than your technique.
b) Use full disclosure
Consultant