6 crucial steps for selling projects

 

Selling consulting projects: a complex process? By its very nature, selling a project is much more human and manual than other types of sales. The approach, the exchange and the relationship are at the heart of purchasing decisions for a consulting assignment.

In a consulting firm or agency, everyone has to be a salesperson. So don't hesitate to share this post with your colleagues!

1. Selling made-to-measure

Do you want to sell a packaged product because it's already been successfully produced and delivered? This can work when the requests are always very similar: an SEO audit of a website or a specific training course, for example.

But that's not always what's right for a customer.

The easiest way to sell a consulting assignment is to offer the service the customer really, truly and totally needs.

Selling a project is not like selling a product with non-modifiable functionalities. On the contrary, a consulting mission can be totally adapted to the customer's needs.

This means listening long and hard to the issues, discussing the project, understanding the customer's objective in depth, before offering the service they really want.

In a word, tailor-made...

2. Sales training for employees

Not everyone can sell a consulting assignment. It requires sales skills that don't necessarily come naturally.

Fortunately, these skills can be acquired. That's why it's essential to train the staff of a consulting firm or agency in sales skills, so that they are able to sell projects as early as possible in their careers.

Even if it's just extra work during an assignment.

This means spending time explaining the sales process to consultants and managers, suggesting that they read suitable books, and coaching them regularly on the subject. It's an extra chance to motivate them by showing them early on that it's possible to sell projects or work.

3. Help the customer during the sales phase and be transparent

Frequently, the customer goes through a research and bidding phase. Being too aggressive during this phase is counter-productive. On the contrary, you need to be as transparent as possible, and give them all the help they need during the research phase.

For example, you need to talk about the project's risks. A bad salesman will hide the possible chances of failure of the mission, whereas a good consultant will explain what the possible limits are, to give the customer full visibility.

A sense of transparency and honesty will help build a bond of trust that will help sell the project.

4. Practicing active listening

You need to encourage the customer to share everything: difficulties, frustrations, problems and ideas. The more you let your customer express himself, the easier it is to prepare your proposal. This requires active listening.

• Follow up with customers when they express a problem
• Dig with him into the implications of this problem by asking:
  • What's the impact on your productivity?
  • Does this mean a lack of efficiency?
  • What is the loss for your company? ...

Not only will the customer gradually realize the scale of the problem and the urgency of solving it. But when you make your proposal, you'll be able to respond to each of the problem's implications, not just a general answer.

This will have much more impact than your competitors'.

5. Building trust

Consulting customers aren't just buying a service. Remember, they're buying you.

One of their primary objectives is to reduce risk.

The cost of a consulting assignment can be high, and no one wants to be responsible for a costly failure. Demonstrating professionalism goes without saying, but it's also about building relationships and establishing trust.

You can't build trust in a sales relationship without creating an emotional bond.

You have to be able to step outside the purely professional link, to show that you're capable of offering something that will improve the business without expecting anything in return. You can offer it without being asked.

You also need :

• Breaking out of strictly professional conversations
• Showing empathy
• Create a more memorable exchange than the competition
• Showing vulnerability can have a very positive effect.

Read our article on Why hire a consultant

6. Understanding purchasing dynamics

It's important for the person making the offer to have a clear understanding of how the purchasing process will unfold with the customer. You need to know who is going to carry out the tender and make the first filter. This person is obviously key, since he or she will be giving the impression. Make this person your "internal champion".

But a large part of the sale happens without you being able to intervene. To understand who the final decision-maker is, and to help your "champion" sell to you, you need to know exactly who is going to make the buying decision. For example, you can ask the following questions to establish the buying process:

• Have you already set a budget for the project?
• What results are expected?
• Are you in charge of presenting your tender responses to your employees?

You also need to be fully aware of the political aspect of decisions. Buyers will tell you about some of their decision-making criteria (price, experience...), but rest assured that internal politics play a very important role. Don't underestimate the possible alliances you'll need to forge with other people in the customer's company, to ensure that you have not one but several "champions" who will militate on your behalf when the final decision is made.

5 mistakes to avoid when selling projects

1. Respond immediately to a customer's problem:

All too often, in their desire to showcase their firm's experience, consultants will immediately highlight the actions they need to take to solve the problem a customer is talking to them about.

It's important to avoid this at all costs, and to go through each step: understanding the implications of the problem, the financial impact and the scale of the issues.

Only then should you begin to draw up a quotation. This will carry much more weight once the specific consequences of the problem for the customer are known.

2. Not letting the customer talk enough:

Everyone wants to talk in a discussion, even more so when you want to demonstrate your value. But it's important to remember that in the case of an exchange with your customer, this is a counter-productive attitude. The customer needs to feel heard, understood.

If you let your customer talk, he'll not only come up with the answers to his problem on his own, but he'll also be satisfied that you're listening to him.

It's not magic, it's just human. A conversation in which the customer talks 70% of the time is much more likely to lead to a sale than the opposite.

3. Don't build the relationship at the time of sale:

As we have seen, the customer chooses a relationship that goes beyond a purely pragmatic choice based on figures. During this phase, we need to build a relationship and give an idea of what the customer can expect during the project: professionalism, empathy...

4. Stay in your comfort zone:

To sell well, you need to constantly innovate and test new approaches.

In consulting, as in any other sector, we need to analyze the effectiveness of different sales channels, package our offer differently, and try out new tools that can facilitate sales (CRM and marketing automation tools, etc.).

Finally, you need to analyze the results of each approach, to accelerate on those that work best.

5. Overestimate the cost issue :

53% of salespeople believe that the cost of the product is the cause of the failed sale, whereas in reality, only 7% of customers cite the price of the project as the key criterion in their refusal to use the consulting firm.

Article on the consulting market in 2021

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