Transition from Transactional to Client-Centric

As we emerge from the COVID pandemic, many of us will have to rebuild our sales skills to meet a new reality. That new reality is that we have to transition from transaction-based selling to customer-centric selling. When conducting a conversation with a prospect or client we need to break down the conversation into four components.
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1. Empathy. Let’s spend a few moments in genuine conversation about their situation by asking how they’re doing and where we can help.
2. Permission. Wouldn’t it sound disingenuous to go from empathy to pitch without first asking permission to pivot the discussion to business? Asking permission shows respect and offers the prospect or client a moment to change their mindset too.
3. Why Should They Care. Our value proposition needs to resonate with the prospect or client or it will fall on deaf ears. So, spend some time crafting your pitch to what’s important to your prospect or client and make sure it is not a features and benefits dump.
4. Brevity. There is so much going on in all of our lives today and to listen to a long, drawn out pitch will hurt chances to connect with prospects and clients.

The moral of all this is that we need to be more sensitive to our client’s needs today and that we have to really pay attention to their needs.  Our goal should be to deepen relationships at a more personal level and to offer value beyond product and service. In essence, we need to convert our sales process from transactional to client-centric.

Many thanks to Brad Leggett is the CEO of The Legget Group – a premiere strategic sales coaching and consulting firm, and Marc Brener is a Director with Energy Experts International, a firm dedicated to renewable and sustainable energy efficient solutions to the Industrial and Commercial marketplace who contributed to this article.